Hi

I have a motif xs 8, connected to my Imac which is running Logic Pro 9.0. I have one mic and one pair of headphones for the singer. I don’t have a separate mixer. When I record a singer, one pair of headphones goes to them so they can listen to their musical cues. My question is, how do I use another pair of headphones for me to monitor them in this set up, without having to buy a mixer?

I am ok with listening to the mix from the imac, if Logic will give two outputs in two devices - via the keyboard for the singer, and via the imac headphone output for me to monitor the singer. Any suggestions?

Hi createsu,

I’m guessing the problem is that the singer is too near to you and your XS8 (because of the short length of cable on your headphones and mic) to make it viable for you to listen via your XS8’s main stereo outputs on speakers?

If you have speakers, you could look into extending the mic cable and headphones cable into another room so that you can try out some isolation.  This may allow you to monitor your XS8 via it’s main analogue outputs on the speakers without your noise bothering the singer and spilling on to the recording, and without the singer affecting your ability to hear everything.

You can certainly buy extensions for mic cables and headphones cables, but they are dependant on what type of connectors you have.

Otherwise, you are probably looking at inexpensive headphones splitters, which may only split your headphones output into 2 x mono feeds.  I don’t know enough about those sort of things to recommend one, but if you search for headphones splitters or stereo headphone splitters, you might find something suitable.

A mixer would be best, of course.

Logic won’t give you any kind of extra output to use whilst you are using your XS8 as an audio interface for it.

Thanks for the solutions. Headphone splitter it is! Yes my singers are right next to me, the keyboard and the imac, in a small basement home studio.

I will need a 6.35mm (1/4 inch) male to two 6.35 mm (1/4 inch) females type splitter - right?

createsu - 19 July 2017 08:59 PM

I will need a 6.35mm (1/4 inch) male to two 6.35 mm (1/4 inch) females type splitter - right?

Yes, a 6.35mm (1/4 inch) male to fit the XS8 headphones output.

The other end should definitely have females to fit whatever your headphones are.  They could either be 6.35mm (1/4 inch) male, or 3.5 mm male.

Some headphones feature just a 6.35mm (1/4 inch) male, while others have a 6.35mm (1/4 inch) male adaptor fitted to a 3.5 mm male, so you can choose on that one.

You’re welcome.

With a splitter, the two headphones will be sharing the same signal, so it’s important that they have certain characteristics in common. Sensitivity, often related to impedance, will determine sound level. The headphones should be reasonably closely matched. If sufficiently mismatched, the output from one might be too low/high versus the other.

You could use one of These as a 4-way “splitter”.  It would give you independent volume control on each headphone, which you could use to balance different levels due to quality, impedance mismatch, etc. of each set of phones.

You can get it Here also, with free shipping

I have owned and used one of these for quite a few years, and it is a useful, durable, and economical piece of gear.

Yes, there is a cost, but certainly not what even a bargain mixer would be.

EDIT:  I see from your profile you are outside the US, so the sources listed may not be usable for you.

Thank you for such thoughtful responses, 5pinDIN and cmayhle. (I am in the USA).

What mixer do you think is good for my set up?

I would need one mic and 2 headphones - for a typical recording. I would record one singer at a time.
At the most, in some weird scenario (that I cannot yet imagine) I might need two mics and 3 headphones.

My equip includes: Yamaha Motif XS8, connected with mLan (firewaire) to Logic 9.0 on an imac.

It’s a small basement room. Everything is going to be near everything else. No isolation, no soundproofing stuff or booths in my setup (yet).

If you want a nice small-format utility mixer, something like This would probably fit the bill.

There is an upgraded size available Here.

I have not used either of these two mixers, but they are the next-generation updates to my trusty MG102c, so I can assume they will work just fine, and at an economical price.

If you do get a small mixer like one of these (or others), they will most likely have a single headphone output.  So, if you want to run multiple headphones, you would probably still need a headphone splitter or headphone mixer, as suggested in the posts above...depending on your signal routing and other gear.