Headphone Reference Mix Set Up

[Michayl Asaph Myers]

Ok... lets see if I can make this a little clearer than mud. I have the MOTU M4, it has 4 outputs, 2 stereo pairs and when I mix my tracks, I like to set up a blank audio track, set that tracks input to the loopback mix input and then I mix down in real time to the blank track, instead of just bouncing, or exporting. I recently received the Slate VSX headphone system and I would like to monitor through that while I'm mixing down without VSX  affecting the mix, ie: reference through VSX, but the VSX is not going onto the mixdown. Hope that makes sense... I've been using Cakewalk for 25 years, and I tried several different things, but I can't seem to figure out a away to do it. Thank you for any help. Michayl.

[John Vere]

The biggest problem is you need the VSX on the master bus to be able to hear it in the Motu Headphone output. So it's going to be in the pathway.   The Motu does not have playback options for output to the headphones. It seems to be the 1/2 output. The 3/4 button is for input monitoring

  But an option would be to put the VSX on a second Master bus that goes to the 3/4 outputs and feed it from the master bus using an AUX. Then connect the 3/4 outputs to a Home stereo or something that can power up a set of headphones.  

The other thing I can think of , is to put a External insert above the VSX in the Master bus FX bin and see if you can send that to the Loopback. That would bypass the VSX. 

Sorry I can't test this,  I'm selling  my Motu M4 so it's sitting in the box right now.  

Edited May 13 by John Vere

[Michayl Asaph Myers]

Thanks John... I am able to go to a stereo and listen through that using the 3/4 outputs. I think I will look into a dedicated dac headphone amp and then route 3/4 to that. Thanks again!

[Glenn Stanton]

i have three 2-track busses:

a master which contains any "mastering" eq and leveling, no output.

a monitor buss fed from the master pre-fader send, which has the VSX and other tools - this outputs to the listening IO w/ soundreference ID - headphones speakers. this one i switch on-off the different monitoring - like the soundreference when using VSX, or the speakers using soundreference.

a print buss, no output, which is fed from the master using a pre-fader send, and i automate the tail for any fades and is the source for exporting WAV, MP2, etc mixes.

so in this combination - i can turn on or off the "mastering preview" stuff which feeds the monitoring and print busses. then on the monitoring side, i can use VSX, Waves NX, or my soundreference ID. the monitoring does not impact the print which has no output and simply is used in exporting.