improving headphone mixes options

[joninc]

so - i am wanting to provide a better option for headphone mixes than my current "everyone shares one mix" deal.

i have a samson headphone amp and everybody gets that while i monitor off the console so i can solo stuff while tracking etc...

i am looking at either:

- getting another headphone amp or 2 and using the aux sends on my ghost console to provide 2 or 3 different mixes.

OR buying a few small mackie mixers used and giving people like 8 channels that they can submix themselves. this could cost easily $500-$750 with a few mixers and the necessary cabing.. i am not sure exactly how they would daisy chain though.. Y cables off the channel inserts?

or is there another betting alternative?

definitely want to keep this simple and cheap.

[kslight]

Anything wrong with the Furman HDS6 http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/HDS6/

and as many HR6s as you require?
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/HR6


You can daisy chain the boxes off each other, and still have independent mixes.

Granted, NEW that probably is pushing your budget?but used they can be quite cheap. I've got one and a few boxes that I mainly use for remote sessions, and it works just dandy.

[joninc]

ok - thanks for the response. i have seen those at a friends' studio but how do you route the audio to the ethernet cable?

you send audio to the 6 channels 1/4" on the distro box and then out to the headphone amps via ethernet?

[kslight]

ok - thanks for the response. i have seen those at a friends' studio but how do you route the audio to the ethernet cable?

you send audio to the 6 channels 1/4" on the distro box and then out to the headphone amps via ethernet?

Your mixer outs go into the rack mount part on 6 1/4", then 2 ethernet from the rack into each individual box. The ethernet gets daisy chained off the boxes. Each box has 2 headphone ports, so you can have two users per box if you want (same mix though).

[jgimbel]

I used the Furman setup at a nearby studio a a year ago or so, I really liked it. It took me a little while to wrap my head around how to route things (one stereo source, then four other mono sources, with each of these five things appearing on their own pot). For whatever reason I like that they use cat 5 cable, it's light-weight, relatively durable and cheap at long lengths. It's a little overkill for what I need here but when I'm in a new space the Furman system is what I plan on using.

[The Scum]

It sounds like there may be a little confusion about exactly what the Furman system is doing.

It uses Cat-5 cable, because it's an inexpensive, ubiquitous multi-conductor cable. But it's just routing analog audio on it. It's not actually "Ethernet," just recycling Ethernet cabling.

I really like the Furman - it's head and shoulders above a lot of the lesser headphone amps (IE: anything with a wall wart). There's more headroom, and the individual mixes rock.

Don't confuse it with some of the similar products (brain and mixer station combos), like the Aviom, that do use actual Ethernet. They're usually somewhat more expensive.

[roscoenyc]

The Furman system delivers a whole lot of bang for the buck.
Once you get the gains set on the 'brain' you are good to go.

[llmonty]

I weighed this too and ended up with this SM Pro Audio amp. I really love it. At first I used my board's aux sends, then when I had more conversion i/o I used PT sends.

You can use it a couple of different ways. The first is a 2 mix + "more me" which I think is how they intend to use it. Alternatively, you could do 4-5 independent mixes (4 plus 2 mix), and have them select which one they want.

Really simple. With a snake the connections are pretty easy. One of only drawbacks is the rack is centralized so need long phone cables and someone willing to tweak the knobs.

http://www.midi-store.com/SM-Pro-Audio- ... 19842.html

[ott0bot]

I use a amp similar to the sm pro unit mentioned...it's a 6 channel rolls unit. I send the auxs out of pro tools for the mixes, send them out the patch bay to the inserts on the headphone amp, then send through the snake through trs connections. then just adjust the levels on the amp as musician needs it. seems to work, but I may get some satellites so try can control it themselves.

[digitaldrummer]

I'm doing similar with the ART HeadAmp6 Pro It's got the regular stereo input and then has aux inputs for each channel, so if the guitar player wants more me, I can send an aux out of pro tools (to an analog out) and then plug it into the appropriate aux input. The HeadAmp6 Pro then has a balance or mix control that you can adjust the amount of "more me" coming in. And I have a bunch of long headphone extensions (although I was considering a semi-permanent wiring with some wiremold along the baseboards if I ever have time...)

the other thing I use is a lot of different types of headphones. sometimes rather than change the mix or level, I just give the player a different pair of phones -- one that has more bass, or more mids, or more isolation. 9 times out of ten it does the trick.

Mike