The UR-RT4 interface has 2x “PHONES” jacks out the front, with PHONES 1 hard wired to output MIX 1, while PHONES 2 is switchable to output either MIX 1 or MIX 2 via "Studio>Audio Hardware Setup>Headphones.
I have a pair of speakers that are @ MAIN OUTPUT L & R (controllable by the hardware volume knob), and another pair of reference speakers @ LINE OUTPUT 1 & 2 which I adjust via the Control Room red volume knob.
Scenario 1:- Routing a Control Room Cue channel to MIX 2 (out of the PHONES 2 jack) does not allow for sample previewing regardless of enabling or disabling “Preferences…>VST>Control Room>Use Phones Channel as Preview Channel”.
Scenario 2:- Sample previewing through PHONES 2 can be achieved by un-routing the previous Cue (Not Connected) then “Add Heaphone>MIX 2”, and finally enabling “Preferences…>VST>Control Room>Use Phones Channel as Preview Channel”. This however nullifies sample previewing out of my MIX 1 main speakers.
Scenario 3:- PHONES 1 (MIX 1) can be used to preview samples by default, but it is linked to the Control Room red volume knob, meaning that I’d have to manually turn my speakers off if I only wanted to use the headphones.
I ask because I use the PHONES 2 jack as a custom Cue output for when I’m recording vocals at my microphone so as to prevent “howlround” feedback, but the only problem is that I cannot use that same output (according to the above 3 scenarios) in order to conveniently preview samples if I were to just sit at the desk and edit or produce.
Could you post a screenshot of your Studio > Audio connections > Control Room panel ?
FWIW, it’s working as expected, here, using the Phones outputs of the Control Room, this, with the following setup :
But I admit that things are probably less complicated on my end, as I only have one phones stereo outputs to deal with. Actually, I would like to see how both your phones outputs are routed, in the Control Room.
Problem A:
With “Use Phones Channel as Preview Channel” enabled (according to my Control Room setup), I cannot hear preview sounds out of my main speakers or PHONES1.
It only plays through PHONES2!
Note: I disconnected my main output as shown above in order to use Control Room.
Problem B:
With “Use Phones Channel as Preview Channel” disabled, I cannot hear preview sound out of PHONES2 (unless I set it to output Mix 1).
SOLUTION:
ENABLE “Use Phones Channel as Preview Channel” and plug my desk headphones into PHONES2.
This is due my preference of using Control Room’s red knob to set the volume for both monitor speaker sets (Mix 1).
The only caveat is that I would have to keeping swapping PHONE2 jacks from my desk headphones to the other pair of musician’s headphones if I were to turn the knob all the way down to quiet the room for microphone takes (since I have everything set-up in one room).
If anyone has a similar configuration to mine, please let me know if you have figured a workaround.
