halibut Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Hi, Currently when practising with headphones I've settled on using my Zoom B3, and it sounds great for that. The trouble is that it doesn't have an aux in for when I want to play along to a music source like an mp3 player (I know I can use it with a laptop over usb, but that's a bit of a pain with my cronky old laptop). Anyone got any good ideas / recommendations on something like a simple mixer that will allow me to mix the headphone output from the B3 with the headphone output from my mp3 player? Ideally something that's not a lot of messing around to set up for a quick practice, or costs the earth. Cheep and cheerful, really. H. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Sell your B3 and buy a B1on or B1Xon. Solve your problem and you'll be quids in, too. [url="http://www.zoom.co.jp/products/b1on"]http://www.zoom.co.jp/products/b1on[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrismanbass Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 (edited) i use a little mixer like this and then a headphone to 2 1/4" jack cable (which can be bought from maplins) to run any device i want into it [url="https://www.studiospares.com/Studio-Gear/Mixers-Analogue/ALTO-Zephyr-ZMX52-Mixer_305020.htm?ne=AQAAAAMAAAAEBEFsdG8="]https://www.studiosp...AMAAAAEBEFsdG8=[/url] i also then take this to use to run my in ears on gigs too Edited February 27, 2015 by Chrismanbass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halibut Posted February 27, 2015 Author Share Posted February 27, 2015 Discreet - Typical. Where was that when I was shelling out for the B3? Chrismanbass - That's a nice looking mixer. Can it be run on batteries, or is it mains only? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badass Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Was just looking at that myself halibut, and the back view says use the included PSU only. 18volts...Would be great if batteries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Starr Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/1002B.aspx cna be battery powered but is probably a bit excessive. Vox amplug thingy I went for the B1on, its neat and probably the cheapest option. Drum machine/metronome and tuner built in too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halibut Posted February 28, 2015 Author Share Posted February 28, 2015 I've got an Amplug and it would be ideal, but it lives in a drawer. With my passive Epi T-bird I have to have its volume up to max, and gain half way up just to get any volume out of it. And then it just sounds clipped and farty. Really awful. Not sure what the tone dial is supposed to do, either. No appreciable change with it. Having read around a few forum posts, it sounds common. People have really variable experiences with them. Random quality, perhaps? I must admit the B1on doesn't look much more expensive than a mixer and does it all. It just feels odd buying it when I already have the B3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrismanbass Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 the mixer is mains only but i think you might struggle to find something that isn't Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xzodar Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Would using a headphone splitter (Y cable) with headphones in one side and MP3 player in the other work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrismanbass Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 [quote name='xzodar' timestamp='1425245532' post='2705574'] Would using a headphone splitter (Y cable) with headphones in one side and MP3 player in the other work? [/quote] something like this [url="http://www.boots.com/en/Belkin-RockStar-Multi-Headphone-Splitter_1517193/?cm_mmc=pla-_-google-_-PLAs-_-Boots+Shopping+-+Category+-+Electrical+Beauty"]http://www.boots.com/en/Belkin-RockStar-Multi-Headphone-Splitter_1517193/?cm_mmc=pla-_-google-_-PLAs-_-Boots+Shopping+-+Category+-+Electrical+Beauty[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
operative451 Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 I've got one of these. http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/302USB.aspx Runs off USB and is also a USB input/output so you can play sound off a computer or use it for a recording input too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halibut Posted March 2, 2015 Author Share Posted March 2, 2015 [quote name='xzodar' timestamp='1425245532' post='2705574'] Would using a headphone splitter (Y cable) with headphones in one side and MP3 player in the other work? [/quote] It would probably work, but is it safe? I'm not an electrical engineer, so maybe someone could comment? Does it risk damage to either the mp3 player or the B3 if you splice two supplies like that on ports that are only expecting to send a signal out and don't have common grounds, etc? I assume (yeah, I know, stupid) that a proper mixer would take care of all that in the circuit. H. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xzodar Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 I just tried it with my B3 and a Y cable and all seems to work fine. At the end of the day you are just putting two audio inputs together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrismanbass Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 all a mixer will do which the cable won't is give you individual volume control which you have anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoRhino Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 Take in ear plugs from your mp3 player and stick them into your ears. Plug a set of over ear cans into the Zoom. Easy peasy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Use a Tascam GB-10 and dispose of the MP3 player. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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