Separate signals to headphones? Firebox, Ableton Live 6

mooncaine · Post by **mooncaine** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 3:05 am

I bought the Firebox mainly so I could use Ableton Live's "cue" feature and listen to mat'l before I switched it over to the "real" output that the audience will hear. I read here on the Ableton Live forums that the Firebox had a "separately addressable headphone channel".

I don't see how it. In Ableton Live, I see outputs labeled with numbers, but none of them seem to be the headphone output, & using the "cue" feature in Ableton Live doesn't send audio to the headphones. Can anyone help with that? I just want the cue feature to work -- when I pop the cue button on a track, that track's output should go to my phones, not the main outs, right?

Thanks,

--moonie

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 3:40 am

for any input or output routing dialog box you see the active channels and an option for "configure". Hit configure and activate ALL the available channels. If you need a mono channel (mic, guitar) activate a mono channel (eg '3' instead of '3/4').

Set an output under the CUE OUT on the left side, below the MASTER PAN there's a button to toggle solo/cue mode for the solo buttons. Set to CUE, what were solo buttons in Live 5 are now cue buttons, sending them out a different port than the master.

mooncaine · Post by **mooncaine** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 5:32 am

Thanks, Tone [nice handle, btw]. That was well explained. What I mean, though, is that none of the outputs I see in that dialog are the headphone outs. I was wondering if there was some option in either Firebox or Ableton Live I'm missing, because I see 6 numbered outputs, just as you describe [listed each as mono as well as listed in stereo pairs], but I don't see a headphone out. Like I said, I'm unable to route the "cue" to the headphone out jack on the Firebox, nor use the headphone out volume knob on its front panel, as it stands.

I appreciate the well-written explanation, though. Very clear.

madtho · Post by **madtho** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 4:44 pm

Hi-
I have the firebox also.

I'm not sure how to do it, and I don't have the f'box hooked up here at work, but I'm pretty sure it involves the firebox mixer app. Pg. 21 of the PDF manual gets into that app.

-mad

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 6:53 pm

You won't see a headphone output, just try all those outputs and one of them will be the headphones, if they're all enabled.

Wayne from White Salmon · Post by **Wayne from White Salmon** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 8:37 pm

This is a paste from my post "How to use CUE with FIREBOX" up above in the thread list. I hope it helps.

Begin:
"I have been trying to figure out how to use the CUE function with Live 5.2 and my Firebox. After talking to JB at Presonus, we got it figured out, so I'm passing the info along.

First- Set up the CUE function;
1) In Live, go to Preferences>Audio>Settings and set output config to include Ch 3&4.
2) On the master track, find the CUE output dropdown list and select Ch 3&4. This will set the Cue function to output to Ch 3&4.

Then send the CUE output to the Firebox Headphone jack;
3) Launch the Firebox Mixer, and select the 3/4 button in the Playback to phones strip. This will send the CUE audio to the headphone jack on the Firebox. Plenty volume here- be smart and check the headphone volume knob BEFORE you put the phones on!

Then CUE THE TRACK
To CUE a track, select the headphone icon in the track strip in Live, and whatever clip you trigger in that track will go to the CUE, and to the Firebox headphone outs. You can control the volume with the CUE volume in Live, and with the headphone output on the Firebox without affecting the main volume.

This STILL ALLOWS A SMALL AMOUNT OF the CUE track to be heard in the main mix! If you don't want to hear ANY of the CUE clip in the main mix, you need to deactivate the track you are CUEing by clicking on the track number. This will remove the track's audio from the main mix, but continue to play the clip thru the CUE.

Thanks to JB at Presonus who took time to load Live, duplicate my problem, and call me back. JB says if there are similar questions with Ableton Live and Presonus products, contact techsupport@presonus.com.

I hope this is helpful- now when someone searches for how to use CUE, their will be some ANSWERS as well as questions.

Wayne from White Salmon
_________________
HP dv6000t, Duocore2 T7200, 1G, 80GB 5400, Reason 3.0, Live 6, Pro88, Presonus Firebox, Drumkat 3.5,

Silence · Post by **Silence** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 9:56 pm

sorry, i might be dense, but....how is this any diffirent than any other soundcard?

