Headphone mix suggestions?

[coplinger]

I'm going to need to get something to amplify headphones. I'm using a UA Apollo 8p for outputs,, and I currently have a 4 channel cheapo Behringer headphone amp, but I'd like to get an 8 channel one to use and use the Behri only when I need more. I see there are some with 'more me' options on each channel,, which might be a good thing. What do yall recommend for headphone amps?

Keep in mind this is a small project studio on a low budget.

Also, any tips on how to get everyone loving their headphone mix?

[Rodgre]

In order to get everyone "loving their headphone mix", you have to give them individual mixers, which is a whole can of worms. Where I'm at now, we have the Furman system which has 4 mono and one stereo input (via ethernet cables) from the main sending unit. I patch into it via multiple outputs in ProTools and have had good luck with it, for the most part. The issue I run into is that you can't pan the mono channels, so say there are two guitar players and you want to separate them into each ear, the only way to do that is to send them to the stereo input (which 90% of the time I reserve for drums, out of habit). (Behringer makes a similar, and probably more flexible system with 16 channels, if I'm not mistaken).

Before I was using this system, I set up my own similar rig by using small Behringer mixers, like 6 or 8 channel mixers. I would have a snake from my patchbay at the mix position to send individual channels out to a patchbay in the live room, which had mults to get whatever channels I wanted to the individual mixers so users could alter their own mix completely. It was a pretty over the top solution to do what the Furman does, but it was better because you could pan stuff or even add effects if the board had built in effects.

If you're not equipped to do that, you can use something like the Behringer HA6000 headphone mixer which has a stereo aux input for each channel that you can use for the "more me" control. Just send a feed of their channel somehow to that aux input. Make the normal stereo feed sound balanced and probably with a little compression on it.

Roger

[markjazzbassist]

how much you looking to spend? theres the furman's you can find cheap and used, there is the Aviom system if you want to go more expensive but more tracks to give them control over.

[Magnetic Services]

I used to use one of these: https://motu.com/products/avb/monitor8

If you hook it up to your wi-fi (might require an accessory), your guests can pull up a web app on their phone/tablet/laptop to tweak their own headphone mix with whatever channels you want to give them access to. Pretty neat.

[Nick Sevilla]

If you must have a system wherein the musos can self mix:

Cheapest.

Behringer Powerplay.

https://www.sweetwater.com/c1114--Behri ... XJlIjpbXX0

[Dubmaniac]

I personally recommend the Oz Audio Q-Mix. It's a headphone mixer with six headphone channels. It's not the cheapest thing out there, but it's not expensive at all, and it's way better built than most headphone amps. You can feed it a main stereo mix as well as four aux sends, which could be something like drums on 1, bass on 2, guitars on 3 and vocals on 4. I can only send a stereo mix and two aux sends to mine because my interface only has four outputs, not counting my monitor outs- more a shortcoming of my interface. You can also run an outboard effects unit with it, which lets your clients hear themselves in their headphones with reverb, chorus or whatever effect they want, while keeping their tracks dry- perfect for the singer who thinks lots of reverb makes them sound "professional". Everyone in the band (up to six people) can have their own mix, with as much "me" as they want, with or without effects. It runs clean, sounds great, and can get LOUD. You'll blow your eardrums out before you make this thing distort, and by then it won't matter.

The only real problem I've had with mine was finding one to buy. Oz Audio went out of business several years ago, so there's no warranty or tech support from them and these are a little hard to find. I seem to recall Mackie bought the rights to this design and made their own version of it for a short while. Your mileage may vary, but I can't recommend this box nearly enough.

[Recycled_Brains]

I bought one of these from Larry Crane for $20, I don't know... 15 years ago? It's BEAT UP, but it works and it gets crazy loud. Perfect for mobile gigs and overdub stuff at home. Probably not quite adequate for a real studio ha, but I'm riding it into the ground.

I used to be in the camp of "let them make their own headphone mixes", until I started checking what their "mixes" sounded like out of curiosity....

If the gear is available and the band insists, I won't argue, but I haven't had any instances where a band member had a problem with a cue mix I made myself (in the same set of headphones the band will be using), beyond "can you turn the bass drum up a tiny bit?", that sort of thing. I also think that the "mix it yourself" thing makes certain people nervous. I can see it in the way they turn the knobs kind of randomly and hurriedly. It's an added variable that they don't necessarily need or want to deal with. The key is to develop the intuition to know what bands will want to hear more or less of. I've found that that is pretty consistent from session to session.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

My old studio mate insisted that the headphone mix be his control room mix. Everybody gets the same thing. In fairness, his control room monitor mix always sounds stellar.
If i'm the performer I'll do anything in my power to avoid headphones. In live off the floor situations I've even run floor wedges for the vocal.

[digitaldrummer]

I have a UAD Apollo and I use one of these:

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-aud ... 9cQAvD_BwE

I can create "cue" mixes" from the UAD console and then route it to the 3 different channels on the headphone amp (if you setup mono headphone mixes - and why not - you could get 8 different mix parameters out of the Apollo) . So that gets me 3 different stereo cue mixes. if that's not enough, then I start swapping out headphones. Need more bass - here's a pair of headphones that have exaggerated bass. Need more guitar, here's one with more mids... inexpensive, not glamourous, but has always worked. of course my studio is one room, so everyone hears what's in the room anyway.

[vvv]

I often use this.

They get the mix I give 'em.

[Theo_Karon]

Chiming in to add that if you do go the multichannel monitor mixer route... make sure to leave one in the control room so you can take a peek at what people are hearing and tune it up in realtime!

Cheers

[coplinger]

I think I'm going with the art headamp because each channel can get its own stereo send, there's bass & treble controls, and the price is right. Anyone used one of these?

[digitaldrummer]

I had the Art Headamp before I got the Nady (that I posted a link to earlier). I sold it because I could not figure out how to route the 4 cue pairs from the UAD Apollo to 6 channels on the ART Headamp. The only way that would work is to treat the UAD console cue sends as mono (pan hard left or right) and then use 6 of those sends to send a mono mix to each headphone channel. And a mono mix for tracking is probably just fine. But I also use one of the channels myself for listening to mixes (as another reference against the monitors) so I still needed a stereo pair. Of course thinking about it now I think you could still do that... use Cue 1-2 for the stereo pair (to channel 1 on the HP amp) and then 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 could be routed to mono channels (although you would really only have 5 unless you have it setup on a patch panel).

for reference, with the Nady HP amp I have cue 1-2 going to "A", which feeds headphone amp 1-4, cue 3-4 going to "B" which is channels 5-6, and cue 5-6 going to "C" which feeds HP channels 7-8. then I have 3 unique mixes, to 8 headphones, for tracking, but I have to set them up. not as fancy as the solutions that allow each person to mix themselves, but also less training involved...

I also had one of the Behringer PM16/P16 and it was very versatile, but a lot more than what I needed (in my 1 room studio) and more expensive. And more complicated for each user. so I sold it and used that $$ for something else.