I have an UR44 and was wondering if it’s possible to use dspMixfx (or any possible solution) to route one audio source to my headphones and the other to my monitors?
Scenario: I am using a mediaplayer (Mediamonkey) to play music over my monitors and if other people are present I don’t want to interrupt and want to be able to do my own stuff behind the PC like listening to for eg. a Youtube video or simply do some work and put on my headpones.
I know there are ways to configure Win10 so that it can route some applications through different soundcards so in this case I could plug in a gaming headset and get the result I want but it depends on the application plus my prefered scenario is to (simply?) use the UR44 since it’s less hassle.
I do not believe that is possible with one interface alone. Not the UR44 anyway.
Sounds like you may need a monitor controller like the Mackie Big Knob or similar. A bit more than you need, but it would allow you separate input sources and ability to have an alternate input send to another listening source. "BUT’ you would need two separate sources (as in two computers as I do with that).
If you can separately/simultaneously send outputs via internal soundcard and the UR44, then you may just need a simple cheap headphone amp from the PC output.
Not sure I understand your needs clearly though… Hope any of that made sense.
And to be clear, I do not think there is any way to change input source within the UR44 to send to either headphones or monitor outs. They are running off the same return from DAW/PC. Can’t do it with UR824 as far as I know either.
Thanks (so far) ! The Mackie Big Knob indeed is a bit too big of a solution for my minor inconvenience but I think you understand my needs just fine.
I don’t know how to explain it more simply than I already did but in essence yes, I’d like to route different input sources to my headphones and monitors.
Reason I hope this is an option is because dspMixfx does allow headphone cueing so in a way this is a similar routing -albeit in one DAW environment. Also nowadays there is an exponential growth in PC/DAW/iOS eco-culture with insanely creative IT-solutions so it wouldn’t surprise me if there would be a third party solution for this.
The thing you’re overlooking is that you really don’t have two sources. Both apps use Windows audio which is your single source.
So in the first instance you would need to use a different driver for one of the applications so there are two sources…now if you can get Mediamonkey working under ASIO driver just maybe it’s possible to select outs 3/4 and route those to the headphones in dspmix while windows audio routes to the speakers on 1/2…but I really have no idea if this will work or not.
As to third party solutions I would guess if anything could do this, it would be Voicemeeter.
I will look into your idea. There are ASIO drivers for MM (ASIO Output Plugins - MediaMonkey Wiki).
Thanks for pointing out Voicemeeter. Looks awesome regardless whether it suit my current needs. Also a perfect example of what I mean about this booming IT/music eco-culture.
I am actually curious if you find ability to make this work. I have an idea that I could use this myself but in a different way.
The issue is having the same source as Grim pointed out. You may be best using a separate laptop and a monitor controller. Maybe a small mixer actually could deal with this, but either way you likely need two output sources and two units to send to headphones or monitors.
I am not aware of an interface at the price level of the UR44 that can do that. Or if Windows is even capable of sending to USB interface as well as it’s own output at the same time.
I will be watching. Tho only more for allowing my daughter to sing along to Disney tunes, while I am working on mixes in the studio…
I’ll be sure to follow up if I can figure something out but like I mentioned in my first post an alternative solution would be to simply plugin my USB Gaming Headset, configure Windows to route MediaMonkey to use this headset and then I’m set. So I’m not going to do some “hardcore” research if I can’t solve it in a day or so since I do have a solution but prefer another for more… aesthetic reasons.
As a reference there is also a combination of 3 Waves plugins (SoundGrid in the Studio | Waves) that could be interesting. Not that I own it or have the money for it but this is a robust software-based solution to route different devices, PC’s and utilize multiple drivers all live at once and there was also a paragraph in one of the manuals mentioning different outputs on headphones and monitors. Just to show that it should be possible.
@Grim: Voicemeeter surely seems like a nice solution which I’ll likely go for. Not 100% sure I can seperate the routing within the UR44 with this but at least the setup for using different drivers will be a lot easier and the possible options for other scenarios seem amazing now that I’ve done some more reading! Thanks!
More robust alternatives from Voicemeeter are likely to suit my needs best. Best of all it’s donationware so you could buy the software for 1 euro. These are the 3 software options:
On the website there are also elaborate manuals available with user scenario’s and I’m currently looking into which option is best for me. I think I’ll buy the most complete package since -once again- it’s donationware and I’m thinking about all the other applications I could use this for but I’m not 100% up to speed with it’s different functionalities.
In any case, @Grim, once again thanks for pointing this out to me and I just wanted to round off this topic for now since I won’t be having much time next week to actually try out this software. Maybe for someone else it can be of use as future reference so I thought I’d post the links.
The Mackie Big Knob indeed is a bit too big of a solution for my minor inconvenience but I think you understand my needs just fine.