I honestly cant see the point unless youre using iso headphones and are trying to get the sound level in your ears down to a safer level.  

You wont be hearing them from audience perspective that way.  And unless youre recording with the same mics in the same room, shoot, even if that is the case, you wont be hearing them from a final recording standpoint.  

Unless you had some pricy noise canceling headphones, the natural sound of the drums and cymbals would leak through and obscure most of what you'd be hearing from the mics.

Grab an inexpensive digital recorder like the Fostex MR-8. That way, you will be able to do the mic position experiments that you're after and really hear what the mics are hearing.

In related news, for those that dig Shure mics, there's a $10 rebate on their site here http://www.shure.com/rebate/.

He said ...


... so I left the whole recording thing out of the conversation.

The concept of being able to record anything at any given moment would be very nice- I didn't even think of that aspect!. Just being able to capture some idea or groove or fill whenever and make a recording to have as a reference would be nice. All I meant about not getting into recording is that I didn't want to discuss all the different methods, technicalities, acoustics, equipment, etc.... So I don't blame you for "hijacking" the thead. You taught me something. I just wish I'd have thought of it before. Thanks!

yes, do it... I kind of ONLY use headphones when I rehearse, practice, or record.  

I have $120 Sennheiser headphones that are made for drummers, and they seal around the outside of the ear pretty well, so you can adjust your volume pretty low and still make it work.  

I also use them without signal just as hearing protection.  Even without being plugged in, these headphones make your drums sound "recorded" just by nature of taking the edge off of the highs and the volume---gives them more punch.  The cool thing is,  when rehearsing, I'm the only guy in the band who can also hear the vocals, the guitars, bass, everything... so I always know where I am, Nice bonus!

A cheap alternative to protect your ears, is to buy those black fold-up "Lo-Pro" hearing protectors from WAL*MART's gun department!  They also make your drums sound more bottomy by taking away some highs and lowering the decibles... they don't plug in though...