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 11:19 pm

as far as setting it up at this level, there is no difference.

mooncaine · Post by **mooncaine** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 3:20 am

Thanks, heroes! I can't wait to try this -- but I have to wait at least another day. I appreciate the details. I took a look at the Presonus Mixer app, even though I can't hook up speakers tonight for a full test, and this advice makes sense to me -- I can see what you're describing.

To add a bit of info from the Presonus forums, where I asked the same question: a helpful fellow there tells me to 'set cue to go out SPDIF, which is out 5 & 6. Then go into your FIREBOX control panel, and click "Playback to Phones" on S/PDIF. Now, anything that comes out SPDIF (which you just set in ableton) will come out the headphones.'

I hope to try all these tips about 24 hours from now, and pick the output that works best with what I've set up so far. Thanks loads!

mooncaine · Post by **mooncaine** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 5:33 am

Here's what worked for me: in the Presonus Firebox Mixer app, as Wayne suggested, I chose an output to be routed to headphones, except that I chose outputs 5/6. Afer I told Live to activate those outputs, then followed Wayne's instructions about telling Live which outs to use as the cue outs, it worked perfectly. Choosing the SPDIF outs did nothing helpful: audio never came out of the headphones. I'll look into that later, because I'd probably rather use the SPDIF channel since I don't connect anything with SPDIF, thus keeping all the other outs free for audio output.

With Wayne's tips, I got it to behave exactly how the Live manual suggested it should work. Audio on the master outs is not affected by cueing; I still have to deactivate the track or turn its level down to keep it from playing out of whatever its output is connected to. But when I deactivate the track, as Wayne told us how, it really mutes it for me, with no bleed-through at all. I only hear it in the headphones if I have the CUE button engaged, and only hear it in the regular outputs if the track is activated.

No crosstalk, even at max volumes. I was curious about that, since it happens to Wayne, so I turned up EVERYTHING while the headphones were physically disconnected. Only with everything, including the Presonus's super-loud heaphone amp turned to 11, did I hear cross-talk. Wayne was right to warn us about the headphone levels, btw. The Presonus headphone output dials up to very loud -- it earns that number 11.

So now I'm cueing! Thanks! Next, I want to see if I can figure out how to work the cueing and track un/muting with my feet since my hands will be busy playing guitar. If only cueing automatically muted a track -- I guess DJs don't like that, so there's probably a good reason for it. I think I can probably program my FCB1010 footpedal to do this, if I'm willing to riverdance it enough ....

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 6:26 am

SPDIF is all 1s and 0s, encoded digital audio at a low level, if you heard anything it was noise. You need to hook up SPDIF outs to a SPDIF receiver, also called AES/EBU in case you see gear labeled like that.\

Cool that it works, you .sig still freaks me out.

hyerstay · Post by **hyerstay** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 7:21 am

Tone Deft wrote:SPDIF is all 1s and 0s, encoded digital audio at a low level, if you heard anything it was noise. You need to hook up SPDIF outs to a SPDIF receiver, also called AES/EBU in case you see gear labeled like that.\

Cool that it works, you .sig still freaks me out.

All it means is that he can choose to route the audio destined for the S/PDIF to the headphone outs. This type of feature is common to most multitrack audio interfaces, along with software to control it. I can do the same stuff with my MOTU unit and it's CueMix and Audio Setup software.

Jason

mooncaine · Post by **mooncaine** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 7:36 am

Based on Wayne's, Tone Deft's, and madtho's tips here, plus a tip at the Firebox support forums from Dave, I finally figured out how to route headphone audio to the S/PDIF outputs on the Firebox, which I've no plans to use. After I've done that, I set Ableton Live to use 7/8 as the Cue Output, and that routes cued material to the 'phones without forcing me to give up the use of outputs 5/6 on the FireBox's back panel. I think this picture tells the whole story, start to finish, so feel free to refer people to it when this question comes up again, if you think it'd help explain it quickly.

Thanks for helping me figure it out!

Separate signals to headphones? Firebox, Ableton Live 6

Separate signals to headphones? Firebox, Ableton Live 6

Heres how I do it..

follow-up: 5/6 works great as CUE on Firebox; no crosstalk

A few tips + testing = CUE out in Firebox via unused S/PDIF