Comments on: Singing With Headphones: Pitch Issues

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 18:49:12 +0000

I had and solved this issue that lasted for years.. I tried everything. I could sing the acapella without headphones in perfect key but the minute I put headphones I was around 15 to 20 cents flat. the fix is simple if you think about it. We are not hearing the music correctly as our brain expects it. So if you Filter out any bass frequency from your headphone mix and turn up the presence on your backing track (around the 2 to 3k range. use a wide large boost of around 10db. I know this sounds a lot but it works. This amplifies the main harmonic elements of the instruments like piano or guitar etc. You see the real problem here is not our ability to pitch, if we already can pitch well without headphones it is the masking effect of the bass frequencies and the fact that thee music is not reverberating naturally as in nature. So we are just enhancing the frequencies we need to hear most of in order to be able to pitch accurately. I hope this helps anyone going through the same struggles I had. i took me years to arrive at this solution and I even considered stopping singing multiple times because i thought "it was me". good luck

By: Phil

Phil — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:50:24 +0000

I have definitely noticed the "flat" effect with headphones. It sounds fine when I'm singing (I'm also monitoring the vocals in the headphones) but when I play them back over speakers, it often (but not always !?!?!?!?) sounds flat in places. What's confusing to me is that in some songs I do okay, and on other songs it's really obvious. I don't know if it's a difference in monitoring volume levels or the subtleness of the melodies and me just not being very practiced at it so I hit better on "easy" songs and miss on others with a lot of half-steps. Another confusing result is that sometimes it'll actually sound pretty good on one speaker but sound really bad (and I mean the "pitchiness") on usually less good speakers. It's like some of the overtones smooth it out on speakers/amplifiers with a wider response range.

By: Judy

Judy — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 20:28:22 +0000

Hi Anonymous…Thank you for writing. So interesting to hear different experiences. Actually, my suggestion to have one ear half-off, not full-off, which would indeed be aurally disorienting. In my own experience with my and others' voices for 4 decades, most people do better with the acoustically grounding effect of hearing a part of their unmic-ed voice with 1/2 ear off – but NOT ALL respond this way. Yes, some do better with both on! The ear is an amazing thing, and people's aural focus can be different and unique. I like keeping options open and experiment til finding what works!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 17:46:09 +0000

Actually, I'm going to have to say the opposite. In my experience, every time I record a singer in the studio with only one headphone on, the singer tends to go very flat as a result because of the whole headphones effect. Try playing your favorite song on your headphones, then unplug them and immediately it will feel different, and will almost sound as if the song suddenly sounds 'flat' in contrast. This is the same idea with headphones, which is why instead, I advise singing with both cans on and to get used to the feeling of having an 'inner ear'

By: Unknown

Unknown — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:42:13 +0000

Help! I've had years of training and yet now I am in a group, 2 out of 5 of the tracks we recorded, I'm as flat as a pancake. Its really troubling me. I'm doing everthing right and we've stripped it back to accoustic to help but something isn't right. I was told it may be the production? Any ideas?