Creating Individual Mixes While Recording 'full-bands'

[wave]

I'm preparing to have a recording session with 3 people total.

I anticipate them wanting to have individual mixes while we're recording.
They might ask something like...: "can you bring up more of the bass in my mix?".

As of right now I'm not sure how to set up something like that. I am running reason 9.5 with a focusrite scarlet 18i8 2nd gen audio interface. There are 2 stereo headphone outs on the front, as well as 2 mono monitor-outputs on the back that only send 1 side.

I haven't been able to figure it out on my own. Do any of you guys have experience with this?

Thank you.

[Ahornberg]

Maybe use the sends and route them to individual outs of your audio interface.

[QVprod]

You’re only gonna be able to have 2 different headphone mixes with that interface. The monitor outputs are meant for monitors (speakers). For a 3rd headphone mic you’d need to buy a headphone amp with a spdif input. The 18i8 comes with a a software mixer specifically for headphone mixes. Make sure you’ve downloaded it.

[Ahornberg]

I can't speak for the Focusrite Scarlet 18i8 but on my Motu UltraLite mk3 I simply plug a 6.3 headphone jack into an analog mono out and get a mono headphone mix. With this method I can connect up to 8 headphones without the need of headphone amps.

[drloop]

Musicians today are so spoiled.

[Ahornberg]

Musicians today are so spoiled.

True! And don't use my Motu for headphone mixes but for connecting my Eurorack!

[QVprod]

I can't speak for the Focusrite Scarlet 18i8 but on my Motu UltraLite mk3 I simply plug a 6.3 headphone jack into an analog mono out and get a mono headphone mix. With this method I can connect up to 8 headphones without the need of headphone amps.

18i8 only has 2 mono outs so it's a bit less flexible. Wouldn't be able to stream as many separate outputs from Reason as your Motu. Otherwise, yeah mono outputs is another workable solution when stereo isn't possible. A slight pain to manage though as most interfaces don't have volume controls for additional analog outs so you'd have to do it from the master send knobs on Reason's mixer.

[Ahornberg]

I can't speak for the Focusrite Scarlet 18i8 but on my Motu UltraLite mk3 I simply plug a 6.3 headphone jack into an analog mono out and get a mono headphone mix. With this method I can connect up to 8 headphones without the need of headphone amps.

18i8 only has 2 mono outs so it's a bit less flexible. Wouldn't be able to stream as many separate outputs from Reason as your Motu. Otherwise, yeah mono outputs is another workable solution when stereo isn't possible. A slight pain to manage though as most interfaces don't have volume controls for additional analog outs so you'd have to do it from the master send knobs on Reason's mixer.

So 18i8 doesn't mean 18 mono inputs and 8 mono outputs?

[selig]

18i8 only has 2 mono outs so it's a bit less flexible. Wouldn't be able to stream as many separate outputs from Reason as your Motu. Otherwise, yeah mono outputs is another workable solution when stereo isn't possible. A slight pain to manage though as most interfaces don't have volume controls for additional analog outs so you'd have to do it from the master send knobs on Reason's mixer.

So 18i8 doesn't mean 18 mono inputs and 8 mono outputs?

No, it actually means 18 possible inputs total, with 8 of them being analog inputs. The other 10 come from a light pipe input (8 inputs) and a SPDIF input (2 inputs).


Sent from some crappy device using Tapatalk

[Ahornberg]

So 18i8 doesn't mean 18 mono inputs and 8 mono outputs?

No, it actually means 18 possible inputs total, with 8 of them being analog inputs. The other 10 come from a light pipe input (8 inputs) and a SPDIF input (2 inputs).


Sent from some crappy device using Tapatalk

So 18i8 only refers to the inputs ... thanks for clearing this.

[jimmyklane]

Musicians today are so spoiled.

True! And don't use my Motu for headphone mixes but for connecting my Eurorack!

The MOTU with its DC-coupled outputs is really excellent for sending CV out to synths. It can fire off audio pulses to trigger arpeggiators, send perfect 1V/octave CV, and generally create great FM pitch and filter modulations for those synths that have solid CV interfaces (thinking of my Moogs here). It’s one of the reasons I went with MOTU as my input interfaces to begin with, using the Lynx only as the ASIO drivers for mixdown with my console.

Back on topic, most audio interfaces are current driven and can therefore drive low impedance headphones with perhaps only a small drop in output level. Try utilizing the unused outputs as individual headphone mixes. You don’t need stereo, mono mixes work great.

[cognitive]

This solution may work. It is untested, but I chained together a simple three-person recording/mixing template that retains the master output.

ThreePersonHeadphoneMix.jpg (500.23 KiB) Viewed 1525 times

The wiring is a little complex, but basically I am taking the last insert fx of each performer's channel (in this case, a single Pulverizer per channel), splitting it with a spider, sending it BACK to the insert fx return of the channel and sending the rest of the splits to three line mixers, which are then each sent to a unique audio output. Doing this for each performer's track, gives you an individual line mixer for each performer.

Again, this is untested, so apologies if I have made an error in setting this up.

[wave]

This solution may work. It is untested, but I chained together a simple three-person recording/mixing template that retains the master output.

ThreePersonHeadphoneMix.jpg

The wiring is a little complex, but basically I am taking the last insert fx of each performer's channel (in this case, a single Pulverizer per channel), splitting it with a spider, sending it BACK to the insert fx return of the channel and sending the rest of the splits to three line mixers, which are then each sent to a unique audio output. Doing this for each performer's track, gives you an individual line mixer for each performer.

Again, this is untested, so apologies if I have made an error in setting this up.

Great work sir, I'm going to run this set up later and see what I get.

Thank you