monitoring and recording with a mixer

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frooshiantee

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FYI, I'm new to using a mixer while recording. I'm trying to find the best way to monitor everything all at once, while recording. I'm going to start by asking the question, and then you can read on if you don't understand the quesiton.

Is there an input on a mixer that is only for monitoring? It won't output to the main stereo outs what's coming from that input?

I'm using a Behringer Eurorack UB1222FX-Pro. My current setup is a guitar connecting to a few pedals, and inputting to the first channel of my mixer. I have stereo out from the mixer to the sound card on my computer. I have a headset connected to the monitor port on the Mixer I can hear everything inputting to the mixer. All is well with the recording part of that. There is no delay, it sounds great (to me). The problem I'm having is when I want to hear what I've recorded, while listening to what I'm currently recording. So for example, if i'm recording multiple tracks over each other, I want to be able to hear what's being inputted the mixer (my guitar) as well as the track that's playing in my recording software. My current thought was just to connect a cable from my sound card "Out" to the mixer. Obviously that i can hear everything then, but the mixer sends the sound card OUT, through the mixer, right back into the sound card IN, and I'm recording everything the pc speakers would be playing. My second though was to just tell the pc to "listen" to my microphone (which in this case is just the mixer). Unfortunately that doesn't work because there is a very noticeable delay, and I can't really record live.

Is it even possible to do what I'm trying to accomplish? It really only causes an issue when I'm direct connecting the guitar, and not recording with a microphone. This wouldn't be an issue if I would just record with a microphone from a guitar amp. Nonetheless, is there an input on a mixer that is only for monitoring? It won't output to the main stereo outs what's coming from that input?

Thanks in advance.
 
It is possible to record in the way you describe - but will cause you a ton of heartache. You could monitor the return from your computer via the MONITOR of the board or via the AUX but it is not ideal (that way you can route them away from the stereo outs)
Get an interface if you can... even the cheapest 2 channel one would be better than the setup you currently have, you can still use your desk the interface just replaces the soundcard (and you monitor via the interface)
Good luck
 
You should have got a mixer that has USB/Firewire connectivity to do what you wanted.
 
Bruiser says that using an Aux channel for monitoring is "not ideal" but, in fact, that's the perfect way to do it--and the way you'll find it handled in professional studios.

On your mixer, the "Mon" send on each channel is, in effect, a pre fade Aux. Bring your computer output back into the mixer on a couple of spare channels then use the monitor sends to create the ideal mix of pre-recorded tracks and the new music you're recording.

The only drawback you'll have is that, as far as I know, on your mixer there's no switch to toggle the headphone jack between main outs and mon out. You can get round this in several ways: high impedance headphones plugged in directly, taking the output to some form of power amp that has a headphone out or, best, using a headphone splitter/amp.

Bob
 
Bobsy described it better than me, I meant it wasn't ideal for the monitoring options which with even the cheapest interface would be more straightforward.
 
What Bobbsy said. My vote goes to getting a headphone amp, and my other vote goes to getting a better mixer for the task.
 
Wow, thank you Bobbsy. I understand my mixer much better now. I had a quick question about the last part of your post. Which is how to get audio from the headphone out, and the mon send out into ONE pair of headphones. what is a headphone amp?
 
New Mixer

If I wanted to buy a new mixer, how would i know if it sends the mon send and the main out to the headphone jack? Thanks again for all the help guys.
 
frooshiantee said:
If I wanted to buy a new mixer, how would i know if it sends the mon send and the main out to the headphone jack? Thanks again for all the help guys.
Click to expand...

A mixer that can send the monitor mix to the headphone output will probably have a source selector switch for the headphone/control room output. One bigger mixer I use has separate headphone outputs for control room and cue. Either way a headphone amplifier is very useful. I've used the Behringer HA4700 and it's fairly cheap and very versatile.
 
^^^

What Bouldersoundguy says.

The other way to route an Aux send to the headphones would be any mixer with a Pre Fade Listen (PFL) switch for the master aux send(s). I've seen a number of mixers that let you PFL (or Solo) aux channels and it works a treat.

Bob
 
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