Transparent Practice Headphones

[bird.furniture]

Hi, my apologies for the beginner question. I'm looking a solution to practicing along with music. I see that a lot of people use isolating headphones of some kind. I have not had a chance to try a pair designed for drummers like the Vic Firths or the GK's, but I'm concerned that they'll dampen too much of the real drum sound. I really like the way my kit sounds, and maybe this is the guitar player in me but I want to be able to enjoy my tone while practicing instead of muffling all the high end out. currently I've resorted to practicing with my over ears halfway off my head, which works, but is janky to say the least, plus I have to turn up my music volume and risk hearing damage over time.

Is there a solution for this? do isolating headphones made for drumming still do a decent job of allowing an even frequency response through? thanks in advance for any tips.

 

[Neal Pert]

Have you considered putting a couple mics on your drums and running them and the music through a mixer and into headphones? That's what I do. It's helped my playing immensely.

There are earplugs that claim to attenuate evenly and I sometimes use those for concerts or for gigs where I know I'll be playing with louder musicians. You may want to try some of those-- a much cheaper solution.

 

[Xstr8edgtnrdrmrX]

Hi, my apologies for the beginner question. I'm looking a solution to practicing along with music. I see that a lot of people use isolating headphones of some kind. I have not had a chance to try a pair designed for drummers like the Vic Firths or the GK's, but I'm concerned that they'll dampen too much of the real drum sound. I really like the way my kit sounds, and maybe this is the guitar player in me but I want to be able to enjoy my tone while practicing instead of muffling all the high end out. currently I've resorted to practicing with my over ears halfway off my head, which works, but is janky to say the least, plus I have to turn up my music volume and risk hearing damage over time.

Is there a solution for this? do isolating headphones made for drumming still do a decent job of allowing an even frequency response through? thanks in advance for any tips.

they will actually make your kit sound better!!! I swear, when I have mine on, my kit sounds like it is in the studio

 

[alparrott]

Have you considered putting a couple mics on your drums and running them and the music through a mixer and into headphones? That's what I do. It's helped my playing immensely.

I highly recommend this. Even just a mic on your bass drum and a mic overhead will make a difference. These mics could be anything; even an SM58 will do just to get sound in your ears, although if you have a purpose-appropriate mic for each would be best of all.

 

[Winston_Wolf]

I have a single (cheap) vocal mic plugged into my headphone mixer so I can adjust mic level and mp3 player level independently while I practice. It's just enough to get an ambient room sound of the kit so I can hear what everything sounds like naturally but turned way down.

I cannot recommend strongly enough having some kind of isolation while practicing, whether it's isolating headphones or in-ear monitors or good musician's earplugs. Having the cut and tone of real drums is not worth the hearing damage they cause.