If you do a lot of drum recordings, one of the best things you can do is get a high-end pair of headphones for when you mix and master your drum tracks. High-quality headphones allow you to hear all the nuanced details, and that allows you to create a better end product with your drum kit mix.
A popular option for high-end headphones are the Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro Open-Back Studio Reference Headphones. These things are incredible, and we’re going to review them to help you decide whether they’re a good option for you.
The main features of the Beyerdynamic DT 1990s are that they’re open-back headphones and they’re designed for the purpose of listening, mixing, and mastering. They’re studio headphones made for people in studios to listen to their recordings to hear all the details.
These headphones have 45mm Tesla neodymium drivers that allow them to produce amazing sounds in all frequency ranges. You get epic highs, lows, and mids, giving you an overall great sound.
The headphones come with two sets of interchangeable ear pads. One pair is for analyzing, while the other pair is more balanced for general listening.
The headphones also come with two cables. One is straight, while the other one is coiled. Along with those comes a hard case to carry the headphones in and keep safe.
The sound quality you get from these headphones is top-notch. It’s very balanced, allowing you to dial in the best mix possible from your drum kit. The fact that the sound is balanced means that the drum mix will be true to what most people will hear when listening. So, you won’t slip up by boosting bass frequencies when you don’t need to.
You’ll be surprised at how clear these sound. They separate instruments and frequencies brilliantly, giving you a very clean end sound. When it comes to recording drums, that means that you’ll clearly be able to distinguish all the different drums and cymbals.
They’re also quite powerful. If you’re not accustomed to high-end headphone quality, the DT 1990 headphones will quickly make you realize what you’ve been missing out on.
The headphones are quite big and bulky, but they’re comfortable enough to wear for hours without feeling any strain.
We love the fact that you get interchangeable ear pads. It makes these even more versatile, as you can change the ear pads to suit different purposes.
You get straight and coiled cables with most high-end headphones, but it’s still worth mentioning how beneficial that is as well.
These headphones use 45mm Tesla neodymium drivers. They’re amazing, and they really add to the overall quality of the headphones. They’re the biggest contributor to the amazing sound quality that you get in the mids, lows, and highs.
Since these headphones are designed for mixing, we wouldn’t recommend using them when playing and recording drums. It’s better to use closed-back headphones for that.
If you were to use these, you’d have a lot of the drum sound hitting your ears, and that would force you to boost the volume to very high levels. Boosting the volume like that will damage the headphones over time.
So, it’s better to count these out as performance headphones.
However, the performance they give when you’re sitting at your computer and mixing is brilliant. They’re some of the best and most reliable mixing headphones on the market.
These Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro headphones are high-end headphones. That means that they have a high-end price tag. A lot of drummers will think that they’re way too expensive.
However, you don’t know what you’re missing if you’ve never used high-class headphones before. These things are the real deal, and we’d say that the price tag is well worth the sound quality that they give you.
They’re headphones that professional studio producers use, and the high price is what all pro sound engineers are willing to pay. So, the price-to-value ratio is decent, especially considering the fact that you get interchangeable ear pads.
Studio recording is where these headphones thrive. These are the headphones you want when you sit down after tracking to listen to whatever you just recorded. They give such a good sound, allowing you to mix and master with immaculate detail.
If you play an electronic instrument like a guitar or keyboard, they’re also good to use while recording. We wouldn’t suggest recording with them on a drum kit, though.
The Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro headphones aren’t something you want to use at a live gig. They’re open-back headphones, so they’re intended to be used while sitting at your computer and mixing instrument parts.
If you used these at a live gig as monitors, you’d have to boost the volume significantly. As we said earlier, that will damage the headphones over time.
So, these are headphones that you want to keep at home. They’re for luxurious listening or detailed mixing.
The Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro headphones are some of the best open-back headphones available on the market. They’re a seriously strong option to consider if you’re looking for headphones with immaculate detail.
If you regularly record and mix drum parts, we highly suggest getting these. If you want headphones for performing purposes, we’d suggest getting closed-back headphones or in-ear monitors.
There are so many amazing sets of headphones out there. The best thing to do is try as many as you can out, and from there, you’ll be able to pick the ones that sound the best to you.
Drum Teacher
Brett Clur has a Drum Performance Diploma from Trinity College London has been playing drums for over 20 years. He is passionate about advanced concepts and uses his years of experience to teach his students about them. While he is a full-time drum teacher, he is also working on growing a YouTube channel where shares his insights. You can see him playing there, or on Instagram where he posts daily videos.
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