I've had a UB802 for a long time and am just getting down to trying to record some music, putting down multiple tracks, one at a time, while listening to the previously recorded tracks for artistic blend and timing -- the usual setup for single artist studio recording.
I found a serious flaw in the Begringer Eurorack UB802 mixer design that is making this simple objective difficult. The problem is that there is seemingly no way to feed a previously recorded signal into your headphones along with your new signal so you can hear some kind of mix while you play and record the new track. The console allows you to select either an external source or your current mix that you want to record, but no facility to mix the two together. So for instance, if I record a guitar track then want to record a track of myself singing to it, I can either listen to my guitar track or my voice in the headphones, but not a mix of the two -- at least not an intelligent mix.
There are some workarounds, none perfect that I have found, but it seems an obvious design flaw that you cannot mix the "tape in" signal with the "main out" signal just in your headphones, without adding the "tape in" to your main out signal (you only want the current mix to go out to your new track).
For example, adding a "balance" mixing pot to the headphone section instead of the simplistic "tape to control room" button would allow you to mix the "tape in" with the "main mix" in your headphones instead of choosing one or the other. I suppose you might need a "pan" control also for the main mix into the headphones in case your signal is in only one channel, because it is generally easier to hear your playing in both ears while performing - but that would be useful regardless of whether you are monitoring the "tape in" source or not. A simple "stereo to mono" button for the headphones would also be a way to hear everything the same in both ears, another handy thing that was omitted.
Ok, so what to do about it. Looking at the block diagram, I think I see a couple of ways to get by, not ideal though. One way is to feed your "accompaniment" signal into, say, the right channel of one of the line inputs, and feed your recording mike to the left channel of one of the mic inputs (using pan control to force it "left"). Then feed only the left channel (microphone) of the main mix output to your recording device, recording the mono signal without the accompaniment from the right channel. In your headphones you'll hear the left channel in the left ear, and the right channel (your accompaniment) in your right ear. That's not ideal, I'd rather hear a balanced mix in both ears, but at least you can keep time and roughly adjust your singing volume etc to the accompaniment. You lose the ability to record a stereo mix, but when laying down tracks one-at-a-time, that can be acceptable.
Here's another way that might work with the advantage of hearing a balanced mix in the headphones. It still limits you to recording a mono output and you lose the master volume "main mix" control, but you may be able to do okay with other mixer gain and level controls:
Instead of using the "Main Mix" out to record your track, you will use the "FX Send" output signal to record your new track, and use the Main Mix signal purely for headphone monitoring.
Here is an example setup. While recording, as before, the guitar track from your recorder will be played while a new track is recorded. If the guitar track is a mono signal, it will be fed into one of the mic inputs of the UB802 (say MIC 2) and panned equally onto the left and right channels and the gain turned down to "LINE" level. If your guitar track is stereo, just feed it into a line input and balance it with the BALANCE knob to your liking. Your mic will be fed as before into a mic input, say Mic 1, and panned equally into the left and right channels, setting gain appropriately.
You will then use the FX control of only the mic (singing) input to send the signal to the "FX SEND" output (mono) by choosing some volume that looks good. On the guitar input, turn the FX control all the way down so none of the signal mixes in to the "FX SEND" signal. Now you just have your voice going out the "FX SEND" output.
However, you by panning to both LEFT and RIGHT channels equally, your singing and guitar should both be roughly identical in the Main Mix, which you will be monitoring with your headphones. So now you should hear a reasonable mix of your voice and accompaniment in your headphones, while only your voice will be coming out the "FX SEND" output which you will record to your new track.
This is a lot of hoops to jump through and uses up input channels in a somewhat wasteful way, but for recording one instrument/voice at a time, may work acceptably. Hopefully the signal coming out the FX SEND output will have enough level to drive the line input of typical computer audio cards or a tape recorder.
If anyone finds a better way, please add your ideas. Also, if someone knows of a better inexpensive mixer for this purpose (mixing accompaniment and new material in the headphones with only the new material going to the Main Mix output), please let us know.
-SB
P.S. For those who like looking at schematic/diagrams, the second technique using the FX SEND as the output for the new track is determined by the fact that the FX knob on each input is "post fader", meaning the LEVEL knob on each input controls the volume of that input signal to both the main mix and the FX SEND simulteneously. If the FX knob had been "pre fader", then you probably could have used the FX SEND for your headphones and saved the main mix for your new recorded signal (turning the LEVEL signal down for the guitar track), probably a slightly better arrangement.
