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Not your average head phone question

As a DJ I have always played both records in the headphones in both cups while beatmatching. I frequently will take them off of course to check the sound aloud. anyways my question is last night i was playing on an allen & heathe and the owner of the mixer kept telling me that i shouldnt beat match in bot cups its bad for my ears...Is this true ??

Yes, It's been said.

Exposing both ears to loud music as opposed to one.

I don't know if it is bad for your ears. Do you really want one bad ear and one good ear? Better to take care of both but he is right if you mix in the headphones on a loud soundsystem you'll probably have to crank up the volume to hear what you're doing and that will cause damage. If you do the one ear method you can turn down the monitors and your cans and save your ears a little.

Re: Not your average head phone question

quote:

Originally posted by Nbrablec9 As a DJ I have always played both records in the headphones in both cups while beatmatching. I frequently will take them off of course to check the sound aloud. anyways my question is last night i was playing on an allen & heathe and the owner of the mixer kept telling me that i shouldnt beat match in bot cups its bad for my ears...Is this true ??

Don't do that because that is what trance djs do.
Trance djs like to pretend they are tiesto in their bedroom so they buy gear and because they don't want to take the hundreds of hours of continuous practice to truly master beat-matching they wear both cans in their attempt to try to do it.
But you either can listen to one tick-tock in one side of the brain and another tick-tock in the other side of the brain and line up the tracks or you simply can't.
If you can't mix but you have to mix you escape by putting both cans on and only having to use one side of the brain (something everybody can already do).
A good example of dodgy off beat mixing is tiesto.
His tracks drift to a complete mess and he uses effects to cover up the shitty
boom boom bo-booom -boo-bom booo-booom ear piercing transitions.
Of course in order to entertain he plays old classics from the mid 90s.

A good example of a trance dj who has mastered beat mixing is Armin Van Buuren. He can do it. Even if somebody books him and has him mixing to some shitty karaoke pa monitor, he wont appreciate the headache but he will be able to line up the tracks perfectly.
Unless the needle jumps nothing will interrupt the constant pulse of his mix.

And he will never use both cans because he knows what he is doing.

use what is comfortable for you, know how to cue different ways because you never know what you're going to encounter

sometimes the situation calls for straight headphone mixing, other times that option isn't available

use what is right for you but don't be tied down

and for those worried about your hearing... turn the volume down

monitors too, it helps

I have to agree 100% with Tony. Mix with whatever is comfortable for you. Dont turn the music too loud to protect your ear.

dude. dont worry about it. the oldschool way to mix is to have one ear on the headphone monitoring the incoming track, one ear listening to the monitor.

fine. but what happens when you have a crap monitor with a delay? what about when you're spinning with more than 2 decks? there is nothing written in stone about how to really monitor.

it seems older DJs will tell you to always use the one and one method, because this way you can be sure of what the people are hearing, but i've seen for instance, a friend of mine who plays techno on 4 decks, as soon as he hears something go a bit out, puts both cups on. he says he'll be 50% more accurate this way, even tho he hates it.

also, if the monitors aren't static (ie. you can move them, theyre on pedestals) and they're really loud, you can turn them to face the crowd, or at least to not face you directly, which in turn will allow you to mix with your headphone volume a LOT lower, consequently conserving your ears and your headphones better.

furthermore, if you have a mixer with master/cue option, you can hear exactly what the crowd hears, removing the necessity of a loud monitor, in turn, allowing you to mix with your headphones even lower.

however, one must admit. you should still know your way around the one and one method, since some mixers have this as the only option. also, it's wise to take the phones off now and then, cuz shit happens. ie. last night i was spinning on a Xone:92, and i mixed a track in as i would normal. 2 minutes later, i noticed the HP filter was activated at halfway, so the people were getting no thump. but when i brought it in, i got a kickass reaction, so it wasn't too bad.

edit: Tony Morello put it best.

Yeah, do what works best for you. But its porbably better to be comfortable/able to do it both ways.

Don't listen to harriz, he's just an asshat.

You can always get earplugs to help. I've heard this helps a little bit, although I've never tried.

Harriz, didn't you get banned?

