Hi guys
Sorry to ask for help so early on but this is really pecking my head. I’ve already emailed Ableton support as they are normally quite good with any tech questions but i’ve heard nothing back yet.
I really need some help in getting my headphones to work when using Ableton. I’m using a PC Desktop with Windows XP & Service Pack 2, have an M-Audio Delta 10/10 LT soundcard which doesn’t seem to have a connector at the back for my Senheiser HD 25 SP Headphone jack to fit into, and there is also a Realtek HD Audio Soundcard at the front, with a mic & headphone socket to plug into. I have plugged my headphones into both sockets on the Realtek soundcard and played around with all the settings but nothing. The sound plays perfectly through my Alesis M1 Active monitors, which are connected to the M-Audio Soundcard. Is it something to do with the output settings that i need to change in Ableton?
Please help as i can only really make music at night and my neighbour does nothing but moans as the sound travels really bad and i’m just not getting anything done which is driving me insane!!!
Any help is MASSIVELY appreciated!
Hey there,
I don’t know the M-Audio soundcard you have, but a quick look online shows that it has 8 outputs on the back (1/4 inch plugs).
If your monitors are connected to this, and they work with Ableton, then this is the sound card you have set up in Live.
In session view if you look bottom right you will see two drop downs “Cue out” and "master out’
These most likely will be set to something like 1/2 or 3/4.
As a test plug in your headphones into one of the empty output jacks on the back of your sound card, and note the number. Back in Ableton in the “Master out” drop down choose the corresponding number (if you plugged into number 5 for example, choose 5 rather than 5/6)
This should send the master output to channel 5 on your M-audio, which has your headphones connected.
This will most likely be in Mono, so not a final solution, but will check things are working ok and help you understand what is going on in Ableton.
In that same drop down is the option ‘Configure’. Choosing that will being up the audio interface options. There you can choose which Ableton uses. Currently you probably have it set to the M-Audio, but if you choose the other one for output, and plug your headphones into that, most likely that will work too (though you will need to swap back to use your monitors etc).
The other alternative is to get a stereo splitter for your headphones and plug em into channels 5/6 (or whatever) on you M-audio.
Long answer, but it’s basically all about where Ableton routes the audio. Also note that you will need to change the settings for “Cue out” to the same if you want to audition clips from the library etc.
Lastly, keep an eye on these settings too as they are saved on a per project basis, so the next track you start might go back to the default!
Looking at your card, if you don’t have the breakout box, maybe you have the multicable version?
Same principle applies, you just need a different converter (and are unable to test until you have that).
First, you can’t use two sound cards in Ableton. So if your M-Audio is working, there is no point in plugging your hedphones into your onboad sound card.
Second I think (and I might be wrong) that you can’t just plug your headphones into the M-Audio interface, I think you will need a headphone amp that can plug into the phone outputs of the interface that you can plug your headphones into.
Such as this: http://www.dv247.com/studio-equipment/art-headamp-4-channel-headphone-amplifier–20133
BTD - I have never tried plugging headphone into a line level output, does it work? And if it works is it loud enough?
[quote]TheAnt (05/01/2011)[hr]
BTD - I have never tried plugging headphone into a line level output, does it work? And if it works is it loud enough?[/quote]
That’s a good point, I was basing that on my NI Audio 4 DJ, (as outputs 3/4 are the same as the headphone jack) I didn’t consider there might be pre-amping going on inside.
Maybe the easiest thing for Mozz to do would be to switch to the built in/Realtek sound device when working on headphones, and back to the M-Audio when using the monitors.
It’s easy enough to do ( I do it quite often for the inputs).
Preferences > Audio > Audio Output Device > Realtek
And choose your built in device from the drop down. Then just swap back when you wanna go back to speakers.
Yes, sound advice.
Also if you have a DJ mixer you could connect one of the outputs from the M-Audio to that and plug your headphones into the mixer.
OR if you have a hifi with headphone socket you could use that in the same way.
