Getting the most out of my behringer 8 channel mixer…

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Gunther

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Getting the most out of my behringer 8 channel mixer…

I am the proud owner of a behringer MX 802a eurorack mixer. This baby has got 4 mono channels with mic pres and 2 stereo channels without pres (so 6 faders total). I know your all drooling over this high-class piece of gear, right?

So I wanted to record only the vocals while listening to the whole mix on my headphones. Unfortunately the behri does not have a monitor channel, or direct outs so I had to futz around and be creative.

This is what I did:

TO the sound card: I used the ‘tape out’ line to go from the mixer to the soundcard. (I wonder if this gives comparable sound quality to the main outs)

TO the monitors: I use the main out.

TO the monitors when recording: I use the first AUX send. This works because for the AUX 1 on this mixer the signal on any channel gets sent to the send regardless of the level at the main fader for the channel.
So the main fader controls the level of sound going to the recording device (my PC) and the AUX1 knob controls the level of sound at the monitors (or headphones)
So I can turn the main fader for the mike up, so I record only the vocals and then turn the AUX1 level of the vocals plus the keyboards and whatever else I want to listen too while I record.


So I am posting this for 2 reasons. One, some people might not know of doing this, and I just figured it out and think its pretty cool.
Two, some of the more experienced people might know of a better way want to tell me about it :)
 
You've got the right idea! You might want to try this though:
Instead of going from the tape outs of your mixer, to the input of your soundcard, why not try hooking up the Aux outs to the input of the sound card? You can hook up aux 1 to the left, aux 2 to the right.
Why?
Because then you can listen to a stereo mix on your monitors without rewiring anything, as well as instantly route any signal on the board back into the computer for recording. Just be careful doing this, because depending on how your computer is set, you might accidentally create a feedback loop in your system. Check that the sound card input isn't routed (in the computer) back to the soundcard output.

In my system this is easy, my Delta is set to default that way.

"Unfortunately the behri does not have a monitor channel, or direct outs so I had to futz around and be creative. "

What do you call the aux outs? To me those are monitor outs, just not "Control Room" monitor outs.:D
 
One problem with that, AUX1 is a pre fader AUX, AUX2 is a post :(

Also, AUX 2 I am actually using as an effects send, to my reverb unit.

The PC is on the stereo chan 7/8 and the keys are both chan 2,3 and chan 5/6. So when 'mixing down' I send the stuff from protools back into the Behri on chan 7/8, mix that with the keys, who are being played by midi from protools, add reverb to all channels from the lexicon on AUX2. From there it goes back to protools via the tape out to the PC in, and gets recorded as the final stereo mix.

I dont think its possible to monitor the sound in stereo with the Behri and still be able do all that I am doing with it. Would be nice to have a little reverb when im laying down the vocals too...

How much does a decent mixer with direct outs, a stereo monitor chan and EQs that are useable cost? I doubt I would need more than 12 channels...
 
Actually, I figured out how to get reverb in the 'monitor' AUX1 chan of my behri.

Instead of sending the reverb back into the AUX2 return, send it into a spare channel (ill use the mono output of my Lexicon, since I cant monitor the behri in stereo.) Then just add that channel to the monitor mix by turning up the AUX1 level.
 
Gunther said:
One problem with that, AUX1 is a pre fader AUX, AUX2 is a post :(
Click to expand...

Hey Gunther!

I also am a MX 802a user. Everyone else can just be green with envy!

If you look in the manual, they describe a procedure for making AUX2 prefader on the mic-pre channels. It's a very simple mod that lets you pipe out signals from the 4 mic-pres. I just did the mod on channel 4 because that was all I needed to achieve 4 seperate outs.

Ch. 1-> left out
Ch. 2-> right out
Ch. 3-> AUX 1
Ch. 4-> AUX 2

Rock on!
Pat
 
Then I suppose I can go from the aux 1 and 2 sends to the stereo input on my reverb, then from there to the monitors.


What would be interesting is a direct out mod on one or 2 of the mic channels. Would probably require some serious work inside the little mixer, but it would be cool, since I can do everything I am trying to do without needing to rewire everything when switching from record mode to mix mode.

Thanks for the tip.
 
Gunther -

This is how I used to hook up my 602 when I had it:

Main out -> Computer's line in
Comp. line out -> Tape In
Control Room -> Monitors

Now press <Tape to Control Room> and make sure <Tape to Main Mix> is depressed.

Then you have control over your monitors with the phones knob.


Oren
 
I also have a 802a. It's not my main recording mixer (I use an Alesis Studio32 for that) but it sits in my upstairs computer room, where I do editing, game playing, & stuff.

I've used a couple of different wiring configurations, but here's what I finally ended up with:

Main Outs - Go to my computer with an Audiophile 2496
Control Room outs - Go to my monitor amp

The input channels are occupied by:

Channel 1 & 2 are a feed from a Stereo receiver which pipes in FM radio / Cable Music / CD Music / Cassette Tape / VCR sound

Channels 3 & 4 is playback from the Audiophile. The Audiophile has a nice little software mixer aplet which makes it easy to route stuff, and thus avoid a feedback loop.

Channel 5/6 is an audio feed from an ATI All-In-Wonder card in the computer, which I use for video capture, and also to watch cable TV & videos on the computer monitor (which is what I need the audio feed for)

If I had an effects box in this area (which I don't) I would use the Auxilarys for that.
 
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