[Vendetta]

Hi there,
 
Listening to every earphone I've ever listened to, the vocalist always sounds slightly left of center on 90% of tracks I listen to.
 
This isn't a problem with my hearing as when I switch orientation (left earpiece in my right ear) it sounds slightly right of center.
 
Is this just my brian or earbuds? I have no idea.

 

[ab initio]

Hi there,

Listening to every earphone I've ever listened to, the vocalist always sounds slightly left of center on 90% of tracks I listen to.

This isn't a problem with my hearing as when I switch orientation (left earpiece in my right ear) it sounds slightly right of center.

Is this just my brian or earbuds? I have no idea.

It very well could be that it was recorded/mastered that way.

If you have foobar or audacity, you can check the waveforms to see how left and right match up.

Also, the recording is probably stereo and not binaural. With stereo speakers, both ears hear from both channels, so the vocals wouldn't sound as hard panned. With headphones, the stereo image gets exaggerated because the right ear cannot hear the left speaker and vice versa

Cheers

 

[bigshot]

Fix it with the balance control.

 

[Ronion]

How many have you listened to?

 

[mikeaj]

Is it just vocals?

Another thing you can try is flipping the channels for one track (L -> R and R -> L) in something like Audacity and seeing if perceived vocal positioning also flips sides.

 

[Vendetta]

If I put the left earbud in my right ear and vice versa the vocals switch sides. 

 

[ultrabike]

Quote:

Hi there,
 
Listening to every earphone I've ever listened to, the vocalist always sounds slightly left of center on 90% of tracks I listen to.
 
This isn't a problem with my hearing as when I switch orientation (left earpiece in my right ear) it sounds slightly right of center.
 
Is this just my brian or earbuds? I have no idea.

 
Could be your amp. My Total BitHead had ~3dB of channel imbalance due to a blown cap somewhere and had to send it for repairs... Other than that it could be your brian.

 

[ev13wt]

Has happened to me too. Magically disappeared after a while. Whatever.

 

[MrTechAgent]

Well I have experienced this but just the opposite , it suddenly subdues itself after I switch off either of the channels and the come back to 2 channels.
Only happens with one of my headphone.

 

[ab initio]

@Vendetta
Audio can be mixed to "place" the different sounds at different locations. That is what "imaging" is and why things are recorded in stereo. The difference is that when you listen to a stereo recording on headphones, the imaging is greatly exaggerated compared to listening on speakers.
 
Look up Binaural recording and compare to Stereo recording.
 
 
 
Quote:

 
This isn't a problem with my hearing as when I switch orientation (left earpiece in my right ear) it sounds slightly right of center.
 
Is this just my brian or earbuds? I have no idea.

Quote:

If I put the left earbud in my right ear and vice versa the vocals switch sides. 

 
We understand that you switched your headphones. We have asked you to observe or change the audio signal being sent to your headphones by manipulating and observing the left/right channels in software. We get it that it isn't your ears. But we cannot help you identify the source of the vocal's directionality unless you help us determine if your music was recorded to sound like that.
 
 
Quote:

If you have foobar or audacity, you can check the waveforms to see how left and right match up.
 

Quote:

Is it just vocals?

Another thing you can try is flipping the channels for one track (L -> R and R -> L) in something like Audacity and seeing if perceived vocal positioning also flips sides.

 
In both cases, you can look at the waveform and determine if there is a difference in the waveforms on the left and right channel that corresponds to the left/right positioning of the vocalist.
 
Cheers

 

[bigshot]

The simplest is to just adjust the balance control and see if that fixes it.

 

[ab initio]

@Bigshot
I completely agree with you if it's a case where everything is unbalanced. However, I'm under the impression that it is only the vocals that seem to be panned left, and the OP did not answer mikeaj's question whether or not this is the case.
 
 
 
EDIT: although thinking about this has given me the idea of a graphic balancer (as opposed to a graphic equalizer). Is there any such hardware or software that adjusts the stereo balance on a frequency band by band basis?

 

[StudioSound]

This is extremely common, and does not seem to indicate a balance issue. I've heard it with all headphones I've owned over the years, and with different sources.
I used to think it was my hearing, but if I swap the headphones over, or swap the channels in my player, the imbalance flips over to the right side. If I play the track in mono, the vocals are centered. This became more pronounced when I upgraded my DAC. (due to better channel separation I guess?)

I don't know why so many commercial tracks seem to be mastered this way. Perhaps it's less obvious on speakers.
I find it's easier to deal with when using a bit of crossfeed (I like Redline Monitor) or simply "learning" to ignore it.

 

[bigshot]

Listen to a mono track and see if it's centered. I seriously doubt that everyone is mixing vocals a little left of center. A channel imbalance would only really be noticeable with stuff in the middle.

 

[jaddie]

The most likely cause is an amplifier channel gain mismatch, though we haven't heard if the OP is using an amp, DMP or whatever.  
 
There is a possible mastering issue though.  A mastering "engineer" (definitely in quotes for this one) was attempting to maximize loudness, he may have used a dynamics processor without channel gain linking.  That would mean that each channel's moment to moment gain would be independent of the other, and if the average volume of one channel were higher (even though the vocal was mixed centered) it would end up skewing center mixed signals to one side of the other, possibly on a dynamic basis.  Some broadcasters used to do this, and it does raise overall loudness slightly while creating an effect they eventually named "platform motion".  No responsible mastering engineer or recording engineer would do this of course, but...not all are responsible, well trained, or even understand the tools.  
 
Need to get down to specifics to figure it out.  How about we start with a couple of samples of the music in question, and the path it took to get to the headphones?  Was it purchased, ripped or "downloaded"?  What's the player, amp if any, and headphones?  How is it all connected together?