MIX BITES EPISODE 1: a Hack for Headphone Mixes

MIX BITES EPISODE 1: a Hack for Headphone Mixes
#HeadphoneMixes #HeadphoneAmplifier #CueMixes

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:26 About the episode
00:41 Why I need the hack
01:29 About the aux sends of the Signature 22 MTK
02:03 How I found the signal flow to feed my headphones
02:33 My solution
03:14 Mixing for cue mix 1 for the guitar player
04:29 Mixing for cue mix 2 for the bass player
05:29 What's coming up and outro

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Welcome to Exile Mixes. This is the first episode of Mix Bites.

For this episode I will show you how to send headphone mixes without using a headphone amp distribution system on the the Soundcraft Signature 22 MTK.

I don’t see the point of investing in a headphone amp distribution system when I don’t use it everyday because I’m mainly only mixing.

THE CHALLENGE:
Find a way to send headphone mixes to at least three players at one time without using a headphone amp distribution system.

BUT I got a request to produce and engineer a progressive metal EP for some friends in a band. I like to get the most out of the band’s natural feel by having at the drummer, bassist and guitar player lay down the basic tracks first. That’s where the magic happens when musician play together, live-tracking.

The console has 5 aux sends. I tested them with my headphones and they sounded fine but only one of the drivers in the headphone gave out a signal. But the level was hot enough to drive my AKG K92, which has an impedance of 32 Ohms.

MY SOLUTION:
I had 3 cables made. At one end, a TRS but wired to be mono and the other end regular stereo female headphone jack.

I just plugged them in to the first three aux sends and proceeded to test making headphone mixes like this.

Aux 1 might be for the guitar player who needs more vocal and less bass…
Aux 2 could be for the bassist who just needs more drums and less guitar…

You can check the each mix by pressing PFL on the aux send master for each without plugging into the headphone jacks from the auxes.


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Now, you might wonder how I recorded the headphone mixes since they are separate from the master.

The routing for this episode was a bit of a challenge and I had to try it a couple of times before I was successful in what I intended it to to do. This is for the next episode. So watch for it next week!

I hope you learned something from this. I am not an expert, I just figured this out on my own. If you have any ideas better than this, please let me know. I’d be happy to learn more from you!

Thanks again for watching!