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USB Monitoring via headphones


linz
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Hi folks!

 

I'm seriously considering selling a large chunk of my gear and replacing it with a Helix. If I go this route though, it'll mean using it as my primary audio interface. I think I've figured out from the manual and forum posts that there's plenty flexibility in the inputs to meet my needs, but I can't seem to find a definitive answer on whether my on-stage IEM monitoring will work.

 

Basically, I want to send a click/cue track from my Mac Mini via USB but ONLY hear it through the headphone out. Is this possible? I'm hoping I can do that without having to use up one of the 4 paths.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

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Yes, and it's pretty simple:

 

1. Set Global Settings > Ins/Outs > Page 1 > USB In 1/2 Destination to either 1/4" or XLR (whichever one you're NOT using for FOH or stage monitoring).

2. Set Global Settings > Ins/Outs > Page 3 > Headphones monitor to the same setting as Step 1.

 

What's happening here is your computer is being sent to the XLRs (for example), and you're telling Helix's headphone output to monitor what's being sent from the XLRs.

 

Yes, we purposely designed this for guys monitoring clicks and backing tracks.

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Thanks for the quick response!

 

That sounds cool. However, does that mean I wouldn't be able to route a backing track to FoH?

 

At the moment I send a full mix plus live synths etc. to FoH, and also have the same plus my click/cues to headphones.

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Thanks for the quick response!

 

That sounds cool. However, does that mean I wouldn't be able to route a backing track to FoH?

 

At the moment I send a full mix plus live synths etc. to FoH, and also have the same plus my click/cues to headphones.

If you need to split the click and backing track into Helix, that's fine, but it'll take one or more of the four paths. Only USB In 1/2 bypasses all paths. Another path will be needed to route in, say USB 3/4 for a separate stereo feed.

 

Alternatively, if your playback system isn't stereo, you can always pan the tracks hard left and the click hard right and then USB 1/2 is all you'd need.

 

There isn't currently a way to build cue mixes with different levels per input per output, but your question's got my brain running...

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Thanks again DI!

 

I think I could make it work that way - might be a slight compromise, but probably worth it. In an ideal world, all the USB ports would be selectable as either part of a signal path or just routed through a specified (or all) output(s). Maybe one for a future update ;-)

 

I assume there's no way to 'insert' the USB IOs in the chain, i.e. instead of the physical send/returns?

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Thanks again DI!

 

I think I could make it work that way - might be a slight compromise, but probably worth it. In an ideal world, all the USB ports would be selectable as either part of a signal path or just routed through a specified (or all) output(s). Maybe one for a future update ;-)

 

I assume there's no way to 'insert' the USB IOs in the chain, i.e. instead of the physical send/returns?

 

USB 3/4, 5/6, and 7/8 can be selected as Input blocks, but not in the middle of a path, like an FX Loop.

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This is great and exactly what I was hoping it would be able to do. I sold my head and cab last weekend and ordered the Rack and Control. This will make my recording much easier and quicker as well as when playing live.

 

Can't wait!

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  • 1 year later...

Can the headphone monitoring be updated to be assignable to any specific output.

Instead of just the current 3 options of 1/4, XLR and "Multi"

Example, assign headphones just to monitor USB 1/2 or any other specific outputs just for recording?

 

What I'm doing is using the 4 cable method to play live, but then I'm routing the amps speaker out (using load box) back into a parallel path into my Helix return 3.  So I can record this complete signal chain back into my helix, into USB 1/2.

But the problem is, my headphone can only be assigned to multi or XLR.  So that means, for multi, I'll also be hearing the pre-amp 3 cable signal chain.  I only want to hear the final output, not just the pre-amp (send/return 1/2) signal. And if I assign headphones to XLR, I can't record/send the parallel path to USB, since I just assigned the parallels output to XLR.

 

So if I can assign my headphone to monitor any output (E.g usb 1/2)  then I can use the parallel path to just monitor/record the amps final output (e.g. into return 3) into my computer USB 1/2.

 

--Philipe

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  • 2 years later...

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