Morning guys
Thank you very much for your prompt and detailed responses it is much appreciated!
Well i also got a response freom Ableton this morning, this is what they said…
Dear Will,
Thank you for contacting Ableton.
The M-Audio Delta 1010LT doesn’t have a headphones output.
The internal sound card of your computer should be turned off so it doesn’t interfere with the 1010LT. Even if it isn’t you set up the M-Audio audio interface in the Live Preferences, not the internal sound card so the headphones jack from the latter won’t work.
There are a couple of possibilities how to still be able to monitor through headphones.
I have the same setup in my home studio and I’m using a little mixing desk that I’m re-routing the output signal from the Delta 1010LT into. This way I can use the headphones output from the mixer.
Another solution would be to get an adapter for an headphones output for the outputs 3/4 (cinch) from the M-Audio interface. Then you’d have to change the Master Output in Live to 3/4 to monitor with headphones.
Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any further questions.
Best,
Madeleine
Ableton Technical Support
So i am off to see if i can find an adapter on my lunch to see if i can split the headphone jack into 2 of the outputs on the soundcard. (I have the internal soundcard which has all the cables coming out of the back of my pc). I will let you know how i get on.
Cheers again!
Mozz
Well I am going to be interested to know how this works out for you because I wouldn’t have thought that the signal from a line level output would be loud enough, but as I said I have never tried it so I don’t know. I hope I am wrong.
Please post your results here.
If you are in the UK I would recommend Maplin
[quote]bangthedj (05/01/2011)[hr][quote]TheAnt (05/01/2011)[hr]
BTD - I have never tried plugging headphone into a line level output, does it work? And if it works is it loud enough?[/quote]
That’s a good point, I was basing that on my NI Audio 4 DJ, (as outputs 3/4 are the same as the headphone jack) I didn’t consider there might be pre-amping going on inside.
Maybe the easiest thing for Mozz to do would be to switch to the built in/Realtek sound device when working on headphones, and back to the M-Audio when using the monitors.
It’s easy enough to do ( I do it quite often for the inputs).
Preferences > Audio > Audio Output Device > Realtek
And choose your built in device from the drop down. Then just swap back when you wanna go back to speakers.[/quote]
when i’m using headphones i use the internal realtek card and then switch to my m audio when using monitors
i always wondered though do you not lose sound quality using a standard internal card like the realtek (not that my £90 quid m audio is much better lol) or would you even notice if only using it with headphones…??
If it’s all digital/in the box, then no you wont lose any quality.
Right guys…
I went to Jaycar Electrical last night after work (I live in Sydney so Maplin was a bit far 
and i got an adapter which consisted of 3 parts… the main bit had a female 3.5mm jack input for my headphones to go into and the other side had 2 female RCA inputs, which i then connected 2 double male RCA connectors to.
I then connected the 2 RCA male connectors to output 5/6 on my soundcard, went into Ableton preferences/output config and chose output 5/6, then under the master volume in session view i chose output 5/6 for both monitor and master outputs. The sound quality is perfect and it is more than loud enough, in fact i almost blew my ear drums when i first tried it out!
Althought the problem i now face is i’m getting a few pops and clicks when playing my almost finished track. I’ve even bumped up my buffer size to 256 but it’s still happeneing. Would this be anything to do with using the headphones? I don’t have massive amounts of stuff going on in the track although the CPU usage is at about 45% when the track is playing.
Cheers
Mozz
Excellent news about your headphones, I will remember that. I am glad I was wrong.
I think you will need to increase your buffer size. In Ableton preferences there is a test tone you can run and set the cpu usage. I set it to 80% cpu and look for the lowest buffer with no pops.
I have an i7 950 CPU and and M-Audio firewire and I have the buffer set to 256, i get pops at about 90% CPU.
Yeah it’s pretty handy, i can switch between headphones/monitor speakers simply by flicking over the monitor/master output to whatever channel they correspond to.
Cheers for the info although the pops seemed to have stopped now!?