effects in the phones

[mam]

Hello all, wondering how you guys route effects to vocalists headphones while tracking or overdubbing. I'm using a Mackie 8-buss & it does not seem to route easily when attempting to do this. I run one of the headphone sends to a headphone amp for distribution. The other send I use in the control room if I want to use phones. I use mix b for control room playback & I use aux 3/4 to the talent, Everything works just fine until someone asks for a bit of verb in their phones & then the patching nightmare begins. Seems it should be somewhat easy to do. Could be I'm in moron mode also. Input, anyone? It will be much appreciated.
Thanks,
mam

 

[The Green Hornet]

Yo Mam:

I'm not familiar with your gear as mentioned; however, I've had several recording units and now use a Yam 2816 SIAB and I "Always" route reverb into the vocalist's cans. BUT, the reverb is NOT recorded. I add reverb when mixing.

But, putting the reverb into the talent's cans makes for a nice euphoric feeling for the singer--"power" or it sounds very professional. And, you can pump reverb to the talent's delight because it's not being recorded.

I'm sure there must be an easy way to do this with your gear.

I use a can patch box that can hook in 4 sets of cans but the can reverb comes from either an outboard box or the 2816.

Green Hornet

 

[mikeh]

Most vocalists like some reverb in the phones to gain an understanding of what the actual tracked part will sound like.
In addition, vocal performance can work to and with the reverb.

So in answer to the question - I always feed the vocalist a reverb (which I believe will be very close to the final reverb sound I plan to use) allowing the vocalist to "adjust technique" accordingly.

 

[littledog]

assign one of your aux sends on the board (say, aux one) to the input of your reverb device. take the output from the device and run it into a spare channel (say channel #24) on your board.

You adjust the amount of reverb per track using the aux send #1 on each board channel. The headphones get their reverb by turning up the aux 3/4 pot on the reverb return channel (#24). The headphone preamp inputs would be connected to the aux 3/4 output jacks on the board.

 

[mam]

Little Dog,

I'd been trying to do something similar to that this afternoon with no luck. I wasn't using a microphone input but I was using a tape playback. Seemed I would get reverb if I used an odd combination of switching at mix b & @ the aux 3/4 post/pre switches, etc. I'll try your suggestion in the am.

Thanks for the response, people!
mam

 

[mam]

Oh yeah I forgot to tell ya, Headphone amp inputs are connected to the 1st headphone send at the board. That way I can send talent a mix from "b", aux 3/4, external, etc. Could that be causing my problem?

Thanks,
mam

 

[mixsit]

If you return the reverb in a pair of spare channels line-in, top flip switch is up, lower flip (by mix-b) is down. Now the verb can go to the stereo bus (or not) if your phones (monitor assign) are there, or dial some of the verb return channels into mix-B if your phones/monitor are there.
I switch the headphone amp between the 'main mix' (1/4") or 'mix-B' outs depending on which works best at the time, keep my phones on the board's phone jack. If the musicians are on mix-b, I can still solo with out interupting them.
Then there's the 'send aux 3/4-5/6 to mix-B' shortcut -don't use that one much.

So many options, so little time...
Wayne

 

[mam]

Thanks for the info Wayne,

I know of the mix-b to L/R but what the heck is this?

"Then there's the 'send aux 3/4-5/6 to mix-B' shortcut -don't use that one much."

mam

 

[mixsit]

Thanks for the info Wayne,

I know of the mix-b to L/R but what the heck is this?
>>That's not the one I mentioned, but another one that sends whatever mix-b is doing to be sent and mixed in with the main buss.>>

"Then there's the 'send aux 3/4-5/6 to mix-B' shortcut -don't use that one much."

mam

Oops,I just noticed you said you use aux 3/4 for the phones, and mix-b for control room monitor.(?) I may not have helped you much. (I'll try to check back in later tonight...

 

[mam]

It's working!

My effects in the headphones problem is no longer. Thanks for the input, guys. Routing the processor to one of the channels seemed to be the easiestway to go about it.

Thanks again,
mam