How do I route metronome only to headphones?

mikadams · Post by **mikadams** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 7:01 am

Probably this is simple but I haven't figured it out yet. I want to route just the click track to my drummer's headphones. I have an Audiophile USB soundcard, so there is only the one output. (I think that more than one would make this more easliy accomplished, yes? but I don't so that's irrelevant). Suggestions? thanks.

The Mechanic · Post by **The Mechanic** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 7:22 am

If your device only has one out then you won't be able. I suppose you could route the head phones to say the left channel or right channel only but that may defeat what you are trying to do.

gurumonkey · Post by **gurumonkey** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 7:41 am

but if not, yea, do what our friend the mechanic suggests. make sure that your click track is an actual track, not the live metronome. (just make a midi instrument and put a clip on it with one kind of sound for the downbeat, and the other beats use a different or quieter version.) Pan this track to the left, all other tracks to center

from what you posted, i'm assuming you are using this in a live setting and you need to preserve the audio to the house but not let the drummer get off track?

if so, get an insert cable from guitar center or whever (TRS on one side, breaks into two TS cables) and insert them the TRS side into your headphone jack, and then the other ends into two seperate channels on the sound board. unmute whichever channel has the click in it, but don't push the fader up. instead, just give that send to the drummers monitor. then use the other channel to play your live set. if you need to isolate the drummer's mix because of bleed through, get a small headphone amp and have him plug headphones into that. which leads me to the topic of my post...

just get a new soundcard.

mikadams · Post by **mikadams** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 7:59 am

I'm afraid that the last suggestion is probably what will be required. Shit.
I am looking at maybe purchasing a Presonus Firebox. Looks fairly inexpensive and with enough outputs to do the job. I will try your suggestion as well, first. Thanks for replying!

gurumonkey · Post by **gurumonkey** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 3:28 pm

try the s/pdif. i downloaded the manual to your soundcard for you and i noticed that you had one. it wasn't particularly clear on whether you could send a different signal to that out than goes to the regular one. make sure the spdif out is enabled in your control panel for the audiophile. and then go to preferences in live, audio tab, and make sure that the spdif out is availble to live, then you could go down to the I/O drop box by the master send and see if you can select the spdif channels as out and then put the analouge channels as your headphone outs. but then you'll need something that can recieve a digital signal, so if you don't have another piece of equipment anyways that allows you to send a digital signal, it still wouldn't work. and that's only if they receive seperate signals to begin with.

there are lots of cheap interfaces on ebay that have 2 sets of sends, which would fix your problem. don't buy anything too huge unless you need to use all the ins and outs.

hope this helps.

mikadams · Post by **mikadams** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 8:28 pm

hmmm, good thinking. But unfortunately, no, Live does not recognize the Spidf out as being a useable out. thanks for the suggestion though.