It’s been barely two weeks since I complained about missing post-fader monitor sends and here is a new firmware that has just one feature: a new routing option for choosing between pre-fader and post-fader monitor sends.
I have installed the new firmware, I have installed the 5.12 drivers, but I cannot see the new option yet, because the FLOW MIX 1.5 app isn’t available yet. The App Store has 1.3, the Play Store has 1.4. So close and yet so far. I sincerely hope this is not a global but a per channel setting.
I have this fantastic Behringer Flow 8 digital mixer, that I cannot use for one missing feature: per channel post-fader monitor.
Let me explain.
The Flow 8 has 8 channels of which 4 are mono, and 2 are dual channel stereo. The stereo channels can be fed from four line-in, USB 1/2 or USB 3/4. You can also connect a Bluetooth source.
Behringer Flow 8 with Beyerdynamic DT 297
There are three mixes: main, monitor 1 and monitor 2. I connect the two monitor busses as a stereo bus, so I have two busses: main and monitor. The main mix is what I send out, the monitor mix is what I hear on my headphones. I need a mix-minus configuration, which means the monitor mix has one channel more than the main mix. This is where I listen to an audio source that I do not send out. This would be Clubhouse or any other communication software like Zoom or Teams. You do not want to loop the incoming channel back into the main mix. So far this works well.
Here is what I am missing: I cannot listen to the main mix. I do not know what I am sending out. If I fade in some background music, I do not know how loud it is on the main mix since I am listening to the monitor mix. If that monitor mix would be post fader, I could hear the music at the correct level. I could do this for every channel, except the extra one that I do not want to have in the main mix. This channel would be set to pre-fader. Even if the main fader would be down to zero, I could still hear it in the monitor mix.
This is so frustrating. This machine would be perfect if it only had this one feature. Uli Behringer, can you make this happen in a software update?
Music Mode has given Clubhouse a new life with high fidelity stereo music. A word of caution: do not turn on Music Mode when you are only talking. It removes features like echo cancellation. If your setup is not perfect, you will send echoes into Clubhouse that disrupt everybody else.
Music mode is optimized for music streaming instead of conversation. Only the person streaming enables music mode. All others stay in one of the previous three modes. In this post I will explain how to connect to a PodTrak P4 like I do. A rodecaster can be used in exactly the same way. I will also give you an idea on how to proceed with other gear.
Fig 1: Analog TRRS connection provides stereo-out from a phone and mono-inFig 2: A USB connection provides stereo-out and stereo-in
We used to do the old iRig2/TRRS trick (see Fig 1) to get sound into clubhouse, because Clubhouse would only accept analog microphone input, but not USB input. TRRS (tip-ring-ring-sleeve) is left-right-neutral-mic. Four connectors, three insulators. There is only one mono mic input into iPhone.
These times are over. We can now go over USB into iPhone, full stereo. The simplest way to do this is to get a USB host adapter like the USB 3 Adapter from Apple, which also lets you provide power over the Lightning cable you already have. Fig 2 shows my old USB Adapter from the camera connection kit, without power-in. For Android use a USB-to-go adapter.
Connect the USB-Adapter to your iPhone, plug a USB-cable from your audio equipment in, like you do with your computer and you see a “headset” in your control center. This provides stereo-out from Clubhouse to your equipment and stereo-in from your equipment into Clubhouse. Make sure you only monitor Clubhouse stereo-out and never loopback into Clubhouse (mix-minus).
Done. This works for every mixer that has a USB connection. I use a PodTrak P4 from ZOOM, which I highly recommend. You can also use a RØDECaster Pro. Connect via USB for Clubhouse, that is important. Not the TRRS phone connector, because you send only mono.
I use this TRRS connection to play music into the mixer. This means I turned the audio chain on its head. Digital stereo connection from and to mixer via USB, analog stereo-in from second iPhone, or other source.
Fig 3: Audio interface with stereo-in, stereo-out, and TRS headphones monitor
If you do not have a USB-enabled mixer or just a home stereo, then use a simple audio interface like my last century Edirol UA-1x to go in and out of the phone. I have yet to connect anything to this old device and test it, but the interface already shows up on the iPhone. Take it from there.
USB enables mixer are not expensive, like this Behringer XENYX 302USB. They also provide an input for professional microphones like the Shure SM58. The difficult task is to set it up correctly to avoid a loopback. You have to make sure that you only monitor USB-In, but not send it to the main mix.
This is a summary of what we learned during our 100 soundchecks on Clubhouse. We heard around 2000 setups and we made dozens of artists and their instruments. We means two people: Ralf Rottman and myself.
Why is this difficult? iOS handles Clubhouse like a VoIP app, providing bi-directional audio even when put into the background. These apps cannot use USB-connected devices, so anything that connects USB through Lightning does not work. iPadoS with USB-C equipped iPads actually do, but I am describing iPhone setups here.
