mix with a click for live performance?

[edurbrow@sea.plala.or.jp]

I have a live event coming up. I’m planning on using a laptop and an 828mkII. I want to play together with a recorded back track or maybe with a DAW. Is there an easy way I could get a mix with a click track for myself (and maybe others who are playing) and get a mix without the click to send to the house mixer?

[Rick Cornish]

When producing stems for live gigs, I lay them down as 44.1kHz stereo Wave files. My mono mix is panned hard left (sent to monitors/house) and click is panned hard right (sent to drummer's headset). One the click track, I also cue the drummer with a preparatory "bip" (one frame of 1kHz tone) followed 2 sec later by a 2-bar count off with clicks and a verbal "1--3--1-2-3-4", so the drummer can count off for the band. I usually play these back from an iPad that the drummer operates, so he can begin the roll when he's ready to count the tune off. I also recommend tracking the click at the loudest level possible without distorting the track. The drummer can always turn it down, but it's often hard to get it loud enough for him when driving headphones from an iPad (I usually bring a tiny mixer to drive the headset, just to be able to give the click track enough gas that the drummer can keep track of it while s/he's playing).

Good luck.

[HCMarkus]

What Rick said. Simple and effective. There verbal count off is exceptionally helpful, and you can even add cues as the track progresses ("Bridge, 1,2,3,4" etc.)

You can get a lot fancier if you run DP live, feeding stems to FOH for the audience and custom mixes to performers using the multiple 828 outputs. Also, if the tracks need to be failsafe and budget permits, you can sync two computers and switch tracks source if one goes down using something like this, an 8-channel model with dual USB Audio Interfaces built-in:

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... -interface

Here's the econo version:

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... o-switcher

[Rick Cornish]

Here's the econo version:

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... o-switcher

Didn't know about this—thanks! Radial makes solid stuff.

[HCMarkus]

Here's the econo version:

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... o-switcher

Didn't know about this—thanks! Radial makes solid stuff.

Yeah, I just saw that too, when looking for the 8 channel model.

[edurbrow@sea.plala.or.jp]

Thank you guys. I had been thinking of just splitting the headphone out and using one side as house mix and mixing music with click and cues for the other side. I just wanted to present a stereo mix to the audience. Maybe keeping it simple is a virtue. It is just finding a stereo miniplug that stays in the laptop headphone out that is a problem. I always seem to get only one channel when I stick a regular headphone miniplug in there. It wants a four ring one and even then it tends to not make a great connection, hence the urge to use the 828.
To do with a stereo mix, I guess I would have to make three or four stems: house stereo going out of Main Out; click/cue/music (mono or stereo) going out of ? Here is why I asked the question. Can I send it to headphone Out or does it have to be two of the 8 outs on the back? I'll most likely be using Logic if I go this route. DP is too undependable on my laptop and I haven't been using it much for quite some time.
Thank you again.