Headphone Out vs Audio Out

ddiamond84 · 2022-12-19T07:49:15.676Z

I have my prophet 10 hooked up to my DB4 mixer.

When I use the audio out of the prophet 10 it only comes out of one speaker. When I use headphone out it comes out of both. Any ideas?

I’m stumped. Is it bad to use the headphone out instead? It sounds ok to me.

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blaize · 2022-12-19T07:58:47.529Z

I think Audio Out have only the dry sound signal. The prophet 10 is a mono synth right ?
Use Audio Out into mono input to process the sound, like fx pedal, and phones out to get 2x mono signal or get the stereo of onboard FX (if it have fx)
Edit : and use a mono instrument cable from audio out to a single channel of the db mixer (not stereo channel)

ddiamond84 · 2022-12-19T08:01:16.091Z

Not totally sure I get that but I’m going to try and follow that. Thank you for the help!!

Is it bad to use headphone out? It definitely sounds great!

blaize · 2022-12-19T08:01:53.862Z

No, it’s ok to use headphone out

ddiamond84 · 2022-12-19T08:02:41.152Z

Thank you again!!

brucegill · 2022-12-19T08:04:35.201Z

P5 is mono. Need to send it to the Mixer in Mono. You can use a TRS to TRS cable (like a balanced cable) and this sometimes helps with noise on the P5/10. But still use it as a Mono cable - don’t split to left and right.

Cants see a problem using the headphone out, but it could free up space on the mixer if you go mono. And as mentioned above you can then use mono Fx pedals.

aarb420 · 2022-12-19T09:16:35.135Z

I couldn’t pull up any schematics on the p10, but check to see in the manual if there is a difference in output dB. OT headphone out adds a nice boost (forget the amount) as opposed to traditional main out wiring, and that can be used to your specific use case if that exists in your machine. Has Sequential said anything about the issue you’re experiencing?

brucegill · 2022-12-19T10:51:17.674Z

aarb420:

Has Sequential said anything about the issue you’re experiencing?

It’s not an issue though? It’s a mono synth so this is acting as expected.

Got to say, I don’t think I’ve ever needed mine above 4 on the volume. It’s damn loud. (Using the main output)

natehorn · 2022-12-19T11:11:14.932Z

Headphone outputs often have some colour, as they’re amplified differently to a line out.

It might sound identical, but it probably doesn’t. A seperate headphone out is normally intended for monitoring a signal and not recording it so manufacturers won’t treat them with the same importance.

An anecdote I’ve shared elsewhere relates to my XONE mixer, A&H advised me to use the Booth or Main out with a headphone amp for ‘critrical listening’ and not the headphone output which is intended for cueing in loud environments, not recording.

ccr · 2022-12-19T11:22:11.779Z

Another issue I have come across when routing a mono signal in my DJ mixer (Model1), I believe it might be similar for the DB4 (according to the manual): as there is no pan and no normalling of a mono input to L+R, you may need to use a splitter cable (TS => 2×TS; not a Stereo breakout cable) to route the mono signal to both L and R sides of your stereo track on the mixer.

aarb420 · 2022-12-19T17:25:24.376Z

brucegill:

It’s not an issue though?

It was my version of a polite attempt to point our friend in that direction.
I’d assume Sequential may be better suited to answer their question, perhaps.

The mono synth part makes sense if that’s what @ddiamond84 is experiencing, and I’m not sure why I forgot to consider that very important aspect haha (I just re-read your first post with the routing recommendation).

ddiamond84 · 2022-12-19T19:50:07.454Z

Thanks for all the responses so far!

It wasn’t unique to the prophet 10. I tried it with my Erica DB-01 which only has a mono audio out. I guess I just don’t know why to do mono out to stereo rca in isn’t playing on both sides, but headphone out does.

I’ll keep trying things from this thread. Y’all rock!

zollenz · 2022-12-19T20:24:36.928Z

Judging from the pics, you are using a TRS to dual mono splitter cable from the P10 to your mixer.

This will work when using the headphone out because the P10 is likely just doubling the mono signal on the tip and ring. But when plugging that same cable into the line output, the ring is ignored and you’ll only get a signal on the left (tip) end of the split while the right (ring) will be silent.

Judging from the P10 manual the line out is unbalanced, so you should just use a mono TS cable from the line out to a mono channel on your mixer. I don’t see a reason to use a TRS cable, though @brucegill does state there is some advantage to using TRS. But I could be talking out of my a** here as I don’t have a P10.

In any case I’d say whether you use a TS or TRS cable, go mono from the P10 line output to your mixer/pedal/etc, unless you actually want to get a split mono signal from the headphone out.

See also this recent MW thread on the subject.

brucegill · 2022-12-19T20:31:41.515Z

zollenz:

Judging from the P10 manual the line out is unbalanced, so you should just use a mono TS cable from the line out to a mono channel on your mixer. I don’t see a reason to use a TRS cable, though @brucegill does state there is some advantage to using TRS. But I could be talking out of my a** here as I don’t have a P10.

