Question about how to run tracks & clicks

MileStretch

Junior Member
Hello all, first post.

Is it possible to run tracks & clicks panned separately out of an mp3 player into a mixer or a DI box so that the tracks go to the house and clicks go to in-ear monitors? If so, what specific equipment would I need?

Thank you!
 
Just pan the click to one side and the backing tracks to the other side during mix down.

And then run a "y" cable out of the ipod so that one channel goes to you and the other channel goes to the house.
 
Thank you, DrumEatDrum. In doing so, the clicks and tracks would then each be in both the left and right sides of the speaker?
 
Just pan the click to one side and the backing tracks to the other side during mix down.

And then run a "y" cable out of the ipod so that one channel goes to you and the other channel goes to the house.

I'm not sure that would work. Most 'Y' connectors you buy put out two stereo signals. You need to make sure that your connector splits to two mono channels. Making your own is a fairly trivial matter, provided you can solder.
 
Thank you, DrumEatDrum. In doing so, the clicks and tracks would then each be in both the left and right sides of the speaker?

The concept is to split the stereo channel out of the ipod into two mono channels.

From there is depends on what you're running each line to. A PA/mixing board usually has mono inputs, and will route the mono channel to both speakers. I never had a problem running that to the house. I always carried my own DI box just for convince, because it made the house sound guys' job easier.

And if you have your own personal mixer for your in-ear monitors, again, there should be no issue.

Some headphones amps have stereo inputs, and that it a bit trickier.

On my set up, I take the click side, and re-split it with another Y cable that takes a mono to two mono signals, and that goes into a yet another Y cable that is two mono to a single stereo cable. This way my headphone amp has a stereo input, with sound in both sides of the headphones.
 
I'm not sure that would work. Most 'Y' connectors you buy put out two stereo signals. You need to make sure that your connector splits to two mono channels. Making your own is a fairly trivial matter, provided you can solder.

Not true.

A stereo to two mono "Y" connector is very common at any well stocked music store.

I started doing this live over 10 years ago.
 
Not true.

A stereo to two mono "Y" connector is very common at any well stocked music store.

I started doing this live over 10 years ago.

Fair enough. I can't seem to find them where I am - all the ones I've seen are stereo, but I'm in a different country.
 
I used to run tracks from a Roland SPD-S, which would feed through the headphone out into a small mixer, which ran my in-ear monitors. The SPD-S line-out (one of the channels) would run straight to the front of house. Worked very well, but it was a fairly large and overcomplicated setup for our simple needs, and took some time to set up (annoying when we needed to get on and off the stage quickly).

However, now I have a BRILLIANT little device from SM Pro called the DI Dock Live. It's essentially an iPod dock created specifically for this exact purpose, so I'm now running click tracks and backing tracks both to my in-ear monitors and to the front of house through a single, small device. Made my life a lot easier. It allows me to send single channels to the front of house, while I can mix my own in-ear signal straight from the box (I can have only the click, only the track or a mix of both).

I highly recommend this little gadget. It even runs on phantom power (or a standard power adapter, of course).

Here's a link:
http://www.smproaudio.com/index.php/en/products/diboxes/didocklive

Essentially, I've gone from this:
electronics.jpg



To this:
smpro_DiDockLive.jpg
 
Naigewron, the DI Dock looks promising. Do you run both of the XLRs out to the house?

Yes, but only because our guitarist also wants the click track in his in-ears. The backing track channel goes to the PA, while the click channel is fed to the front of house mixer and then back into his wireless monitor transmitter. Works very well.

If I was the only one who needed the click, I'd only have to send the backing track channel to the front of house, obviously.
 
However, now I have a BRILLIANT little device from SM Pro called the DI Dock Live. It's essentially an iPod dock created specifically for this exact purpose, so I'm now running click tracks and backing tracks both to my in-ear monitors and to the front of house through a single, small device. Made my life a lot easier. It allows me to send single channels to the front of house, while I can mix my own in-ear signal straight from the box (I can have only the click, only the track or a mix of both).

I highly recommend this little gadget. It even runs on phantom power (or a standard power adapter, of course).

Here's a link:
http://www.smproaudio.com/index.php/en/products/diboxes/didocklive


To this:
smpro_DiDockLive.jpg

Holy cow, I've never seen once of those before. That is brilliant!
 
If you are going to use an iPod as your playback device (which there is nothing wrong with) I would definitely recommend something like the dock suggested. Not only will it make splitting the signals easier but the digital to analogue converter in the dock will be much higher quality than the unit built into an iPod. The result is a notable improvement in sound quality, and not just by a small margin. I'm using other gear from SM Pro and its turning out to be very reliable. I have no hesitations in recommending their gear.
 
Back
Top