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What goes where on my mixer - Why can't I get headphones to work


BH12neil
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Evening all.

I hope somebody out there and put me out of my misery, I am having trouble setting up my mixer to do the following:-

~ To practice in silence with headphones
~ To be able to link to my pc so that I can use Songsterr and drum beats on the internet to jam too through headphones

The attachment [attachment=114180:Soundcraft Notepad 102.JPG] shows the layout of my mixer so that all you good folks have an idea of the ports available. I have a balanced DI on my amp so have run an XLR cable from that to Mic 1 on the mixer. OBBM made me a cable to run from my PC to the mixer, the pc mini jack I have inserted into the blue output in the back of my computer and the 1/4 jacks into mixer with the white jack inserted into L and red jack inserted into R of the inputs marked 5-6 on the notepad. Headphones obviously into the phones socket.

The result; sound comes out of the cabs, nothing through the headphones, sound comes through the PC speakers but not through the headphones. I must be missing something really simple here but for the life of me I can't see what it may be so all help from you technical types out there would be really appreciated. Please help me to understand your advice by offering it in the simplest possible terms because I will freely admit to to finding technicalities difficult to comprehend.

Thanks in advance of some help.

BH12neil

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Thanks for your comments Budget Bassist, I don't know whether this is the info you need. I have searched my computer for details of the soundcard and came up with the following:-

~ Internal ATI High Definition Audio Device - DirectX 11.00
~ Realtek High Definition Audio - Driver Version 6.0.1.5953

When I bought the computer I paid extra for the audio specification to be improved with upgraded components, I have an external speaker system comprising four speakers and bass woofer.

When you say how is it set up, what exactly do you mean by that?

BH12neil

Edited by BH12neil
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[color=#000000][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]By way of an update the mixer appears to be working because as I play lighting on the notepad comes on. It has occurred to me that perhaps I have the wrong 1/4 inch adapter attached to the headphone plug, the plug on the headphones is a mini jack so I required an adapter to upgrade that - can anyone show me an illustration of what I should have so that I can compare. Thinking about cables, the XLR cable I am using is brand new so in theory it shouldn't be that and in any case because lighting on the mixer is working when I play I can only presume that there is a signal getting through.[/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]Turning to the amp cabling, the cables I am using are an instrument cable into the amp input and the XLR in the DI socket, so that seems simple enough.[/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]Any other thoughts and advice would be really appreciated as this problem is slowly driving me round the twist.[/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]Cheers,[/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]BH12neil[/font][/color]

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Try turning up the AUX knob on the bass and channels 5 and 6, then press the AUX to mon button and turn up the master aux knob (the one above the 3 push buttons), then try turning up the headphone level and see if that helps - it may be that the headphone output is tied in with the internal routing for the aux send...

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I think you'll get better results running a lead from your Headphones output on the PC to the pair of RCA red/white sockets marked [color=#800000][b]2T RTN [/b][/color]on your mixer.

Then make sure that you've engaged both buttons [color=#800000][b]2T RTN to MON [/b][/color]and [color=#800000][b]AUX to MON [/b][/color](just to be on the safe side).

Take the main [color=#800000][b]OUTPUT [/b][/color]slider down to zero, plug in your headphones, turn UP the [color=#800000][b]MON [/b][/color]volume control, and see what happens.

Using the Headphones output on the PC should kill the sound from the PC speakers. Taking the [color=#800000][b]OUTPUT [/b][/color]slider right down should kill the sound from the cab. Running everything through [color=#800000][b]MON [/b][/color]should feed the headphones.

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Neil

I use the larger brother of this mixer with headphones and a PC.

Have you tried plugging the bass directly into a mixer line input using an instrument cable?

Turn the channel level control up to 10 and then increase the channel gain control until the LEDs start to indicate.

The grey routing switches just above the mon control should all be out.

Main fader at 0

Turn up the MON control.

If the LEDS indicate but you have no sound in the headphones then it could be your adaptor.

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[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1343388417' post='1749934']
I think you'll get better results running a lead from your Headphones output on the PC to the pair of RCA red/white sockets marked [color=#800000][b]2T RTN [/b][/color]on your mixer.

