Mixing Trick For Vocals

An incredibly simple, cheap and effective mixing trick for vocals from Blackbird's Mark Rubel. A SM57 pointed at headphones can bring out just the right dynamic range to bring vocals out and improve intelligibility of the lyrics. Amazing!
This is an excerpt from a full length video you can find here:
insideblackbird.com/series/a-...
#mix #mixengineer #howto #proaudio #homerecording #vocals #recordingvocals

[@johnbird9997]

WOW. That is so great!

[@TheMixClub]

Hay MB! I have thought about this. Will give it a Go. Be Safe

[@misius164]

I like your style!

[@Goomer]

I like the idea.

[@hollylewis5302]

Great idea! Never heard of it. Tricks of the trade!

[@insideblackbird]

Glad you liked it!

[@chasecampan-thornburg1721]

A foot away? Or the 3-4" shown? I love the idea. Will definitely try it.

[@insideblackbird]

Try 3' to 4' first. Let us know how it goes!

[@chasecampan-thornburg1721]

@@insideblackbird You're joking, right? Is this a Spinal Tap Stonehenge moment? Mark meant inches, right?

[@hummarstraful]

The phase will need to be checked, right?

[@danymalsound]

This seems like unnecessary work, when you can just run a filtered parallel distortion ITB...

[@less_tress]

distressor?

[@insideblackbird]

More like a band pass filter than a Distressor. That is to say, it's not compressing or distorting.

[@jeffnuts2402]

What if you get rid of headphone bleed with this? Theoretically if you could set the headphones at the same gain and record the output of the headphones using the same mic the vocalist used to record, at a similar distance, and then flipped the phase of the headphone track it should cancel out the bleed in the vocal takes right?

[@insideblackbird]

Did you try that? Let us know! We encourage experimentation