Two Headphones

mfa

New member
I have the Scarlet 2i2 interface with one 1/4" for headphones.
That's fine for when I record alone, but suppose I want to simply play engineer while somebody else is playing or singing? How do I achieve this with only one headphone jack?
 
For 29 years I've just used a headphone splitter that has 8 inputs. It has always worked fine. I still use it whenever more than one of us is recording at a time. I don't think they make the particular one I have anymore, it's that ancient !
 
Seriously, get a headphone amp. The Behringer things work fine and are stunningly cheap. Maybe not "audiophile" quality for your $1k set of cans, but for tracking headphones or just to drive some very different types for validating how your mix translates on different ones, they are fine.
 
Seriously, get a headphone amp. The Behringer things work fine and are stunningly cheap. Maybe not "audiophile" quality for your $1k set of cans, but for tracking headphones or just to drive some very different types for validating how your mix translates on different ones, they are fine.

+1, Mine is electrically silent and has more than enough volume to play far louder than people should, even for me, clinically mutton. Not "Audiphile' ? Not far off, it uses the exact same amp IC as a very expensive 'stooodio' headphone amplifier.

Dave.
 
Or you can step up and get the 18i20, which has five separate mixes available. But how do you get them out to the five sets of headphones (or one or two or three or four)? You buy used, cheap little mixers made by, say, Behringer. Each little mixer will cost maybe 60 bucks or so. Then you need cabling to hook everything up. Of course the 18i20 is around 500 or so (do NOT buy a used one), but you can expand from one mixer and one extra set of headphones to two, then three, then four . . . . That's one of the set ups I have at the remote recording space. Since I'm the "engineer" I control the individual mixes, but the person receiving the mix can tell me to turn up the guitar, or turn down the bass, or whatever, and you simply go to his or her mix and do that. The performer controls their own overall volume, and they can add a little bass or treble if they're feeling frisky. This is a relatively cheap way to get customized mixes to performers. Headphones? ATH-50's, around 120 or so apiece. I was able to build up all of these separate parts to where I now have the ability to get custom mixes out to performers. Sure those little mixers' headphone outs aren't the greatest, but it's for monitoring. Total cost, including the cables? Around two grand or so, but that amount is spread out over time after the initial 500 for the 18i20 and 250 for two sets of phones 60 for one cheapie mixer, and 80 or so for cables. I tried the headphone amp route, but the limitations can be off-putting, to say the least. If you're going to be doing this in any kind of serious way, you're going to wind up, eventually, needing phones and their mixes for more than two people. One of the great features of the Focusrite line is that custom mix app. Then there's the need, too, for a patchbay down the line . . . .
 
Or you can step up and get the 18i20, which has five separate mixes available. But how do you get them out to the five sets of headphones (or one or two or three or four)? You buy used, cheap little mixers made by, say, Behringer. Each little mixer will cost maybe 60 bucks or so. Then you need cabling to hook everything up. Of course the 18i20 is around 500 or so (do NOT buy a used one), but you can expand from one mixer and one extra set of headphones to two, then three, then four . . . . That's one of the set ups I have at the remote recording space. Since I'm the "engineer" I control the individual mixes, but the person receiving the mix can tell me to turn up the guitar, or turn down the bass, or whatever, and you simply go to his or her mix and do that. The performer controls their own overall volume, and they can add a little bass or treble if they're feeling frisky. This is a relatively cheap way to get customized mixes to performers. Headphones? ATH-50's, around 120 or so apiece. I was able to build up all of these separate parts to where I now have the ability to get custom mixes out to performers. Sure those little mixers' headphone outs aren't the greatest, but it's for monitoring. Total cost, including the cables? Around two grand or so, but that amount is spread out over time after the initial 500 for the 18i20 and 250 for two sets of phones 60 for one cheapie mixer, and 80 or so for cables. I tried the headphone amp route, but the limitations can be off-putting, to say the least. If you're going to be doing this in any kind of serious way, you're going to wind up, eventually, needing phones and their mixes for more than two people. One of the great features of the Focusrite line is that custom mix app. Then there's the need, too, for a patchbay down the line . . . .

Good Plan Tim but the HA400* is even cheaper at $25 (Sweets). Sure, you are "wasting" 3 HP feeds but the HA400 beats the phones amps in cheap mixers by a long way.

*I made a battery box, 8X AAs and even with 12 volts there was plenty of welly. I was worried you see that the included 15V PSU might be noisy? It is not but having battery power can be handy to save yet another rat and its associated cabling.

