I‘ve always been a big proponent of listening to music through headphones. No, not those ubiquitous little white earbuds that came with your iPod. I mean real headphones: over-the-ear, noise-cancelling, high-quality. While they’re usually pretty expensive (any halfway decent pair will set you back at least a couple hundred), the difference is incredbile. Simply put, if you’re not listening to your music with quality headphones, you’re missing out. Do yourself a favor and go buy a pair.
Good speakers are imporant, too. They’re a necesity at any party or if you just want a little background music. But heapdhones offer a more personal experience than speakers. The music is literally blasting right into your ears, so you hear tiny sounds that speakers never pick up. Every song sounds better coming through a pair of good headphones. There’s a reason DJs use them for performing and producers use them in the studio: you hear everything much clearer and cleaner. And when wearing headphones, you can really tell who the top-notch producers are. The artist below is a perfect example.
Besides having one of the best names of any musical act in recent memory, the Disco Villains have been making hit remixes for some time now. These two get everything right: seamless beatmatching, perfect basslines and polished drums. I’ve never seen these guys perform live; but if they’re half as good in person as they are in the studio, I’m sure they put on a killer show.
The production quality is some of the best I’ve heard in a long time. I especially love that these guys mix the left and right channels differently. You won’t be able to hear the intricacies of their production if you use speakers. But thrown on a pair of high-end headphones and you’ll see what I mean. It may seem like no big deal, but it adds another dimension to the music. So turn the volume up until it hurts and get ready for pure bliss at 130 beats-per-minute.
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Justice – We Are Your Friends (Disco Villains Remix)
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50 Cent – In Da Club (Disco Villains Remix)
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Ludacris – Move Bitch (Disco Villains Remix)
Yea, they’re fantastic, we should be posting an interview with them relatively soon (they agreed to an interview, we’re just waiting for their responses now). If you’re interested let me know and I’ll send you the link. Our blog is http://apewithbarrels.blogspot.com/. And thanks for that 50 cent remix, I didn’t have it.
“There’s a reason DJs use them for performing and producers use them in the studio: ”
Dj’s use them to have some separation from the music around them. Producers might use headphones, but usually only for the purpose of checking on another source. generally monitor speakers are much better for accurate reproduction.
Be careful when listening at high volume on headphones – you are much more likely to give your self irreparable hearing damage (which trust me, is not enjoyable) as there is no attenuation of the high frequencies.
WAYYY TO PLUG YOUR WEBSITE BASTILLE
To check out more shameless plugs on other peoples websites check out:
http://blahblah.blogspot.com/
loved the post and loved bastille’s plug!
where can we send you new material??
http://www.myspace.com/lflo45
ps: still looking for european tour bookings!
When producing you’re generally not supposed to use headphones to mix/master because the eq levels of the tracks turn out a lot different than when played through speakers. Love the songs by the way
It’s true producers don’t mix on headphones, per say, but they are in fact used in the studio, especially for checking the quality of sounds, as well as mix translation. And the reason actually doesn’t have anything to do with “eq levels”. It’s because of the perceptive effects that come from the two stereo signals not being isolated from each other. Mixes sound quite different when the two channels interfere in space. In some cases, phase cancellation can become so horrible that the entire mix comes out sounding like a quiet mess of nothing.
Interesting stuff, really.
Raffy, yea, I plugged our website, because as a blogger and producer, when I blog about an artist, I would be interested in reading an interview to figure out sort of how they think…anyways the interview is up on our blog if you’re curious to read it,
They kill every show they play!
dude the Disco Villains are filthyyy. thanks for opening my ears
someone spelled villains wrong in the picture. fail?
myspace.com/knightstalkerislove
myspace.com/sexyshowers
I agree with the above post. Personally I cannot understand why you would not want to make an effort in this regard anyway. Only the other day, at work we had exactly the same conversation and came to a similar conclusion
I saw The Disco Villains at Desertica (the biggest music festival in northern Mexico) at they were awesome, not only were they the best of the show which is a huge achievement if u take in consideration that the Cristal Method, LA RIOTS and Mandy played there… they’re also very outgoing, they don’t think they’re the shit, they will party with you and will let u have some of their drinks… =)
by the way the We Are Your Friend mix is out of this world!!
Noise cancelling, on the other hand, is not an inherent feature of all earbuds. The technology and idea behind noise cancellation is to produce sounds that cancel out external sounds that are reaching your ears.
It is important to know what you want your earbuds for. Buy the best technology for the money you have to spend. If you will be flying noise canceling earphones would be useful. If you need to block sounds like voices or something other than a low frequency constant sound then noise isolating earbuds may be a better choice.
I have not checked in here for a while because I thought it was getting boring, but the last several posts are good quality so I guess I’ll add you back to my daily bloglist. You deserve it my friend
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