I found a serious flaw in the Begringer Eurorack UB802 mixer design that is making this simple objective difficult. The problem is that there is seemingly no way to feed a previously recorded signal into your headphones along with your new signal so you can hear some kind of mix while you play and record the new track. The console allows you to select either an external source or your current mix that you want to record, but no facility to mix the two together. So for instance, if I record a guitar track then want to record a track of myself singing to it, I can either listen to my guitar track or my voice in the headphones, but not a mix of the two -- at least not an intelligent mix.
There are some workarounds, none perfect that I have found, but it seems an obvious design flaw that you cannot mix the "tape in" signal with the "main out" signal just in your headphones, without adding the "tape in" to your main out signal (you only want the current mix to go out to your new track).
For example, adding a "balance" mixing pot to the headphone section instead of the simplistic "tape to control room" button would allow you to mix the "tape in" with the "main mix" in your headphones instead of choosing one or the other. I suppose you might need a "pan" control also for the main mix into the headphones in case your signal is in only one channel, because it is generally easier to hear your playing in both ears while performing - but that would be useful regardless of whether you are monitoring the "tape in" source or not. A simple "stereo to mono" button for the headphones would also be a way to hear everything the same in both ears, another handy thing that was omitted.
Ok, so what to do about it. Looking at the block diagram, I think I see a couple of ways to get by, not ideal though. One way is to feed your "accompaniment" signal into, say, the right channel of one of the line inputs, and feed your recording mike to the left channel of one of the mic inputs (using pan control to force it "left"). Then feed only the left channel (microphone) of the main mix output to your recording device, recording the mono signal without the accompaniment from the right channel. In your headphones you'll hear the left channel in the left ear, and the right channel (your accompaniment) in your right ear. That's not ideal, I'd rather hear a balanced mix in both ears, but at least you can keep time and roughly adjust your singing volume etc to the accompaniment. You lose the ability to record a stereo mix, but when laying down tracks one-at-a-time, that can be acceptable.
Here's another way that might work with the advantage of hearing a balanced mix in the headphones. It still limits you to recording a mono output and you lose the master volume "main mix" control, but you may be able to do okay with other mixer gain and level controls:
Instead of using the "Main Mix" out to record your track, you will use the "FX Send" output signal to record your new track, and use the Main Mix signal purely for headphone monitoring.
Here is an example setup. While recording, as before, the guitar track from your recorder will be played while a new track is recorded. If the guitar track is a mono signal, it will be fed into one of the mic inputs of the UB802 (say MIC 2) and panned equally onto the left and right channels and the gain turned down to "LINE" level. If your guitar track is stereo, just feed it into a line input and balance it with the BALANCE knob to your liking. Your mic will be fed as before into a mic input, say Mic 1, and panned equally into the left and right channels, setting gain appropriately.
You will then use the FX control of only the mic (singing) input to send the signal to the "FX SEND" output (mono) by choosing some volume that looks good. On the guitar input, turn the FX control all the way down so none of the signal mixes in to the "FX SEND" signal. Now you just have your voice going out the "FX SEND" output.
However, you by panning to both LEFT and RIGHT channels equally, your singing and guitar should both be roughly identical in the Main Mix, which you will be monitoring with your headphones. So now you should hear a reasonable mix of your voice and accompaniment in your headphones, while only your voice will be coming out the "FX SEND" output which you will record to your new track.
This is a lot of hoops to jump through and uses up input channels in a somewhat wasteful way, but for recording one instrument/voice at a time, may work acceptably. Hopefully the signal coming out the FX SEND output will have enough level to drive the line input of typical computer audio cards or a tape recorder.
If anyone finds a better way, please add your ideas. Also, if someone knows of a better inexpensive mixer for this purpose (mixing accompaniment and new material in the headphones with only the new material going to the Main Mix output), please let us know.
-SB
P.S. For those who like looking at schematic/diagrams, the second technique using the FX SEND as the output for the new track is determined by the fact that the FX knob on each input is "post fader", meaning the LEVEL knob on each input controls the volume of that input signal to both the main mix and the FX SEND simulteneously. If the FX knob had been "pre fader", then you probably could have used the FX SEND for your headphones and saved the main mix for your new recorded signal (turning the LEVEL signal down for the guitar track), probably a slightly better arrangement.
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