How to mute mixer outputs?

[deafen]

My smallish home studio has a simple problem: the control room and the performance space are one and the same. This means that I need to mute the monitors while tracking, while still sending signal to the headphone amp.

My mixer, an Alesis 12R (just used for preamps and monitoring), has separate outputs for mains and monitors. The main outputs go to a power amp for the main monitors, while the monitor outputs go to the headphone distribution amp.

What I used to do with my old powered EV board was to put the board in standby while tracking, which left the preamps and headphone output live, but muted the mains. The Alesis can't do that, and I can't even just drop the main fader, since the monitor/headphone output is post-master.

It seems like the best solution for my problem is to have some kind of device to mute the main outputs between the mixer and the power amp. I think this would be a pretty simple thing to wire up; one DPST switch for each channel -- or a single 4P*T -- just interrupting the hot and cold lines. (The outputs are balanced, and I'd leave the signal ground connected.) However, when rewiring guitars, I've noticed that if I don't ground the amp-side when interrupting, it hums like crazy. So would I have to ground anything here?

Alternatively, are there any possible solutions that I'm just not thinking of? Any suggestions are welcome!

 

[Cave Dweller]

how's about turning the amp off?
i used to have a similar problem, i just ended up using 2 subgroups as my monitor controls... just assign everything that you want to hear through your monitors to the subgroups you are using, but dont assign the groups to mains. (i dont know your mixer, so i hope it has subgroups)

 

[maskedman72]

if your power amp has gain knobs on it id turn em down or shut it off.

 

[deafen]

No subgroups -- it's a very simple mixer, with very few features. (It's really just a glorified set of preamps, but it's got just enough features to serve as a monitor mixer.)

Turn it off, eh? Hmm...I suppose I could. I guess I should mention at this point that the amp is still in the hypothetical state, i.e. I don't actually have it yet. But it will have a front power switch when it does arrive. For some reason, the idea of fully power-cycling it bothers me. I guess it really shouldn't, since it's got soft-on stuff to keep it from going pop.

Thanks for the insight!

 

[Sennheiser]

It seems like the best solution for my problem is to have some kind of device to mute the main outputs between the mixer and the power amp. I think this would be a pretty simple thing to wire up; one DPST switch for each channel -- or a single 4P*T -- just interrupting the hot and cold lines. (The outputs are balanced, and I'd leave the signal ground connected.) However, when rewiring guitars, I've noticed that if I don't ground the amp-side when interrupting, it hums like crazy. So would I have to ground anything here?

I think that's your best solution in a case like this. When I'm recording an acoustic source I just roll off the amp volume. Something that has to be double checked after listening to a take and tracking again.

 

[Tonio]

Do you have any aux's available? If so route you headphone dist thru that. Does the monitors out have a level control , if so there's your answer.
Good luck
T

 

[Even]

you could always use the channel inserts as the outs. That keeps the signal true and litteral.