We have three challenges:
We want to connect audio equipment through a TRRS audio adapter to Lightning.
We need to bring audio equipment from AUX level down to Microphone input level.
We don’t want to send audio output from Clubhouse back into Clubhouse. This is called mix-minus: send everything to the iPhone, minus what is coming from the iPhone.
Let’s start with the audio conversion. Apple sells a small adapter that lets you connect an audio plug to Lightning. Better get something less flimsy. That can be headphones (TRS = tip ring sleeve, left channel + right channel + neutral) or headsets (TRRS = tip ring ring sleeve, left channel + right channel + neutral + microphone). Look at the 3.5mm plug. Does it have three plastic rings or only two? That is the difference between TRRS and TRS. You want TRRS in this adapter.
You can buy a splitter that connects TRRS to TRS headphones and TS microphone. They share neutral on the S connectors. One connector sends two audio channels to your headphones and receives one audio channel from the microphone. No matter what you connect here, you cannot send stereo into the iPhone in this setup.
Some devices can connect to the iPhone directly through a TRRS cable, like the RØDECaster Pro or the Zoom Podtrak P4 which I prefer. They solve all three challenges: TRRS, microphone input level and what we call mix-minus.
Let’s setup a Zoom PodTrak P4:
Insert two batteries or connect USB-power, turn it on.
Connect a microphone to channel 1 via an XLR plug. Select whether it needs phantom power or not with the switch under your first dial.
Connect headphones to the first bottom connector
Connect the iPhone through a 3.5mm TRRS cable and either the iPhone dock or a TRRS-Lightning connector. Set the switch under channel 3 to the rightmost position.
Start with level 5..6 on channel 1, 10 on channel 3, and 5..6 on the Soundpad and headphones dial. The VU-meter will tell you if you got the level right. When you speak into the microphone you should hear yourself. If you play audio from the iPhone you should hear it if you set the iPhone volume to about 80 percent. When you connect to Clubhouse, everything should work just right.
If you want to connect a second microphone to pick up your guitar, plug it into channel 2 and level it so that the mix on your ears is balanced. People on Clubhouse will hear what you hear.
If you want to sing to playback then use channel 4 and play your background track on your PC into the PodTrak. Set the switch on channel 4 to the rightmost position. As on the iPhone you will need to set the PC volume level. My PC is on 50% and channel 4 is 5..6.
I am not a singer, and PodTrak provides everything I need. I can play jingles from the four soundpads, I can record to the internal SD card and I can record/playback over USB to the PC. But there is one killer requirement for musicians: PodTrak does not have an effects processor and cannot provide reverb. It’s a machine designed to record podcasts, even away from power in the field. Channel 3 can be used to call people into the podcast, channel 4 to connect Teams, Zoom etc.
Now let’s assume, you already have a mixer where your microphone and instrument are connected. For most mixers you need to bring down the instrument level on the main out to microphone level. This is where the IK Media iRig 2 comes into play. It replaces the TRRS splitter mentioned earlier. Plug the output of your mixer into the 1/4″ instrument input, set the volume dial on the iRig2 to maybe 20% and see where that takes you. You can plug your earphones into the 3.5mm plug on the iRig2 but you will not hear yourself.
This is where things get tricky. Connect a 3.5mm stereo plug (TRS) to the iRig and the other end of that cable to a channel on your mixer. Depending on the mixer, you will need two RCA or two TS mono plugs at the other end. You can now monitor your voice, your instruments and Clubhouse on your mixer.
Now you need to solve the mix-minus problem. You want to hear clubhouse, but you don’t want to send out this signal to Clubhouse. A simple DJ mixer does the trick, because it has two busses: one for Main, controlled by the faders, and one for Monitor, controlled by the monitor switch on each channel. Level all channel gains to your liking, open your mic, instrument faders, but not the one for the Clubhouse channel. You have all channels on your headphones, but all minus clubhouse on Main.
I have successfully used a Behringer Flow 8 to do the same. This one does not need an iRig since you can set the output to -10 dBV. I connected Main with a 2x XLR to 3.5mm TS cable to the input channel of the splitter and picked up Clubhouse with a TRS 3.5mm to 2x 1/4″ TS cable. I then mixed Main minus that channel (7/8) and Monitor 1+2 with the channel for my headphones. In the photo above you see the main mix: channel 2 (microphone) is up, channel 5/6 (USB from PC) is up, but channel 7/8 is down.
Your mixer will need different hacks to filter out the Clubhouse channel. The devil is in the details here.
There is one frequent issue: your audio cuts out like it is clipping. What really happens here is that your output level from your mixer is too high. Lower the volume on the iRig to correct for that, or in case of the Flow 8, the level on the Main out.