Dave.
 
I don't see how the HA 400's headphone amp could be much better than the small Berhinger mixer's amp. They're probably the same circuits! But the price is unbeatable! Anyway, the mixer can also send signals. There's also the tactility and solidness of a small mixer. Also, I picked up a cheap old MX 2004, which has 8 channels and importantly, AUX sends that can be modded to be pre-fader, which I did. This gives you more flexibility. The long and short of it is is that I practically became a hoarder of old Behringers, picked up real cheap on Ebay. It seems the bigger the mixer, the more repairs you have to do to it right out of the gate (bad caps are common), but those smaller ones, like the UB 502, they just work. A small step up, and you can pick up the Xenyx 802, which has phantom power. The Berhinger mixers were my first introduction to what might be called real recording and mixing, and Berhinger, much maligned, has helped millions of struggling, broke musicians get a foot into the room.
 
That just seems like a lot to go through (and spend) to have one or two other people be able to hear a headphone feed.
 
I have the Scarlet 2i2 interface with one 1/4" for headphones.
That's fine for when I record alone, but suppose I want to simply play engineer while somebody else is playing or singing? How do I achieve this with only one headphone jack?
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You strike me as just wanting a simple solution that is cheap and effective, not complex and expensive. If that's the case, just look for one of these type headphone splitters. Like I said, I've been using this since 1992 and tons of different singers and instrumentalists of a huge variety of experience and ability have just gone with it and done the business.
If you need something more complex, I'm not yer man !
 
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A simple cheap headphone splitter can work just fine. Under a dollar LINK Shipping likely $5.

I agree, for the cost and needs, the HA400 is likely better. I had the HA6000 for a long time. Super loud, but super noisy. Then bought a used Samson Sphone or something like that, until it melted. It sounded better but not when it fried two months later...

Now I use a Presonus HP60. Way better quality in sound and input options. Has talkback ability, two inputs plus individual inputs for each channel. Sometimes you don't realize how poor the quality is until you use better...
 
" I don't see how the HA 400's headphone amp could be much better than the small Berhinger mixer's amp. They're probably the same circuit!"
Probably not Tim! Budget mixers tend to use an op amp such as the TL072 with current boosting transistors in a pretty crude 'class B' configuration or paralled op amps such as two NE5532 sections. Neither circuit is best bet for delivery the current needed into todays headphones which are mainly 32 Ohm types.

The HA400 uses, as I said, the same output chip as a very expensive studio grade cans amp (SPL?) the number of which escapes this old meds ridden brain atmo but..."Oil be bek"!

Then again, you can often find budget mixers very cheaply at charity and pawn shops. Diff' strokes.

Reet monkey! The headphone amp IC is the high current JRC4580 and is used in the very well considered DACS Clarity Headlite 3 D/A and headphone amplifier. Now of course, there is more to making a good product than using a top quality component...Ain't a bad start tho'but!

Dave.
 
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Yes, the "Y-adapter" would probably work; but I bought a commercial unit (I don't know the brand name), and it has one input which I take from the line output of my Tascam DP24. It provides four 1/4-inch stereo headphone jacks with a separate volume control for each, and it runs off an AC "wallwart" adapter. Offhand, I don't know the output voltage of that adapter, so I don't know whether it would be compatible with those daisy-chain setups that folk use on guitar pedals.

The beauty of this setup is that I can adjust the volume of each headset to satisfy each listener. My recording studio is so small that I could allow a singer or player standing close to me to adjust the volume on his headset once he saw which of the four jacks feeds his headset. I have my unit attached to my desk with Velcro so that it is easy for me to reach and adjust. Since I am the only performer most of the time, I am using one headset for me, and I am also taking sound from output 4 to feed my "home-brew" audible level meter. To do that, I have turned the level up all the way and left it there to sample audio coming out of the line output from the deck. This "meter" uses four outputs from a logarithmic bargraph driver to supply signals to an audio oscillator whose pitch rises with the audio level coming from the headphone amp. I have heard that there are some VU meters made for blind recordists, but I understand that they are quite expensive, though they might be professional units. The one I made cost under $50 and works well enough for me; but I wanted it to have a signal isolated from the signal I would have on my headphones or that of another performer. That isolation both for my meter and for individual headphone adjustment is why I went for the commercial four-output headphone amplifier. It has worked nicely for me, and I have had it for over two years. Its noise level is low enough for use in a home recording studio.
 
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