Al Krow

Not a bad shout! Anything that's just an adaptor costing < £10?

Thanks. I need something that will feed a mono output from an aux-out on a desk to both ears of a stereo headset, and not to just one ear. If your suggestions do that, I'll check them out.

Btw any recommendations for a suitable adaptors for use with 3.5mm and 1/4" headphone jacks to use with the aux outs?

Yeah true, and actually I'm still within the 14 day return period. But if this is a common issue for all aux out then replacing the desk isn't going to help. Besides we have a work around for stereo IEM users who can just set their IEMs to mono.

Thanks Dave - I can just use normal headphones into the headphone out rather than the aux-out, and most stereo IEMs have a mono setting as I understand, so seems we're all good.

That's really useful to know. So it turns out that our IEM's (Xvive U4) being purely mono are perfectly suited to a standard aux-out then. The Zoom Livetrack L-8 I had dealt with this issue by providing all the ancillary outputs as headphone-out rather than aux-out. Shame it was unshielded / noisy with our U4s. Looks like there's no fault / design flaw with the Soundcraft Signature 12MTK desk I've just got then, and I won't have an excuse for returning it. Although I must admit I'm starting to develop an unhealthy interest in desks in the same way as I had in different make/models of bass guitar, amps and cabs a few years back! Maybe that's my own design flaw 😁

So...my desk saga continues! I picked up a Zoom Livetrack L-8 and was actually quite impressed at its feature-set and portability, particularly for the money. Unfortunately I found the model I had wasn't particularly well shielded and ended up with a high pitched hum with the IEMs we'd got for the band, which we weren't getting with other speakers. The Zoom had 4 headphone outs which was ideal for my 4 piece, so I've looked for something similar in a budget mixer and ended up getting the desk from the make I actually mentioned in the OP of this thread - in my case a Soundcraft Signature 12MTK. However having spent a bit of time with it, I've found an unhelpful issue in using the unit: The output from all three aux outputs is directed to just one of a pair of stereo speakers or to just one ear on a pair of headphones. This is irrespective of whether it is a TS (mono) input from an ¼” instrument jack or a TRS stereo input eg from headphone out of a phone playing Spotify into both the left and right stereo inputs of the desk. A dual-speaker or headphone stereo output is, however, available from the dedicated headphone out. Is this to be expected with the aux-outs? If it was going to a monitor it would be a non-issue, but going to headphones (other than ironically the Xvive U4 IEMs a couple of our band have got as they are mono rather than stereo) this isn't going to be great.

Thanks for that. But if you follow through the posts the high pitched hum issue we were having was only there with a particular digital mixer I was using and not with another mixer I tested with @dave_bass5with 3 separate U4s. I don't think there's any fault with the three U4s we tested and I've not had the whine with an Allen & Heath mixer we've subsequently used live. So the issue, in general terms, seems to simply be the interaction of the U4s with the lack of shielding on some mixers. But it's good to know that you are yet another contended U4 user!

Congrats - that sounds really positive! I'm still tempted by one of these! What other digital multis have you previously had?

FWIW - I understand the Soundcraft Signature 12MTK is also fully analogue. However, they've added a multi-track recording option to enhance the capability of the unit as compared to the non-MTK version. There's a £110 price-hike for this added capability, but given a latency of 3.5ms vs a latency of around 2ms for a high-end audio interface such as a Focusrite, that's still pretty decent. And I'm not sure there are too many decent audio interfaces offering 12 multi-track recording, certainly for £110?

Ah ok. But is that because your mixer does not permit multitrack recording? If so, I can see the benefit. If you had something like Soundcraft Signature12 MTK would that dispense of the need for a separate audio interface?

Yeah - had one, my notes on it attached fyi. It's ok but I didn't find anything too much I personally could use live. Bananana Matryoshka.pdf

What scenarios require both? It seems that a decent mixing desk can provide everything that an audio interface typically can?

If we have a decent mixing desk with USB connectivity, which increasingly many of us have, do we actually need to have a separate audio interface? What's the BC wisdom / consensus on this?

I think the G2 FourX is going head to head with the Nux MG 30. Not convinced it's going to trump it though.

Ah, Zoom B1-4 (but with a G). Good shout and amazing value. The B1-4 has been my EEP of choice for 2.5 years now, although can't say I've not been tempted by alternative EEPs and if Line 6 finally bring out a replacement for their aging (orig. 2015) Helix range this year, I suspect I'll be succumbing!

Very sensible approach! What EEP have you gone for?

@dswluthier Congrats on the new pedal. Have to fess I've ended up with 3 of the little buggers 😅 With only 5 effects slots per patch and a budget (but amazing value) mulit-fx such as this, the way I would do it is use your amp-speaker patch as the key basic ingredient in all your patches and then add the particular fx that you want so that e.g. your B7K drive becomes a combo of [B7K + amp-speaker patch] and you can then scroll through as needed over the 50 patch choices you have. If you have either the Zoom or better still the ToneLib editing softare (link available on the OP) then it's a doddle to copy and paste.

That last point about using an LPF in the master EQ + preferred IR seems to me to exactly chime about what the OP is finding and we found with our guitarist with them both getting a harsh tone. Maybe the core Helix tone is a harsh one, but can be sorted using exactly this fix?

Cheers Russ - could you or @JohnDaBass recommend me a suitable ferrite ring / supplier to thread the cable through please, and I'll gladly give it a go?

Agreed, Russ. Dave's Mackie 802 - analogue and metal case - didn't have the hum issue at all with any of the three U4s we tested last night. The Soundcraft Signature 12 or 12 MTK is similarly analogue & metal cased, but has 3 configurable aux out and a headphone out, which gives us what the Zoom L8 does (but without the setting store / recall ability that the Zoom has, which is definitely a "nice to have"). And the Soundcraft gear seems to get a good rep online. Sadly I think my flirtation with capable budget digital desks may be coming to a swift end...

Yeah - tried a couple of those out and actually come to think of it, I switched to battery power (which the Zoom caters for) and the hum was still present, which I think eliminates the input power as being the cause?

@Woodinblack - thanks! Agreed it's definitely the desk causing the issue - when the desk is switched off and the transmitter & receiver left on, the hum disappears entirely (unless the transmitter & receiver are placed in very close proximity). @JohnDaBass this is definitely a budget / low cost unit (certainly for a digital desk), however the power for the Zoom is an AC adaptor USB --> 5V DC input on the desk i.e. basically the same as a mobile phone. Does that impact your suggestion?

I was actually thinking along exactly the same lines. Getting mixed results ie works intermittently.

Well I think I've got to the bottom of the Xvive U4 hum and it's (sadly) to do with the Zoom L-8 desk (digital, plastic cased). @dave_bass5 very kindly popped round tonight with his missus' U4 and his Mackie 802 desk (analogue, metal cased). What we found was that his U4 also had the same high-pitched hum through the Zoom L8; none of the U4's had the hum (except when the transmitter and receiver were right next to each other) through the Mackie. No such hum audible when wired IEMs are plugged into the L-8, but we're looking to go wireless. Guess that means I'm going to be looking for a new desk in the near future - shame, as the L8 has a lot going for it particularly at its price point. As an alternative to ditching the Zoom L8, just wondering whether getting a little wire box (to act as a Faraday cage) to put the U4 transmitters in would work to shield the transmitters from the L8's EM whilst still allowing connectivity between transmitter and receiver?