Extreme Isolation - great isolation but crappy sound?
Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2007 4:35 am
I have a pair of EI headphones and while they're really great in isolating, their sound is the least accurate I've heard in a long time.
Lately, I've been making some demos, using these headphones. Since these are just demos, I didn't bother to "mix" them, but I did work on the balance and separation between instruments. I couldn't get any separation, unless I was killing the lows out of the guitar and eqing some of the drums' lows. Besides, the drums have a "closed" sound, the bassdrum has a "toop" sound, although I didn't use the front head on it. I thought that this is because the drums are recorded with one microphone, but it didn't seem reasonable, since it's a good mic and was place a little bit above and in front of the kick.
Yesterday, I decided to listen to what I've recorded with a different pair of headphones I have, a cheap pair I bought for listening to music while im on my way to work. I plugged them in, and everything I recorded sounded crap. I decided to take off the eqing I've done and now everything sounds great. The drums have the "open" sound I wanted, the guitar isn't overlapping the bass and drums. cool! I decided to see which of the headphones are "lying" to me. So I listened to some records I like with the Extreme Isolation, and suddenly everything has tons of lows. I was still thinking that maybe I don't know shit about recording and sound, so I listened to what I've recorded through professional AKG headphones and speakers, and it turns out that the EI aren't that accurate, matter of fact, they're not accurate at all.
So yeah, they're good if only the band is wearing these headphones, and only if no one in the band is also engineering the session, and only if the engineer isn't in the same room with the band, so he can use a different pair(non isolating) of headphones. Unfortunately, my "control room" is the same room as the tracking room, so these headphones are useless. Im kinda pissed off because of this.
Anyone else experienced this with EI? anyone else can recommend other Isolated headphones which sound good?
Lately, I've been making some demos, using these headphones. Since these are just demos, I didn't bother to "mix" them, but I did work on the balance and separation between instruments. I couldn't get any separation, unless I was killing the lows out of the guitar and eqing some of the drums' lows. Besides, the drums have a "closed" sound, the bassdrum has a "toop" sound, although I didn't use the front head on it. I thought that this is because the drums are recorded with one microphone, but it didn't seem reasonable, since it's a good mic and was place a little bit above and in front of the kick.
Yesterday, I decided to listen to what I've recorded with a different pair of headphones I have, a cheap pair I bought for listening to music while im on my way to work. I plugged them in, and everything I recorded sounded crap. I decided to take off the eqing I've done and now everything sounds great. The drums have the "open" sound I wanted, the guitar isn't overlapping the bass and drums. cool! I decided to see which of the headphones are "lying" to me. So I listened to some records I like with the Extreme Isolation, and suddenly everything has tons of lows. I was still thinking that maybe I don't know shit about recording and sound, so I listened to what I've recorded through professional AKG headphones and speakers, and it turns out that the EI aren't that accurate, matter of fact, they're not accurate at all.
So yeah, they're good if only the band is wearing these headphones, and only if no one in the band is also engineering the session, and only if the engineer isn't in the same room with the band, so he can use a different pair(non isolating) of headphones. Unfortunately, my "control room" is the same room as the tracking room, so these headphones are useless. Im kinda pissed off because of this.
Anyone else experienced this with EI? anyone else can recommend other Isolated headphones which sound good?