In this setup you will learn how to set up your iD14 with a custom headphone mix (which you can easily add talkback to as well).
This is useful if for example you want to record someone in the next door room and they only want to hear parts of the overall mix (for example drums and a click track), while you still want to hear the entire mix and don't want to hear the click etc. Well this setup allows them to have what they want in their headphones while allowing you to have a different mix coming out of your speakers.
Firstly set up your input channels by setting the gains to an appropriate level and making sure that you can see all the levels in your DAW. Before we can route the audio, we need to make sure all the correct audio is going through the iD app, so we have to think about what the artist wants in their headphones. If they want to hear something different to what you want coming out of the speakers then you need to create an auxiliary track in your DAW, and send the elements you want the artist to hear to this auxiliary track. Then you need to set the output of this auxiliary to Outputs 3+4, which will bring it in to DAW 3+4 in the iD mixer window. If they just want to hear the main mix coming from the DAW then you don't need to worry about an auxiliary track.
So now all the audio you need is passing through the iD app, now it is a case of routing it to the right place. Before you make the headphone mix, it would be worth setting the routing in the System Panel (press the “system” button). Here you will want to set Main Output to Main Mix, and Phones to Cue Mix.
Now you can build up the mixes for you and the artist. To make it simple you should think of it as two separate things:
What do I want to hear out of the speakers?
Use the Main Mix Faders and the mutes to create a mix of what you want coming out of the speakers. Typically you would just want to monitor the output of the DAW so you can hear everything together, so turn down or mute everything other than DAW 1+2 unless you would also like to monitor one of the live inputs, in which case turn that channel up.
What does the artist want to hear?
Use the Cue faders to build up a mix for the artist. The Cue mixes are all pre-fader so if you have the main fader muted or turned down, the Cue will still play at input level. They will probably want to hear themselves so turn up the cues for their channels (this gives almost zero latency monitoring <1.6ms). Then turn up the Cue send for the DAW channels that they want to hear. If you have created an auxiliary track which comes in on DAW 3+4 then make sure the cue fader for that channel is turned up and not the one for DAW 1+2. You can use the speakers to create a balance for them by using the Cue Master Solo. Finally make sure that the Cue master is turned up and you are good to go!
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