I’ve had a P10 and then a P5 (both Rev 4). Both needed a balanced cable to sort noise issues out. I can’t find the details but someone at Sequential mentioned it on their forum I think. I know it’s stated as NOT being a balanced output, but it 100% solved my issues and someone else on here also. Very strange!

jemmons · 2022-12-19T20:34:08.736Z

ddiamond84:

guess I just don’t know why to do mono out to stereo rca in isn’t playing on both sides

Well, are you duplicating the mono signal such that there is one for each side? If not, then that’s why.

Mono outs only provide two connections: ground and signal. Stereo ins expect three connections: ground, left, and right. If you try to wire them together, you’ll wire ground-to-ground, and signal-to-left, but realize you’re out of inputs for the right. That’s the mismatch.

An example of this: there’s not really a cable made to go “from mono out to stereo rca in”. Say you have a phono-to-stereo-RCA cable like this:

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The first thing to note is this is not mono to stereo. The phono plug is TRS. That is, Tip (left) Ring (right) and Sleeve (ground). That gets directly wired to black (left) and red (right) RCA. If you don’t provide signal on the ring of the phono plug, the cable isn’t going to magically double it for you. It’s going to just play nothing over the red RCA.

And that’s exactly what mono jacks do. They connect to the tip and the sleeve of a plug and completely ignore the ring. So on the RCA side you’ll get sound over the black one but not the red.

Now, why does it work for headphones? Because headphone plugs are also TRS. So if the headphone jack were mono, we’d all only hear sound over the left speaker. This would be beyond annoying. So the P10 does the work of doubling the signal for us, connecting to and sending it out over both the tip and the ring of the phono plug. (it also wouldn’t be a great experience trying to listen to line levels over headphones, so the headphone out also incorporates an amp. More on this in a second)

So you have to options. One, use the mono out, and only plug it into a mono channel of your mixer (or a stereo channel panned hard-left). Two, use the headphone out, which has helpfully doubled the signal for you already.

Why use mono out instead of headphone out? Well as mentioned above, the headphone out has an amp in front of it. Maybe you worry about the quality of that amp and want the “purest” unmodified signal right out of the synth to go to your mixer? The mono out provides that.

Personally I don’t feel like there’s any quality issue worth worrying about. For me, it’s all about the convenience of having an amp I can control the volume of independently of the line out so that I can adjust my headphones to taste without throwing off the mix at my mixer. But if you’re monitoring from the mixer and never bump the headphone volume by accident, I can’t think of a reason not to use the headphone out. Just remember, you’re not actually getting stereo. You’re just getting the same signal cloned left and right.

zollenz · 2022-12-19T20:40:55.556Z

@brucegill Right on, can’t argue with experience. Reminds of the OTO Boum thread where it was also found to be advantageous to use balanced cables even though the manual explicitly states that the ins/outs are unbalanced. So I’m also doing that now.

jemmons · 2022-12-19T20:47:36.370Z

I can argue with experience. If balanced cables plugged into an unbalanced, mono jack are doing something, it’s because there’s making a mistake or something is wired horribly wrong. Either way, the best solution is to research where the misunderstanding is, because your setup will be unreliable at best or risking damage to gear at worst.

zollenz · 2022-12-19T21:00:22.075Z

Yeah, my common sense also says no. But when the devs start recommending it (same case for the Boum) it does get confusing.

jemmons · 2022-12-19T21:21:00.746Z

It definitely adds a layer of confusion. But when the devs recommend it, that just helps localize the misunderstanding: either their documentation is wrong or their wiring is. Again, either way it needs to be pinned down and understood or Bad Things can result.

As a for example, I had a used kit-build where (I found out much later) the guy who put it together substituted a TRS jack for an unbalanced out (because he couldn’t find a TS jack or had a TRS one lying around or something? ) so the tip was signal, the sleeve was ground, but the ring was just left floating. It would sometimes get noisy unless I used a balanced cable (I think because that, in effect, isolated the floating bit to the ring channel rather than ground?), so that’s what I did.

But sometimes that floating ring would pick up spikes. And because I ran it to my balance-expecting mixer, these were dutifully inverted and summed — sometimes resulting in egregiously loud pops. This was very intermittent and very different from the noise issue I’d had, so it took me forever to track down.

If I had understood the problem, I could have dealt with it by using a TRS -> breakout cable and leaving the red unplugged. Instead I just randomly plugged in cables until something worked and lost a few good takes and ultimately a cheap pair of monitors as a result.

Be smarter than me!

ddiamond84 · 2022-12-19T21:53:33.656Z

Really awesome responses, thank you all again. I don’t think the DB4 has a mono in, at least from what I can tell.