Headphone mix on QU16

[Aaronious]

Hi,
I know you shouldn’t mix with headphones live but I’m trying to have a rough idea about the mix every now and then without the crowd screaming over the music. However, the sound in the headphones mix sounds crap compared to the speakers.Reverbs sounded muddy, lack of bottom end and instruments don’t sit nicely together. I’m just wondering if the headphones are effected by the LR EQ compensating for the room and hence there’s no room effects in headphones, the EQ made it sounded crap. If so what can I do to overcome this problem as there’s no matrix on QU16 to route the headphones to and I don’t want to PALF all channels as it will make it sound even worse.
Thanks

[Ethix]

Yes the headphones will be affected by the L R EQ. The headphone amps on most live desks are not the best to be honest. Which headphones are you using.

[Mike C]

If you have an open mix you could set that mix to post fade and post all, set all the channel levels on that mix to the same level, PFL that mix to the headphones.

With the mix set post fade post all it will track what your sending to the house mix.

[Aaronious]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Ethix, I’m using Shure SRH840 which is quite flat and I really like the sound of it.

Mike C, yes the post fade Mix would work but it won’t include FX and compression so it’s the same as pressing PAFL on all 16 channels with EQ as a bonus. I don’t think there’s any other ways except a Matrix which the QU16 is lacking. I thought of routing the Alt out to a mix but that will only give me LR and not individual channels to adjust.

[Ryan]

Just make sure the FX returns are also getting routes to the post fade mix. Individual channels sent to the post fade mix should be after compression. Unless you’re talking about a compressor on LR?

[Dick Rees]

Hi,
I know you shouldn’t mix with headphones live but…

You are correct. There is no “but…”

Use your ‘phones to monitor channel adjustments via PAFL. Unless you’re doing a live,to two recording or broadcast mix, you need to hear the stage wash to mix for the room. That’s just not happening in the cans.

[Aaronious]

Hi Dick Rees, I often get request to do a full recording for the band and doing via 2track out is not good enough as it’s only outputs LR. Even multi-track recording is quite bad as I get distortions with some inputs even though it’s not hearable in the PA. I run the system pretty hot, about 10-12dB on the Master bus for fast tempo songs. I was just hoping to get a decent mix for both worlds if I could EQ the PA close to what I hear on the cans as suggested by Dave Rat. However it seems impossible to do so as each time I EQ the LR, the sound is even more different to the headphones. I’m pretty sure there must be a way to listen on headphones without using PAFL to hear all FX and dynamic processing but also not effected by room EQ. Surely this issue has been brought up years ago but why is it so hard to have a true mix on headphones without influences from GEQ?

[Ryan]

Aaronious, what’s wrong with the post fade mix that has been suggested before? Just route the input channels used and FX returns to the mix. We do it every weekend for recording services — the recording has reverb and is not affected by the processing on the LR output.

[Mike C]

To monitor via a mix you want to not only put that mix in post fade but also select
“post all” doing that will send the channels complete processing to the mix.

As mentioned to bring the FX in you need to bring up the mix your using in the FX returns.
You will want all the channel mix levels set the same so the mix balance will stay the
same on the mix your using for monitoring.

[Aaronious]

Thanks guys, Will the post fade mix include same channel EQ, compression and FX as the Main mix and the only difference would be not having the LR output EQ? I can bring up appropriate levels for FX returns but I think the Mix busses are post EQ but pre compression so the kick and bass would loose a lot of punch in the recordings.

[Mike C]

Be sure to set the mix to “post fade” and then select “post all”.

[Aaronious]

Got it to work. Thanks for all your help.
Just one quick question, if I leave the Mix out EQ flat, then whatever EQ I do on input channels is a true reflection of what I hear on headphones, correct? And if I first EQ the Mains to somewhat similar to my cans, then whatever EQ adjustments during the show, the FOH and headphone mix should sound relatively similar.

[Author]

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