This is just for tracking right? Personally I don't think this is particularly a good Idea. Have you done a search for "Isolating headphones"? I know there's a company out there but I can't think of the name for the life of me. I believe these were designed for drummers so they should work reasonably well.

Vic Firth (the drumstick company) makes some extreme isolation headphones intended for drummers.
http://www.zzounds.com/item--VICSIH1
They only have 24 Db reduction, but I would think that would be enough for tracking use. Don't mix on them! ANDY

Tracking only. Not for anything else.

hueseph, you said you don't think it's a good idea. Would you mind explaining your thoughts? I agree it seems strange but I haven't heard a convincing reason why not.

Well, I've never used in ear monitors but I have trouble accepting that you can get any decent sound out of such a small diaphragm.

I know you're only using it for tracking but likely you will want to get some idea of what you are recording by means of these. So you will want to be able to get a reasonable representation of what you're trying to record from those monitors. You're not going to be able to do that with your standard monitors in the same room, hence the headphones.

I seriously doubt you will get any reasonable representation from a pair of in ear monitors. Not good enough to check for phase problems or general tone even.

Again I have to reiterate that I have never used in ear monitors but unless they have made gigantic strides in the mechanics of those tiny little drivers, I don't think they would be any good for more than what they were designed for. Namely stage use.

It's just my opinion. Add salt to taste.

These are the ones I was thinking of.

http://www.extremeheadphones.com/

hueseph wrote: Well, I've never used in ear monitors but I have trouble accepting that you can get any decent sound out of such a small diaphragm.

I know you're only using it for tracking but likely you will want to get some idea of what you are recording by means of these. So you will want to be able to get a reasonable representation of what you're trying to record from those monitors. You're not going to be able to do that with your standard monitors in the same room, hence the headphones.

I seriously doubt you will get any reasonable representation from a pair of in ear monitors. Not good enough to check for phase problems or general tone even.

Again I have to reiterate that I have never used in ear monitors but unless they have made gigantic strides in the mechanics of those tiny little drivers, I don't think they would be any good for more than what they were designed for. Namely stage use.

It's just my opinion. Add salt to taste.

Thank for the input. .... I have used some headphones that were pretty nice. but never IEMs..

Sounds like your concern is the quality of the monitors. I suppose most of my concern is interference between the IEMs and the muffs.

Personally I don't think this is particularly a good Idea

Hue i respect your input on this forum and normally agree with you, but i am going to have to disagree on this one.

If a quality IEM and the correct in-ear mix is used, it beats any iso or closed back phones i've ever used. both for isolation and quality (largley because of goo iso).
i know quite a few pro touring drummers who use IEM.

-Chris

Again, I have to say, I've never used in ear monitors. I based my opinion on the monitoring aspect as opposed to the isolation aspect. Anyway an opinion based on experience with IEM is what was needed here. Thanks.

First off, there are many incredible studios out there where the control room is the studio, the studio is the control room. Standard closed back headphones like the Sennheiser and AKG's are used without problems. The isolation is much more than adequate. If it wasn't, you'd never hear a popular recording because that's what everybody uses. How could you ever sing into a microphone with your crazy method? You couldn't. You wouldn't. Nobody would want to. Both Sir George Martin and Bruce Swedien's studios are control room studios and I've known others. So what do you think your problem is? You're talking numbers that don't mean anything. If you are turning your headphones up that loud, you will have severe intonation problems, as pitch changes with loudness level. Whenever I get some boob in the studio that can't stay on key, I make them crank their headphone level down and/or remove one of the earphones from one of their ears.

Tommy can you hear me? See me. Touch me. Feel me. Please???
Ms. Remy Ann David