headphone vs earbud bleed

[Manning]

Question - Do earbuds bleed less than closed headphones?

Had a male vocalist client over the weekend, who kept insisting that the headphone volume be turned up to a point where the bleed was seriously bad. (We used Beyer 770s and KRK 8400s).

This got me wondering - has anyone ever tried earbuds for vocal tracking?

I'm speculating (without any basis) that for a given perceived volume the external bleed of earbuds might be less than with headphones. Has anyone tried this?

[Kurt]

Yep, works a treat with rubbery canalphones. Don't know that the external ones would be any better though. (The ones you can hear when you're on public transport)

Question - Do earbuds bleed less than closed headphones?

Had a male vocalist client over the weekend, who kept insisting that the headphone volume be turned up to a point where the bleed was seriously bad. (We used Beyer 770s and KRK 8400s).

This got me wondering - has anyone ever tried earbuds for vocal tracking?

I'm speculating (without any basis) that for a given perceived volume the external bleed of earbuds might be less than with headphones. Has anyone tried this?

[Manning]

LOL, yeah, I wasn't actually planning on using the $5 ones you buy at Woolworths.

I'm assuming there are better quality ones around. I don't know anything about canalphones, but I'm off a-googling.

So far all the blurb I can find on earbuds talks about isolating external noise, but I want the reverse obviously and I can't finds anyone who claims to be doing this.

[Kurt]

When I have mine in to listen to music you can't hear the music sitting next to me on a bus or plane.
So yeah, you want canalphones, not earbuds.

these guys have good reviews of the stuff they sell, worth a look even if you buy elsewhere.
www.headphones.com.au

LOL, yeah, I wasn't actually planning on using the $5 ones you buy at Woolworths.

I'm assuming there are better quality ones around. I don't know anything about canalphones, but I'm off a-googling.

So far all the blurb I can find on earbuds talks about isolating external noise, but I want the reverse obviously and I can't finds anyone who claims to be doing this.

[ChrisW]

Earbuds at any significant volume would be extremely hazardous to your hearing.

Anything that isolates the outside ambience will make hearing the music easier (moulded plugs or closed headphones). The weird thing is that most vocalists find it hard to sing when the sound in their head* dominates the sound of their voice in the room. Which is why many vocalists sing with one can off.

* I mean that sound you get when you have a cold, or stick your fingers in your ears. It's very unnatural.
I have moulded earplugs, and the sound of my voice is weird when they are all the way in.

[Manning]

Earbuds at any significant volume would be extremely hazardous to your hearing.

Agreed, but this is one of those "the customer is always right" scenarios.

To cover my posterior, I took an iPhone audio recording of my lecturing him on the likely damage to his hearing if we kept the cans at that volume. Based on Kurt's advice I spoke to that Perth crowd (good people) and so we'll get him a pair of Etymotic mc5 canalphones. He can destroy his ears while we get cleaner takes.