Then make sure that you've engaged both buttons [color=#800000][b]2T RTN to MON [/b][/color]and [color=#800000][b]AUX to MON [/b][/color](just to be on the safe side).

Take the main [color=#800000][b]OUTPUT [/b][/color]slider down to zero, plug in your headphones, turn UP the [color=#800000][b]MON [/b][/color]volume control, and see what happens.

Using the Headphones output on the PC should kill the sound from the PC speakers. Taking the [color=#800000][b]OUTPUT [/b][/color]slider right down should kill the sound from the cab. Running everything through [color=#800000][b]MON [/b][/color]should feed the headphones.
[/quote]

Seeems a bit of a convoluted way of doing things. With effectiverly the smae mixer I run the bass directly into a mic/line channel and the PC into a stereo channel. Headphones monitor the mix out. Simples.

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[quote name='obbm' timestamp='1343389531' post='1749967']
Seeems a bit of a convoluted way of doing things. With effectiverly the smae mixer I run the bass directly into a mic/line channel and the PC into a stereo channel. Headphones monitor the mix out. Simples.
[/quote]

Agreed Dave, but isn't the OP doing that already and getting nothing from his headphones?

I thought this alternative arrangement might give a different result.

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Thanks for all the posts and advice, I've had a tinker and have now got the headphones to work through the PC, so that's progress. The problem was that I had the jack in the blue line in port rather than the green output in the PC. The only irritation is that the green port at the back of the PC is already in use to feed the external PC speaker system so I have had to use the front port which doesn't make for very tidy cabling, but at least I've got it working.

OBBM, is there some sort of splitter that could be made up to allow the mixer and the external speaker system to work independently? If there is some way that I can keep all the cabling to the rear of the PC but still be able to use PC speakers or headphones through the mixer without unplugging stuff on each occasion, then that would definitely be worth doing. If you could guide me in the right direction that would be much appreciated.

I haven't yet had a chance to investigate why I wasn't getting sound to the headphones from the bass amp but now I've found one solution I might find that the second solution falls into place. Anyway once I've had a chance to look at that again I'll report back for the benefit of any future forum users who might look at this in the future.

Cheers,

BH12neil

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Thanks OBBM, the only problem with doing that is that the the external speaker system incorporates a bass box therefore there are three channels running from the jack, also all of the plugs are 3.5mm rather than 1/4 which the mixer MON inputs cater for. Any ideas as to how I would get around this to allow connecting the mixer to the rear of the PC? Perhaps some form of splitter cable to allow sounds from the speaker/bass box out loud as well as speakers/bass box muted and sound via the mixer to headphones?

Your view would be greatly appreciated.

All the Best

BH12neil

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What about this as an option; plug this into green output at rear of PC, plug the existing three channel into one into one output, the PC to mixer jack in the other? Would it work, would it do what I want without compromising sound quality?

Regards,

BH12neil

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Ok I have now resolved part one of my problem and have successfully managed to connect my PC up to the mixer and all is working well; part two of the problem is that I can not work out how to silence my amp into headphones. I have a XLR lead running from the balanced DI in my amp into one of the MIC sockets on the mixer. I am then using the amp in the normal way, cable from guitar through pedal board and into INPUT. Just for reference, and I don't know whether its relevant, but I have rack units that are cabled to and from the amps FX send and return.

Common sense tells me that I have this right but sound continues to come from the cabs and I can't find a way to re-route sound to phones. Ironically the reason I bought the mixer in the first place was to ensure that I could practice in silence and at the moment, at least, that is the one thing I am unable to do.

I am sure I am missing something really simple, can someone point out the obvious to me.

I would really appreciate a little guidance on this.

BH12neil

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Also, it's likely that the output for your PC speakers from the soundcard is a standard two channel stereo signal, and that the speaker system will have a crossover that splits the low frequencies for both channels and sends them to the subwoofer. If the jack that plugs from your speakers to the soundcard is TRS (two black stripes around it, if you're not sure) then it's two channel/stereo and you can follow OBBM's suggestion about running everything to the mixer, and the speakers from the mixer's main outputs.

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