Should You Use Headphones or Speakers With a Nord Keyboard?
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The Original Question:
From the original YouTube Video here.
Akshay Dwivedi asks: "Which headphones will you recommend for recording Nord (mostly piano pieces for now)? Should I go for a headphone or monitors (to make myself future-proof for music production) or a speaker system, keeping in mind that my room is untreated right now?"
Answer:
Hello Akshay Dwivedi
This is a tough question to answer and if you ask 10 different people this question, I think you'll get 10 different answers. In all the recording studios I've been in, most have pro monitors/speakers to enable the group to hear (obviously). Headphones on the other hand are used by each musician when recording or when rehearsing and you want your sound personalized to just you.
With that said, in almost every case, your Nord keyboard will sound "better" coming out of headphones simply because the stereo image is so vivid and you are isolating the sound. There's something about using good headphones that creates an immersive experience (at least for me) that I have yet to find with any speaker system. Now, there are many out there that play their Nord keyboard through a Leslie speaker which actually makes the organ experience better than headphones because with a Leslie, you are actually "moving air" and headphones are not going to provide that sensation.
The Nord Monitors are an interesting option as they were specifically designed for Nord boards (especially the pianos) so they are likely to sound very good. However, these may or may not do well for "general recording." So, I see these Nord Monitors being good when you want to practice or compose music on the Nord boards directly or when you want to play your Nord keys for people in a small room (with them standing behind you).
I watched an online course from "deadmau5" on MasterClass when he was asked, "should you use speakers or headphones?" He said, he almost always uses speakers because he felt that with headphones it was just "too easy" to increase the volume to the point where you're going to cause hearing damage. Speakers, on the other hand, are a bit easier to realize when things are too loud. That point was something I had never considered at all (protecting your hearing) and since watching that, I do my best to remember not to put on the headphones too loud. I don't yet own the Nord Monitors but here is a video on them for you to check out if you haven't already.
I am definitely not a speaker or a headphones expert but to this day I do 99% of my work with headphones. That's mainly because I don't want to drive my family crazy 😂 . I'm using the Audio-Technica BPHS1 Broadcast Stereo Headset with a microphone. But I use these because I'm making training videos that require me to speak and hear throughout a lesson. I would NOT get these for music production as they are not great for that. I'm sure there are many YouTube videos on good headphones to consider. As far as studio monitors/speakers, again, there should be tons of videos for that sort of thing already out there you can research.
Hope this presents a few other aspects to help you with your decision. You can also check out the Nord User Forum as well to see what people there are saying about all this.
Good luck! - Marc
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