How do you Cue?

Right now, my room is small, (I only record small ensembles usually) so Artist Mix is usually the same Mix that I am hearing. I half-normal the Analog outs of my Symphony to an 8channel HP box in my live room. Then I use the two outs of my Dbox, which gets the Talkback. I need a better solution. I know a company planning to make a really rad HP distro box. Waiting on him.

I find with the Hearback system, it’s easy for the client to make it sound bad if they just start twisting knobs. The headroom is sub optimal and the limiter sounds really bad. But, once you get them up and running it’s usually ok.

For whatever reason, I don’t have this issue with the Furman system.

In the small room I share closer to home, we just make do with my mix in the cans, although my band mate has offered his Furman.

One nice trick in PT: get a good balance going and then use the copy to send function to get the same mix on a stereo send to the cue. Then you pick your more me channels based on need.

Not sure if I can say anything about it yet But its super cool and you guys would love it. Sorry for the vagueness. I don't want to upset him.

I use an old Rane 4 channel headphone amp-one stereo input with 4 headphone connections- and one of my Central Station's phone outputs if needed. If I had one thing to do over again with my soon-to-be-closing studio it would to (a) have 4 separate stereo headphone controllers and (b) use total isolation headphones for anybody close to the drummer . I have 2- 16 channel RME interfaces and 32 channels of conversion.   So, I could control as many "more me" cue mixes as I want via the Totalmix mixer.

The other thing I'd do is have hard wired extension cords for the headphones. Those male/female extension cords are always finicky.

I think that good cue mixes are vital for a good performances and it's something I regret not making one of my first priorities. 

Old Furman HDS-6 headphone amp system with 7 headphone units has been working great for me.

This is interesting. Let us know how it works and sounds Jeremy.

I thought the Behringer worked OK the time I used it, my beef is that each station only has one HP output. They should each have multiples, for the times people can share the same alt mix.

I built a multi-mix in the DP AVB mixer, and the fatal flaw there is complete lack of talkback function with proper speaker dimming.

I use the MOTU 16A DSP mixer with a Presonus HP60 headphone amplifier. The MOTU is normalled with outputs 1-2 feeding the DAW mix return on the desk, then the desk's stereo cue out feeds the main LR input on the Presonus.
That control room mix is available to all six headphone outputs with talkback. MOTU outputs 3-8 are normalled to a patchbay above the Presonus so they either feed additional mono mixes to each of the six channels or 3 stereo mixes to pairs of channels.
I run the control room mix and the 3-6 additional mixes are handled via iPad over wifi. Honestly, that's more so I can sit next to the drummer and get a good mix rather than guess-ti-mixing from the other side of the glass.
Running at 88.2k, the MOTU has 32 channels, 3 stereo subgroups and 6 auxes. The first 16 channels are the analog inputs, the next 8 are ADAT in and the last 8 are returns from the DAW. Those 24 live inputs feed one stereo subgroup and 8 DAW returns feed another.
This makes it easier to mute all the live inputs for playback or get a good balance between input and playback during overdubs. The last 8 outputs on the MOTU are direct outs from those 8 DAW returns which return to the console so I can solo instrument groups without affecting the cue mix.

We’ve got the Mytek PrivateCue system. 3 headphone outs per box, LOTS of power to drive the phones, 12 channels, sounds fantastic.

We have the early version that used DL connectors, which are good for about 3 years, and then get noisy from all the use which is a giant pain in the ass as it requires a re-pin (who has time for that crap?)

I believe they updated the newer version to use a different connector that fixes this problem.

And yeah, some artists need some help with their headphone mix, but many don’t. If a performance is oddly awful, it’s easy enough to go out and help them tweak things a bit. It’s usually just inexperience and most folks are so happy to have you show them, I don’t find it to be much of a big deal. MUCH better than making 6 mixes for people and having them constantly ask for changes. That is something I don’t miss at all.

After mixing wedges and years of these individual cue systems both live and in the studio, unless you have a group of musicians who know how to gain stage or are experienced with the cue system they for the most part waste time and become a distraction! It’s just to easy to try to get that perfect headphone mix and constantly twist the knobs, rather than work on the performance!
A couple of aux sends are just easier!
The best implementation of a individual cue system both in the studio and live was the Genesis method, live human who mixes stems on a big old monitor console feeding the cue system, and yes my former employer developed one of the earliest and I HATE HATE HATED it!
Nobody ever turned stuff down , it was always up up up till it was a distorted mess and the AE had to go back and rebuild the individual cue mixes! Sometimes options are not the best option!