CAD Audio recently donated a number of sets of MH510 studio headphones to fledgling music students in Cincinnati to assist them in learning how to play and record musical instruments and vocals.
It’s a valuable contribution to their education, notes Aaron O’Keefe, a private music instructor and owner/co-owner of the Loveland, Maineville and Lebanon music academies.
“Carmen Mark ‘Squiggy’ DiGiacomo of the MAD Consulting Group contacted us about the manufacturer’s tent at the Rock On The Range Festival in Columbus where music product and audio manufacturers demonstrate their products,” O’Keefe notes. “CAD Audio was one of those companies and they were good enough to donate a number of their professional headphones to our music school programs.”
Students typically range from age six to 16, who he personally teaches piano, guitar, voice, drums, bass, double bass, vibraphone, mandolin and ukulele, to name a few. “We’ll usually take a song like ‘Heart Shaped Box’ by Nirvana or ‘Sober’ by Tool,” he explains. “I’ll teach the song individually to my drum, guitar, bass player and voice students, we’ll put them together in a band, rehearse the song, then actually record and videotape the final performance.
“These CAD headphones are going to be used in countless studio recordings,” he continues, “because too often, the kids have cheap, Walkman-style phones that don’t do the job. The Sessions MH510s are perfect for the studio because they have a closed-back design and there isn’t any bleed through into the microphones, which is really important. Plus the audio quality is exceptional. We’re using them extensively for tracking and overdubs, which is great because they’ll eventually appear in our videos. They’re the best headphones we’ve ever used.”
Knowing that his students’ version of Tool’s “46 and 2” on YouTube has had well over 6 million views to this point (view it here), appearing in their videos has added significance for supporting manufacturers such as Zildjian, Jackson, ESP, Dunlop, Kramer and CAD Audio.
