Need monitor channel

[dcraftfrombr]

ok, everyone says how bad the Roland KC amps are... and I have two Mackie SRM450s that I could use instead of my two KC350s. But I've gotten used to the "Monitor" channel that the Roland's have. It allows me to run a monitor send from the FOH mixer into my Rolands so that I can hear the vocals. But that send is NOT routed back out with the signal I send to FOH.

So does anyone know of a small mixer that I can use with the Mackies that will give me this option. I have a Behringer MX802A that works great in mixing my two stereo keyboards plus a guitar and send it to the Mackies and FOH. All I need is the monitor. A lot of the places we play have very small stages and I don't want to have to have another monitor speaker.

Thanks,
Dale

[FunKey]

As far as I can tell, the MX802A should be able to handle this just fine.

The easiest solution is probably to use the 2-Track input for the monitor feed, and route it to the Control Room outputs only (using the appropriate buttons). Then you can use those outputs for your monitors, and send the Main outputs to FOH. The only downside seems to be that you can't adjust the volume of the monitor feed independently. So you always need to set up your monitor feed volume first, and then adjust the other volume levels according to that. (Or adjust the level that is sent to you from the main desk.)

If you are OK with listening to the monitor feed in mono, you can send it through a muted channel on your mixer first, then out via Aux 1, and back in via 2-Track. That way, you can adjust the volume using the Aux 1 knob.

Or you can send Aux 1 and 2 to FOH instead of the Main outputs. That's definitely not optimal, though, as one is pre-fader and the other is post-fader.

Disclaimer: I haven't actually read the manual; just looked at a picture.

[dcraftfrombr]

I tried using the 2-Track input for the monitor feed, but it appears that I can either route the 2-Track OR inputs 1-8 to the Control Room outputs. Can't have both, so to hear my keys, I would have to bring them back through the monitor feed and that feed is usually mono, which is ok for vocals but not for keys.

I thought about using Aux 1 & 2, (I can make a mod to make both pre-fader) but since there is only a mono output for each aux, and if I use the stereo channels 5/6 and 7/8 for my keyboards, then no way to send the left channels 5 & 7 to aux 1 and 6 & 8 to aux 2, which would give the FOH a stereo feed.

I didn't think this would be so difficult. I'm willing to buy a different mixer. Some of the larger channel mixers have stereo aux sends, which would solve my problem, but didn't want to haul a 16+ channel mixer. So I'm looking for a 4-8 channel mixer that has stereo aux sends.

The only other thing I can think of is using 2 small mixers, with one mixing down my keyboards and sending to FOH, and the 2nd one mixing the Ctrl Room outputs of mixer 1 with the monitor feed and then output that to my SRM450s.

[RedLeo]

Have you considered using channels 1 - 4 for your keyboards instead? That should allow you to route your left and right keyboards channels to the Aux 1 and 2 as you want.

I doubt whether you'll find a budget small format mixer with stereo aux sends, and I think you'd find a two mixer soulution to be more trouble that it's worth.

[FunKey]

I tried using the 2-Track input for the monitor feed, but it appears that I can either route the 2-Track OR inputs 1-8 to the Control Room outputs.

Aw, that's too bad. (Guess I should have read the manual after all.)

I use a Behringer Xenyx 302USB to mix keys and vocals for my monitor, and send only the vocals to FOH. So that mixer works as I described (using the headphone output). However, it only has two line-level inputs. I would expect the larger variants to work the same way, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Have you considered using channels 1 - 4 for your keyboards instead?

That's what I meant, actually. (And pan them to the left and right accordingly.)

[DJKeys]

I am not clear how the Aux Returns are routed but they usually go to the Main Mix. Why dont you just use one or both of your AUX returns for the vocals from FOH and use the Main Outs to the Mackies and the Control Room outs to the FOH board. The AUX signal probably would not be routed through the Ctrl Outputs, just the mains, so you would not have that loop. Never worked with that board though, maybe worth a try-

-dj

[dcraftfrombr]

I think that the Aux signals are routed to the Ctrl Outputs. I will test and make sure. Thanks everyone.

[DJKeys]

It should work if the Aux in is not routed to both the Main and Ctrl outputs.

Let us know what you find out-