TICK-TOCK TICK-TOCK <----One side of the brain ......... Other side of the brain-----> TICK-TOCK TICK TOCK

Re: Re: Not your average head phone question

quote:

Originally posted by harriz Don't do that because that is what trance djs do. Trance djs like to pretend they are tiesto in their bedroom so they buy gear and because they don't want to take the hundreds of hours of continuous practice to truly master beat-matching they wear both cans in their attempt to try to do it. But you either can listen to one tick-tock in one side of the brain and another tick-tock in the other side of the brain and line up the tracks or you simply can't. If you can't mix but you have to mix you escape by putting both cans on and only having to use one side of the brain (something everybody can already do). A good example of dodgy off beat mixing is tiesto. His tracks drift to a complete mess and he uses effects to cover up the shitty boom boom bo-booom -boo-bom booo-booom ear piercing transitions. Of course in order to entertain he plays old classics from the mid 90s. A good example of a trance dj who has mastered beat mixing is Armin Van Buuren. He can do it. Even if somebody books him and has him mixing to some shitty karaoke pa monitor, he wont appreciate the headache but he will be able to line up the tracks perfectly. Unless the needle jumps nothing will interrupt the constant pulse of his mix. And he will never use both cans because he knows what he is doing.

Haha what the fuck are you drivelling on about?

For the record, Armin frequently sticks both cans on, so that's that theory out of the window. And mixing with both cans on tends to be harder than one ear on and one ear off, because you have to work out which track's which when hearing them both in both ears without the advantage of having them in separate ears to tell them apart.

On the "both cans on is bad for your hearing" front, it does depend on the setup - if the booth is relatively isolated from the main PA then if you turn your monitors down when you've got both cans on, you can turn your headphones down a bit.

But I can't stress enough how much of a good idea it is to get some hearing protection - something I'm actually still yet to do (well, proper ones... got some shitty little ear plugs that don't fit properly). It may be expensive, but if you get a pair of fitted ones with built-in filters, they'll fit nicely enough for you to keep them on when you've got headphones on (non-fitted ones will hurt when you apply any pressure) - problem solved

Re: Re: Re: Not your average head phone question

quote:

Originally posted by Stu Cox And mixing with both cans on tends to be harder than one ear on and one ear off, because you have to work out which track's which when hearing them both in both ears without the advantage of having them in separate ears to tell them apart.

Well da!
If you can mix of course it's easier!
And Armin Van buuren does not mix in his headphones.
He knows better than that.
But if you can't mix, like he can, you put both headphones on and just suck really really bad like your average stereotype trance dj.

I think you should probably check out Mr Stu Cox's three deck mixes before you reply in terms of mixing ability.

Dave Clarke fequently uses both cans.

You will find that most turntablists will either use both or none, a lot have got specially mades phones for both ears so that they are not scratching to the monitor delay for better performance.

I use both 1 ear and both phones depending on situation.

A lot of the major names started DJing before the option to mix in your headphones was an option.

Most people find it harder to mix with both cans rather than 1 ear on and 1 ear off.

And if you mix the "Official way" and that makes you better than these other guys, why do you care what they do?

Learn to know what you are talking about as you obviously don't.

Nem

quote:

Originally posted by Nemesis44 I think you should probably check out Mr Stu Cox's three deck mixes before you reply in terms of mixing ability. Dave Clarke fequently uses both cans. You will find that most turntablists will either use both or none, a lot have got specially mades phones for both ears so that they are not scratching to the monitor delay for better performance. I use both 1 ear and both phones depending on situation. A lot of the major names started DJing before the option to mix in your headphones was an option. Most people find it harder to mix with both cans rather than 1 ear on and 1 ear off. And if you mix the "Official way" and that makes you better than these other guys, why do you care what they do? Learn to know what you are talking about as you obviously don't. Nem

LOL... should have seen it coming.

Cheers
Nem

quote:

Originally posted by Nemesis44 Cheers Nem

Cheers
Nem

I never liked the two ear method, but that's probably because I've never mixed on a split cue anyways and I like to take my headphones on and off constantly.

I use both.

I learned with 1 ear method then quickly learned the wonders of split cue.

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