How do you hear the vocals outside while artist record in booth? Busses, Aux sends?

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BLP

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(I am using a computer and a firebox to record. AA3 as program.)


If I have a artist in the recording booth and it's soundproofed but I want to hear what they hear in the headphones while they are recording live, like instrumental and vocals, do I use a bus to simultaneously play what's going on in the booth outside with my speakers? If so I still don't fully understand how you would do that.



Because I constantly have to switch back and forth with the program to hear inside the booth and outside where I mix.


Also, after I'm done with recording and start to mix I put my effects on individual channels. Alot of the channels use the same simple effects I like to start out with but towards the end this is eating up my processer.

Does using busses allow me to send multiple channels into one bus and add an effect on this bus which will inturn save me processing power and time by applying this effect I put on the bus to all the channels routed to the buss??

I read a thread asking when to use busses and when to use aux sends and it sent me into learning mode because I realized I had no idea what either one did.
 
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Without knowing what program you are using, what hardware you are using or how you really work, it's kind of hard to answer the questions.

A lot of times, people get small mixers (they are under $100) to control the volume of the control room and allow you to make headphone mixes without plugging and unplugging the studio monitors or routing the daws output to different physical outputs.

Another way to do it is to use the main output as the master and set up an aux send to a different set of outputs that feed the headphones. That way, they can both be on at the same time and are hearing the same thing.

Busses are things that you can route groups of channels to. It's kind of a generic term. There are output busses, aux busses, effects busses, group busses, etc... You route the ouput of the channels to them.

Aux sends are sends from a channel that are controlled independently from the channel fader. You normally use them for a parallel process like delay, reverb, etc...

For effects, you would use a buss (some programs have effects busses specifically for this) and insert the effect (like a reverb) on that buss. You would use the aux send of the channels that you want going to the reverb to send those signals to the reverb. Any time you do that, you need to set the effect to 100%wet. This is because the dry signal will still be coming from the channels. This way, you have one reverb that all the drums are being sent to instead of each drum having its own reverb.
 
Farview said:
Without knowing what program you are using, what hardware you are using or how you really work, it's kind of hard to answer the questions.

routing the daws output to different physical outputs.
Click to expand...


I use a Firebox as an audio interface. I use Adobe Audition 3 for the program.

And yes, I have to route the daws output from headphones to speakers all the time. the headphones are in the booth so this makes it difficult to live monitor what's going on because it's almost completely silent in there.


Thanks for the reply I will try what you said out.
 
Ethan Winer said:
Here's how I do it:

Using a Mixer with a DAW

Then I simply plug my headphones into the same mixer master output the singer is hearing.

--Ethan
Click to expand...

I have headphones in the booth and outside I have speakers. I was trying to get them both to be played at same time so the artist inside the booth can hear what he's doing (which is already what's happening) and for me to as well.
 
BLP said:
I have headphones in the booth and outside I have speakers. I was trying to get them both to be played at same time so the artist inside the booth can hear what he's doing (which is already what's happening) and for me to as well.
Click to expand...
What Ethan is describing is exactly what I was talking about with the cheap mixer. He goes in to much more detail. This is really the prefered way to do it because it gives you much more control over just about everything.
 
^^^ Exactly. Even if the booth singer has phones and the recording engineer has speakers, the setup is the same.

--Ethan
 
In this last while I've thrown away the headphones and monitor through speakers that sound good, and let it bleed right into the mic.

People might be surprised at how well it works. The whole concept of using headphones (and of using a vocal booth) is in the past for me. It's not needed and is very, very unnatural. Why do we play music for years and then go into the studio and cover up our ears? That's pretty bonkers when you think of it.

You're playing music and you're covering up your ears. That doesn't strike you as just a bit odd? :confused:

I think it is odd, and it's wrong, and everybody copies what everybody else does, so people think it's normal and the thing to do.
 
dintymoore said:
In this last while I've thrown away the headphones and monitor through speakers that sound good, and let it bleed right into the mic.

