playback of soundcard in mix
Hi,
I just got myself a yamaha mg10/2 mixer to scourge the cable swapping in my bedroom studio, i have it plugged into my line-in / line-out roland sound interface. However im getting the audio playback of the roland running back into the roland. How do i set this up so that what comes out of the sound card only goes into the monitors, not back into the soundcard.
Thanks…
Desperate.
Don’t know the 10/2, but you need to take the output from the roland either direct to the monitors or through a bus on the mixer that doesn’t connect to the main output. You may be able to do this by connecting the roland output to channel input on the mixer and then zeroing the main faders and just having the signal routed to monitor or aux. i.e. connect the monitors to the monitor or aux outputs on the mixer and then use the knobs to send the signal to monitor or aux on the channel strip with the main fader off. (poss mute button?) This way the signal will never be presented to the mixers main output which I presume you have connected to the input of the roland. You will be able to monitor any other inputs you have connected just by winding up the relevant aux/monitor send knob.
EDIT. I’ve just had a quick look at the 10/2 manual, and you only have a single pre-fader aux bus which means if you plug the monitor into aux 1 it will only be mono. If you want to monitor in stereo you will have to connect the roland outputs direct to the monitors, not thru’ the 10/2. If you want to monitor both the output of the roland and the signal going thru’ the 10/2 from other inputs at the same time, you will need a second little mixer just to combine the output from the roland and the aux outputs of the 10/2. In fact this is exactly what I do - I use a little berry UB802 just on the monitors. There’s no other way of taking a stereo output from the roland, thru the 10/2 and back out again without at least one of the channels being presented at the main 10/2 outputs. /EDIT
Maaszy
There’s one other way…
I take it you only input to two channels to your soundcard.
This is the way I am doing it at my house :
1: This lets you monitor live and foldback
Make up two custom insert leads.
These are made as following :
One TRS jack (stereo) on one side. Mono on other
Connect the sleeve of both to the shield of your audio cable.
Conect the signal from the audio cable to the tip on the mono jack and TO BOTH THE TIP AND THE RING on the TRS jack. This shorts the tip (send) and ring (return) in your mixer’s insert, so that the signal comes out the mono jack, but it also gets relayed through the rest of the mixer. This cable will be used for NOTHING other than hijacking a signal from a insert…
Disconnect the stereo output from the mixer to the soundcard, and now plug two of these cables into the inserts of your mixer’s 1st two channels (TRS side into instert). Then plug the mono ends into the input of your soundcard.
What you’ve done now is intercept the signal just after the pre-amp (and gain knob) from your mixer and from there it goes into your soundcard. It is still available for mixing to the regular headphones/speakers, as the signal goes down the channel strips as usual.
Now you plug the regular output from the soundcard (should still be there) into channel 3 and 4 on the mixer, and there you go. For monitoring the inputs, you could then have channel 1 and 2’s fader down and let the soundcard reproduce what it hears onto channel 3 and 4, or you can tell the soundcard to only play what it generates and not echo what it hears, and then you’d have to turn the faders of channel 1 and 2 up two hear what’s going in.
You have the following scenario :
Input 1 and 2 goes into the mixer, past the gain button and the preamp, straight into the soundcard, and then further down the mixer strip. You can mix it as normal into the earphones/ monitor.
Now, if you want to multitrack record, the signal that the soundcard generates gets send to channel 3 and 4. You can then mix channels 1 - 4 then to match each other for monitoring as you see fit, without changing what the PC records.
Please ask again if any of this doesn’t make sense…
Wihan
yep, agree with that. Only limitation is the only channels you can send to soundcard are 1&2
Yeah - but the stereo mixer he’s got can only send a stereo mix anyway.
If you want to mix more instruments going in, and monitor them then obviously there’s the limitation to the ‘insert’ method.
Maybe (instead of an extra mixer) get a dedicated headphone amp on the output of the soundcard ? Some of those even have a line out for further signal flow.
But then again, the little mixers are so cheap nowadays it might be the best option in his scenario. It certainly is more intuative to get going and operate, and then you’ll have another mixer to boot.
I’ve got a Spirit Folio Lite with 4 inserts.
If I use the two preamps that my Delta1010LT has, then I’ve got 6 inputs I can use. There’s a trick then with the AUX1 that will let me get 7 channels into the card.
But then again my little mixer’s got a button that can route the ‘Two Track return’ straight to headphones without going into the signal as well. Although I never use it becuase the SBLive!'s output goes into the mixer as well and the soundcard mix output goes straight into the monitors.
TSY, you’ve now got options !
I think the easiest would be (if you want to upgrade your mixer) to get a mixer that can separate the ‘two track return’ from the mix and send it only to the headphones.
If you have a requirement for more than two in, go with Maaszy’s suggestion (either another mixer or headphone amp) , if you’re happy with only two (and you feel (slighty) adventurous, go with the insert method.
If you have money to spend, upgrade the mixer
Cheers !
Wihan
Thanks for your replies,
I didn’t do a lot of research before i bought the mixer, i realise now that its not a great one for multi tracking, probably should have went with a soundcraft compact mixer. However one makes do with what they have, so im not bothering to monitor from the mixer, ill just go straight from the roland and throw in a nice headphone amp. The main reason i bought it was so i didn’t have to keep plugging and unplugging all my instruments to the soundcard. It does that job, but next time ill do the research and spend the extra cash.
Thanks again…