Hey guys, got a gig coming up in the next few days at a main club in town, and I’m wondering about DJing with In-ear Headphones. I have a pair of Sony “MDR-EX33LP” (image below) and would like to know if they are better than the standard DJ over-ear headphones? (Own a pair of Pioneer HDJ-500)
I was thinking about using them, mainly because they cancel alot of external sound out, also help with hearing damage if I don’t turn them up too far, because I know from experience I turn my headphones up far to much when in a club.
So, what’s your opinion, experience, advice? Worth doing or trying. What do you think? All advice is appreciated.
I’ve frequently got one ear in and one ear out of my headphones. Wedging something into my ear and then plucking it out every 2 minutes would seriously hack me off.
I use my in ears at home when it is late and my parents are trying to sleep, I have tried them in a 150+ party and they were crap. In ears for home and if u are in a quiet booth. But if it is loud and noisy then I would stick with ur hdj500
That’s the reason I’m not gonna try spinning with my Shure SE215 anytime soon. It probably would be nice in general, but the whole procedure of taking them out and putting them back in when you have to quickly talk to someone (or whatever) would be pretty annoying, I think.
I never use these. Absolutely useless in terms of volume, noise insulation then the cord is always 1 or 1.2 meters meaning you can’t move away from the mixer. Then using these to monitor again loud environments is just asking for permanent ear damage.
There was an article on here about how a lot of DJ’s no longer use a monitor and just mix in the headphones, but there’s a lot of tracks that tend to overlap and it’s hard to distinguish which is which unless you listen to one in the headphone and one on the monitor thereby separating the tracks between the left and right ear, making it easier to distinguish which track the sounds are coming from.
I mix entirely in my headphones too… I was trained to distinguish between two tracks when I learned how to beatmatch.
I cant count on what type of monitoring system is going to be in place so being able to mix in my headphones eliminates that issue.
I dont think that IEM’s are very practical for DJing. I’m sure some models offer more isolation and can be used at safer volumes but I’m consistently being asked questions or chatting while I’m playing so its a must that I can take my headphones on and off easily.
Laidback Luke is mixing with in-ear since… I don’t know the beginning of his career and I read from one of his articles that he was pretty damn happy with them. Oh and I also found this:
[quote=“tokenasianguy, post:11, topic:35011, username:tokenasianguy”]
but there’s a lot of tracks that tend to overlap and it’s hard to distinguish which is which unless you listen to one in the headphone and one on the monitor thereby separating the tracks between the left and right ear, making it easier to distinguish which track the sounds are coming from.
[/quote]Just adjust the cue knob away from 12:00 to make either the cue louder & program quieter, or the program louder & the cue quieter.
OK I have to ask…So if you DJ with your headphones on all night, how do you adjust EQ when needed??? Or are all of you guys have the clubs sound guy with you in the booth doing it for you??
In all my years I have never DJ’d at a club where what I hear out of my headphones gets reproduced 100% coming out of the clubs speakers. Sure 90% of the time, I don’t touch my EQ, but there are songs where the clubs system reproduces the highs or lows, either too high or too low. Specially those that use Sonic Maximizers. Also adjusting gains through headphones can only be done if your levels match the output.
Not being a dick here, but I would really like to know how you guys do this…
Regardless of whether you adjust the “cue mix” from “cue” to “program” you can’t deny that it’s much easier to distinguish one track in the left ear (through a monitor) and the cue through the right ear (through the headphone) as opposed to hearing both tracks in both headphones at the same time.
how can you adjust the EQ from the DJ booth? is your booth on the dancefloor? your monitor speakers will not sound like the mains. you adjust the EQ to match the rooms acoustics, and unless your in the listening area, you simply cant do it from the DJ booth.
the only reason DJ’s have a monitor speaker in the DJ booth is to get rid of the time delay so you can beatmatch properly.
a DJ can certainly adjust the main EQ. after a walk out on the dancefloor.
yes, technically the sound tech should set the EQ to make the room flat. in the absence of a sound tech, a DJ might have to do it, but they would have to listen from the floor, not the DJ booth