People might be surprised at how well it works. The whole concept of using headphones (and of using a vocal booth) is in the past for me. It's not needed and is very, very unnatural. Why do we play music for years and then go into the studio and cover up our ears? That's pretty bonkers when you think of it.

You're playing music and you're covering up your ears. That doesn't strike you as just a bit odd? :confused:

I think it is odd, and it's wrong, and everybody copies what everybody else does, so people think it's normal and the thing to do.
Click to expand...

? :confused: :drunk: :cool:
 
dintymoore said:
In this last while I've thrown away the headphones and monitor through speakers that sound good, and let it bleed right into the mic.

People might be surprised at how well it works. The whole concept of using headphones (and of using a vocal booth) is in the past for me. It's not needed and is very, very unnatural. Why do we play music for years and then go into the studio and cover up our ears? That's pretty bonkers when you think of it.

You're playing music and you're covering up your ears. That doesn't strike you as just a bit odd? :confused:

I think it is odd, and it's wrong, and everybody copies what everybody else does, so people think it's normal and the thing to do.
Click to expand...


I hate doing vocal takes with headphones. I find it much easier to sing when I can hear my voice in the room's space, and often end up with the cans around my neck.

I've often thought of just using the monitors, but I worry about feedback. Do you keep the level fairly low, or shield the mic...?
 
Paulie Jay said:
I hate doing vocal takes with headphones. I find it much easier to sing when I can hear my voice in the room's space, and often end up with the cans around my neck.

I've often thought of just using the monitors, but I worry about feedback. Do you keep the level fairly low, or shield the mic...?
Click to expand...
If you use monitors, don't send the mic you are singing into back to the monitors. You should be able to hear yourself just fine as long as you adjust the volume of the monitors to match how your singing.
 
dintymoore said:
Why do we play music for years and then go into the studio and cover up our ears?
Click to expand...

I'd never track anything without headphones, and I've never seen it done anywhere. It it works for you, cool, no prob. I'm all for ppl doing thing their own way, not doing stuff just cuz everyone else does, etc.

But for me, several reasons:

I track the dry parts, but I monitor them with comp/fx/eq/etc - with monitors I imagine you'd end up with feedback, the delay would get picked up in the mic and re-delay'ed somewhat, etc..

A clean signal with less bleed is easier to work with, especially if you're gonna copy/paste and move stuff around. Which I do a lot of, so then the backing music wouldn't match 100%, so that wouldn't work.

I actually LIKE not hearing my dry voice in the mix, I prefer hearing it completely thru the headphones. You know how your voice sounds different to yourself when you play it back? I like the way my voice sounds played back better than how I hear it in my head while I'm singing. It doesn't sound like 'me' as I know it, it helps me feel less self conscious.
 
actually I'm going to read the manual on this section bout sends and busses and learn on my own.....
 
BLP said:
I read a thread asking when to use busses and when to use aux sends and it sent me into learning mode because I realized I had no idea what either one did.
Click to expand...

I use aux sends on a 24-channel analog mixing console to generate performer monitor mixes and a control room mix.

The Firebox has a "zero-latency DSP mixer" that is meant to generate a monitor mix. What it puts out to the headphones can be different from what is on the main outs, which presumably feed your control room.
 
Paulie Jay said:
I hate doing vocal takes with headphones. I find it much easier to sing when I can hear my voice in the room's space, and often end up with the cans around my neck.

I've often thought of just using the monitors, but I worry about feedback. Do you keep the level fairly low, or shield the mic...?
Click to expand...

I've never had feedback. I use a U87 and when I lay down vocals I switch on a single homemade speaker that has a 4" speaker and no tweeter in it. I run the volume pretty low but not real soft. The speaker is a few feet higher than my head and the mic. It leaks into the vocal mic but here's the thing: it's the same song so it doesn't matter. :) You'd never notice it in the final mix.

I've recorded other people and they love it. It's very comfortable and it's obvious that it's more normal to listen to an acoustic guitar you're playing without something covering your ears. Seems pretty basic, like a portrait artist shouldn't wear sunglasses while painting.
 
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