Tascam 388: Headphone mixes for a full band.

[TheRealRoach]

Hey everyone,

I'm going to be doing my first full band with the 388 starting this weekend and was wondering how you handle headphone mixes for the live floor. I can see two options:

A) I was hoping to run the Aux Sends pre-fader out the Aux Out jack to my headphone amp. But,i f the keyboardist (for example) wants to punch in a few bars then the only way I can think of doing it is to switch all channels to RMX input, and keep the one keyboard track in Mic input, but with this configuration he will not hear his own previously recorded material leading up to the punch.

B) The other option is to use the monitor outs for the headphone mixes, which seems ideal for the live floor given the above scenario, except for the fact that I would prefer if the control room didn't have to share the same mix as the headphones.

Any thoughts?

Mike Rocha

 

[sweetbeats]

Mike,

Great questions.

Let's see here...

You are running up against SOME of the limitations of the 388 mixer.

I think Tascam assumed you'd be tracking alone or with maybe another person which is why they put two headphone jacks on the front...I think this assumes both artists or the artist and engineer would be monitoring off the monitor buss...but of course they built in the function of the AUX buss which defaults to pre fade.

What headphone amp do you have?

One option is to be able to mix in a main source with an aux source on the headphone amp which most headphone amps can do in some way whether it is per channel or globally input and mixable per amp channel. I have a Behringer HA4700 headphone amp which is noisy but gets the job done and has some nice flexibility. If you have that option you can have the keyboardist hear the cue mix with the others but then mix in a single source of the live keyboard picked up off the PGM out jack to which the live keyboard is bussed for the punch in.

Another thought, and I wish I had some more free time at present and that my 388 was up and running because now you've made me curious and I'd like to know the answer, but as long as the keyboard is being input on a channel that is not the same as the track to which the keyboard was first recorded, you may be able to just use the AUX buss...you see in that scenario let's say the keyboard was recorded to track 5 and the keyboard is input on channel 3...well, to monitor the playback you'd be switching channel 5 of the mixer to source RMX (tape) and you'd have the AUX knob turned up on that...that satisfies the need to hear the already tracked material right? And if the keyboard is connected to channel 3 and the AUX knob is turned up the keyboardist and the band should be able to hear the live keyboard source as that channel will be sourced to the LINE input. So both sources (the original tracking of the keyboard AND the live keyboard input) will be available to the AUX buss, and channel 3 with the live keyboard will be grouped to PGM 5. Setup like you would for an overdub and as soon as you hit REC the channel 5 source (which is track 5) will cut because now the track 5 head is recording and won't playback anymore, but that won't effect the channel 3 input of the keyboard which is routed to track 5 AND to the AUX buss.

Like I said I can't try it out and I haven't time to fish through the manual and the Block Diagram right now to confirm this on paper, but test it out on a blank section of tape with any source while monitoring the AUX buss in the monitor section. You'll hear what the band and your keyboardist would hear.

Let me know...so I can once again sleep!!!

 

[TheRealRoach]

What headphone amp do you have?

One option is to be able to mix in a main source with an aux source on the headphone amp which most headphone amps can do in some way whether it is per channel or globally input and mixable per amp channel. I have a Behringer HA4700 headphone amp which is noisy but gets the job done and has some nice flexibility. If you have that option you can have the keyboardist hear the cue mix with the others but then mix in a single source of the live keyboard picked up off the PGM out jack to which the live keyboard is bussed for the punch in.

I do actually use the H4700 as well! What luck. I think what you are proposing would work great, with a couple modifications. Here's what I will set up:
- Track using the 388 Aux Sends for headphone mixes
- If Keyboards need to punch, then I flip all other channels to RMX input, and then patch the tape out of the keyboard channel into the 4700's aux send. Badda bing, badda boom. As soon as I "punch-in" the tape output will go dead, and the added bonus is that he will be able to hear himself leading up to the punch as well. If i'm only punching into one channel then this seems like the best way.

Another thought, and I wish I had some more free time at present and that my 388 was up and running because now you've made me curious and I'd like to know the answer, but as long as the keyboard is being input on a channel that is not the same as the track to which the keyboard was first recorded, you may be able to just use the AUX buss...you see in that scenario let's say the keyboard was recorded to track 5 and the keyboard is input on channel 3...well, to monitor the playback you'd be switching channel 5 of the mixer to source RMX (tape) and you'd have the AUX knob turned up on that...that satisfies the need to hear the already tracked material right? And if the keyboard is connected to channel 3 and the AUX knob is turned up the keyboardist and the band should be able to hear the live keyboard source as that channel will be sourced to the LINE input. So both sources (the original tracking of the keyboard AND the live keyboard input) will be available to the AUX buss, and channel 3 with the live keyboard will be grouped to PGM 5. Setup like you would for an overdub and as soon as you hit REC the channel 5 source (which is track 5) will cut because now the track 5 head is recording and won't playback anymore, but that won't effect the channel 3 input of the keyboard which is routed to track 5 AND to the AUX buss.

This totally makes sense. I will try it out when I get a chance, but I think I'm going to go ahead with the first solution since I'd prefer not to be re-patching mic inputs and changing matrix routing for a punch. At this point it seems a little to prone to causing a mistake and recording over something! The first solution seems pretty fool-proof since it only requires adding a patch for the channel's tape out.

Thanks! I'll keep ya updated.