As much as possible, I avoid wearing headphones. The main reason is because wearing headphones gives me (and you, no matter what you think) an unnatural perspective on my voice. The more I think about my voice and what it sounds like, the less effective I am at delivering the message of the piece I’m reading. This is just as true for a long, highly technical training narration as it is for intimate dialog copy.
In order to concentrate fully on the story I’ve been hired to tell, I have to be able to ignore how my voice sounds and attend only to what I’m reading. And the same is true for you, even if you don’t think it is. And no matter how long you’ve been wearing headphones.
If I have to wear headphones during a session (e.g.: a phone patch or ISDN job), I wear the phones over only one ear. Again, so I can hear my voice the way it sounds in real life; and concentrate on telling the story.
The secondary reason I don’t wear headphones is because at a voice-over training session with Dick Orkin in 1997, he said, “Take off your headphones and leave them off.” And I’ve learned more about doing excellent voice-over work from Dick Orkin, than from anyone else on the planet.
Its okay to use headphones as long as the sound is not too loud but just enough for you to hear. Hint: if the person beside you hear what you’ve been listening on you headphone it means that its too loud already.
Hey Bob, just stumbled across this old post of yours. But I totally agree. I find that not only does wearing headphones give me an unnatural perspective on my voice, but it gets in the way of acting the part. Engineers and producers will often shoot an odd look through the glass but the result works. Sometimes I take the more subtle approach of throwing only one can off my ear. But I feel my performance is more natural. I always think its hilarious when other station employees or clients with ‘radio experience’ come in the studio asking for headphones or toting their own pair. Most stations aren’t set up with separate booths and everyone is in the same room. You don’t need ’em for talkback, so…who are you listening to?