Mixer headphone levels problem

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pitseapaul

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Hope someone can help, i am using an Allen & Heath mixer XB14-2 to record a radio show at home but having problems with the audio levels in my headphones output. After setting my voice levels and music levels to the same level on the mixer i find i am having to turn up the volume of my headphones in order to clearly hear my voice against the music.....obviously when i turn up the volume to hear my voice clearly the music is way too loud and it is very uncomfortable to record. When playing back my recordings after a session the levels of my voice and music sounds perfect through my speakers so i don't understand why monitoring through headphones is causing me so much trouble with levels. I've tried using different headphones including Beyerdynamic DT150's and Sennheiser HD201's but all give a weak output of my voice against music. Any ideas?
 
Hi,
If you're talking over music I'm not surprised you're having difficulties.
Without 'tricks' the only really way to do it is to turn the music down or carve a hole in it and, I guess, you don't want to do either.


What they do on radio is use a compressor on the music but instead of the conventional setup, they use the voice as a trigger.
So...When the voice exceeds the preset threshold, the music gets compressed.

Do you have a compressor with a 'key input' or 'sidechain input'.
Regardless of whether or not those terms are technically correct (here we go?).....


Are you running your setup through software or are you doing all the mixing on hardware?
Assuming you don't have a hardware compressor with key/sidechain, you'll need to get your voice and the music into some software on separate tracks.
 
When you are monitoring your live speaking hearing your voice through bone conduction is interfering with hearing your voice through the headphones. To overcome this you turn your headphones up to drown out the bone conduction but then the music is loud.

You should be able to set up a headphone mix that's different from the record mix by using the Aux send. Perhaps all you need to do is use the Aux send to add some of your voice to your headphone mix by selecting Aux on the headphone selection in addition to whatever you usually use (Aud?).
 
Why is the voice and the music the same level? The level of the music should come down when you are talking.

Trying to fix a mix problem with the headphones volume simply won't work. If you can't hear the voice over the music, neither can anyone else.
 
Hi Steenamaroo thanks for the reply. A Compressor does sound like the way to go then. I'm guessing i would somehow have to route the output of the mixer into a compressor and then monitor the output of the compressor via headphones?
The setup i'm using is computer playout software into the mixer via a couple of channels.
Cheers!
 
Thanks for the reply bouldersoundguy. The headphone mix sounds like it could be the perfect solution for me. Being a newbie to all this i didn't know i could do that but yes looking at my mixer it does have all the aux send buttons etc to do this so i will have a play around and see if i can get that to work. Controlling individual levels in the headphones like this would be perfect for me so many thanks for the suggestion. :-)
 
Hi Farview thanks for the reply. The mixer will be used in 'DJ mode' so any talking over music and i will be using the faders to dip the audio while i chat just like any bog standard radio sation. :-)
 
pitseapaul said:
Hi Farview thanks for the reply. The mixer will be used in 'DJ mode' so any talking over music and i will be using the faders to dip the audio while i chat just like any bog standard radio sation. :-)
Click to expand...
So, why can't you hear yourself over the music? I must have completely missed the point...
 
pitseapaul said:
Hi Steenamaroo thanks for the reply. A Compressor does sound like the way to go then. I'm guessing i would somehow have to route the output of the mixer into a compressor and then monitor the output of the compressor via headphones?
The setup i'm using is computer playout software into the mixer via a couple of channels.
Cheers!
Click to expand...

No I don't think you've got my meaning.
I'm not talking about putting a straight forward compressor on your output.
I'm talking about using a compressor as a tool to duck the music while you're talking.


Just to be clear I've understood correctly...
Music and voice separately are fine at your final output, but both together = no good?

If you can rig a sidechain setup it'd be basically the same as riding the music fader while you talk,
but since you're talking about mixers, it means you'd have to have a hardware comp with a sidechain/key input, the music channel on the mixer would need an insert point for the comp, and the voice channel would need a direct out or separate send.

Probably a lot of stuff you don't have!?
 
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