Setting up a Headphone Mix

KaSe MuNNy

New member
Hey, whats goin on y'all?

I was wondering if anyone could help me in setting up a headphone mix in Pro Tools. I wanna put a lil reverb or delay on my voice so when I record, my voice isnt so dry in my headphones (it makes for a better performance, its a psychological thing). I dont want the reverb/delay to be recorded to the track though, I just wanna be able to hear it through the headphones. I'm pretty sure you can do this and all you have to set up an Aux Channel and some other stuff to make it happen; I just havent been able to find out the specifics on how to yet.

Thanks y'all!

- Kase
 
well, first off you can't record the effect to the same track you're recording to (well, you can...but it takes a little more trickery than just record arming a track that has the reverb insert on it)

still...typically I would suggest just creating a normal audio track, and adding a send to it. Bus that send to an aux track that has the reverb on it. BAM! Easy.

Kind of what you would call a "headphone mix"...but easier :)
 
Wouldn't you run into latency problems like this? I want to say that any track you are recording on gets all effects bypassed, unless you disable low latency monitoring which is pretty well unusable for song recording.

If you send the output of the channel you are recording on to a bus, set an aux channel input to that bus, then set the output of that bus to the mains, you're saying you can add effects to the aux channel without messing up the low latency thing? That would certainly have the desired effect, wouldn't it?
 
not the output...bus a send on the audio track to the aux track. Something simple like D-Verb doesn't have any latency to it (unless of course you add a pre-delay to it).
I do it all the time this way.
 
not the output...bus a send on the audio track to the aux track. Something simple like D-Verb doesn't have any latency to it (unless of course you add a pre-delay to it).
I do it all the time this way.

After posting my response, I decided it would be best to read the manual. Wow, I have been doing things the hard way for 3 years now...
:eek: -> :mad: -> :o -> :cool:
 
Perhaps I'm missing something here...

I got the sends to work just fine and was able to apply the effects to the aux channel just fine, but as soon as you record arm the audio track you want to record, the send gets bypassed with an error message popping up saying (something like) "Send's bypass status cannot be changed while track is in low latency mode". If I disable low latency monitoring, the send/effect works, but then your playback is delayed from the source which I find useless for any tracks.

Are you not using the low latency monitoring?
 
oh, no sorry. I don't use it...I'm on a TDM system. I really haven't used an LE system in several years. So I don't come across the latency thing anymore.

what interface are you using? I'm guessing a USB one. Do you still get a lot of latency with just a low playback buffer?
 
Digi 002, a firewire device. The latency can get to be pretty bad, especially as the tracks get more advanced/developed. Enough that I don't want to record without the low latency monitoring enabled... I've not tried adjusting the buffer size to be smaller, that may help...

Envious of the TDM rig...
 
start with the buffer. It'll be in your Setup menus. That the first place you should always check. I personally get by with it set to 1024 samples. I used to have a 002 and I think 512 worked for me then. Of course it does matter how many tracks and plugins you are working with then. I hardly ever use plugins when tracking
 
Here is my solution

This latency has been a problem with pro tools since i believe 7.0 for me. (or CPU overload)

Digi has done a real bad job with this and has improved this greatly in 7.4 (you can record with no problems at 128 for latency)

SO. if you bus your desired tracks to an AUX with your effects on them and then you should be good.

This is how I do it.

MUTE (Track that i'm recording to.)
Bus on track to an AUX (the aux has the effects)
Change the aux to send level to your outputs


Hope this helps!
 
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