Headphone mixes levels with ART HeadAmp6Pro

[SweetSoulSound]

Hi, Everyone-

I've set-up my Pro Tools session to run audio signals out of my 003 into my ART HeadAmp6Pro for the headphone mixes. There's something very strange going on:

The volume in the headphones is louder when the headphone amp is OFF, and the level and tone controls on the headphone amp have no effect on the signal going out to the headphones.

Why is this? Have I set this up wrong? Many thanks for your help.

www.SaReGaMaStudio.com

[junkgear]

How do you have it set up?

I would start with a very basic setup; Main outs of the 003 into the Main Ins on the HeadAmp.

Start with the Master Volume and Level controls on all channels set fully counter-clockwise. Set the Bass, Treble, and Balance controls to their 12 o’clock positions. Set all mono switches to their “Out” position.

Play audio from the 003 into the HeadAmp and adjust the Master Volume so that the signal level is in the green to yellow range on the meters.

Now you should be able to adjust the level control on each headphone channel to the desired level.

Give it a try and let us know.

[SweetSoulSound]

Thanks for your reply, Will. I've just realised my ridiculous mistake:

As you pointed out, the HeadAmp6 has 2 pairs of Main Ins ("Balanced Main" and "Balanced Main Thru"). And it has 6 headphone outs accessible from both the front and back panels of the unit. I was using the rear headphone outputs as inputs thinking each 1/4" jack could be used as a separate channel for each musician's headphone mix.

No wonder turning the power on & off and tweaking the controls had no effect on the sound going to the 'phones!

What I don't get now, though, is, if I only use the main ins on the HeadAmp6, then how can I get 4 different headphone mixes for each of the musicians tracking? Won't any level adjustments affect the headphone mix for everyone?

www.SaReGaMaStudio.com

[junkgear]

You really can't get four independent mixes using the HeadAmp, that's not what it was designed for. It is really just a distribution amplifier that adds more headphone amps to a system, and gives them a few sound shaping controls.

The HeadAmp does have a stereo Aux input for each channel, which allows you to run a separate track or submix to each of the channels. When running it this way, the balance control sets the mix between what is coming in on the mains and what you have plugged into the Aux input. They call this the "More of Me" feature. So you could send just guitar to the guitarists headphone aux input, then he can use the balance control to dial in more of himself if needed.

[mesaone]

Originally Posted by junkgear

You really can't get four independent mixes using the HeadAmp, that's not what it was designed for.

Sure you can. You don't have to use the AUX as a "more of me" control, you can use each one as a discrete cue mix.

Just create 6 stereo buses in Pro Tools, map them to hardware outputs, run the hardware outputs to the AUX inputs of the headamp with Dual TS> TRS Y-cables (or TS cables, if you run mono cue mixes). Then turn the mix knob on each channel of the headamp hard right. The 003 can handle doing this for four stereo cue mixes, or all 6 cue mixes in mono.

SweetSoulSound: in order to not affect the cue mixes with level changes or cuts in the control room, just put each send into Pre-Fader mode. The cue mixes and main mix will be completely independent, and each cue mix will be independent of the other cue mixes when set up per the above instructions.

[SweetSoulSound]

Originally Posted by mesaone

Sure you can. You don't have to use the AUX as a "more of me" control, you can use each one as a discrete cue mix.

Indeed, mesaone. Thanks for the great info and the very helpful reply. I finally figured out how to use the AUX inputs on the HeadAmp6 along with its balance controls, and I've got things working the way I wanted to.

I really appreciate your sharing your knowledge and experience!

~Arun

[mesaone]

Glad to hear you got it working. The input labeling on that unit should be switched, in my opinion.