Multi headphone outs in a recording situation more of me and all of that type of thing....

Hi Guys

Ive been wondering in Sonar If I was to say be recording a full band wanting to do live tracks so thats say 4 head phone mixes

Obviously there not all going to want to hear the same amount of each instrument so what would I do in this situation ?

Obviously I would need a headphone amp because the Vs700 only has 2 but would I need another mixing desk and make sends from the VS 700 to that then to the head phone amp?

I have only ever done recording track by track but this has had me wondering how Iwould do it if I needed to.

Also what would I need to buy ?

Thanks guys

Norrie

It all depends on how your latencies can be setup. If you are getting very low latencies through your computer and back out for monitoring purposes, then you can create all those headphone mixes on busses in Sonar and send those busses out to the analog outs on your VS700R eg 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 etc 4 stereo phone mixes at once.

Then you will need a headphone amp distribution system and many of them allow for two inputs at once and some individual headphone amps can have their own stereo inputs feeding them especially.

But this is only good if you can get the lowest possibly latency on your computer so no real audible delays are present. But if the delays are present then you are sort of stuck. This is where another mixer comes into its own and you feed all the mic inputs into it and then from it into your VS700R. The mixer can usually setup latency free monitoring especially if its analog or evan a digital mixer can do it as well.

If you are going to be doing this on a regular basis you really need to setup for it and be able to patch it quickly. eg a second mixing console. Or at least a bunch of audio interfaces that can do it and offer zero latency monitoring. But you can only get another 8 channels working with the VS700R for a max of 16 inputs mostly.

I was getting away with the VS700R and using the direct mixer to setup a lesser number of headphone mixes. At least the direct mixer has zero latency. If the band can survive with a lesser number of headphone mixes and many can, its easier. Its often just a matter of getting the headphone mix right in the first place so most people can hear everything. Take your time here it is well worth it in the long run. Do not rush setting up the headphone mix anytime. It is where many engineers go wrong and it causes much grief once you start tracking and playing later.

Norrie,
 
One of these http://www.samash.com/p/Samson_Sphone%20Four%20Channel%20Headphone%20Amplifier_-49977293 is cheap and loud enough for use while recording. The important feature is separate stereo inputs for each channel. In essense it is 4 little amplifiers in one case. I use this one all the time.
 
In Sonar, set up four aux busses and assign the output of each bus to a separate pair of the VS-700 outputs. Then set up a Send on the Master bus to each of the aux busses and also create a send from any tracks that you want to highlight inthe mixes.
 
For instance, if the vocal headphone bus is Aux1, put a send to that bus on the vocals track. That way you can boost the vocals on just the vocal headphone bus by playing with the send levels. Repeat as necessary.
 
Finally, plug the 1/4" unbalanced output pairs from the VS-700 into the 1/4" stereo inputs on the headphone amp. You'll need a Y connector for each pair.

Norrie, I've got one of these which works well for distributing headphone signals around. Setting up individual mixes is beyond it's capabilities, but it's been rock solid for me for over 10 years, and of course you can rackmount it.
 
Pair it with a desk which has enough sends and you're laughing.


http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?hl=en&q=headphone+amps&cr=countryUK%7CcountryGB&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=17053228159197230990&os=reviews

I would recommend the Aviom A-16 system.

They had one of the coolest booths at NAMM this year. That's a real airplane:

Funny thing is, I watched them setting up that booth Wednesday night, came back again on Thursday, walked past it many times the next two days because it was in a hallway location -- and still had no idea what product they were selling! The airplane was a good attention-getter but did little to drive home the product image. I made a point of taking a photo of the actual product so I'd remember what it was they were really advertising: