For new Booth output, make source selectable

[Inanna Moon]

Another feature of the studio mixing boards I have used is being able to select what to send to studio (booth) monitor speakers This is useful when there is a guest in the booth/studio with the DJ. (I discussed this request on the Mixxx forums, including real use cases.)

[Be (be.ing)]

What do you propose as the possible sources for the booth output? Currently it is possible to select either the master mix or the master mix without microphones.

[Inanna Moon (inannamoon)]

Ideally, have "booth sends" on sources like how they already have headphone sends.

If that's too much, then add headphone and the aux inputs. From my radio station experience, these, plus main , are the most used for the studio monitors.

[Daniel Schürmann (daschuer)]

Please link the related forums thread.

For my feeling headphone sends is too much, because it requires to duplicate many things in the engine, only for a minor use case.

Is the setup for the booth send a one time thing that can go to the preferences options?

[Inanna Moon (inannamoon)]

On the radio station mix/control board, we had a selector switch to choose which output or input to send to the studio monitor. Main output, cue output (aka headphone output), "air" input or any of the other inputs to the board.

Selecting Main would "copy" the main output to the studio monitor output. Similar with cue/headphone.

Selecting Air would send the input from the "air monitor receiver" to the studio monitor output. But that would really be no different from selecting an aux input to "copy" to the studio monitor.

Selecting an input would "copy" that input to the studio monitor output.

The selector was changed infrequently, so in Mixxx, could be in the preference settings. A gain control would be nice, but not essential.

[Daniel Schürmann (daschuer)]

Could you describe the current setup of the booth selectors of your studio board?

Maybe there is a chance to reduce the preference options / mixing engine to a minimum that fits to your use case.

[Inanna Moon (inannamoon)]

The board has a Main bus and a Cue bus. Each of the primary inputs (decks, mics and aux's) can be sent to either Main or Cue. It also has a secondary input for the "Air monitor", which is only available to the headphone and studio/booth outputs.

The studio/booth monitor output has a selector to choose between Air, Main, Cue and each of the primary inputs.

Ignoring Air, the most commonly used selections are Main, Cue and the aux's. For Mixxx, that would be Main, Headphone and the aux's.

I think this would cover most "Internet Radio" setups, as well as "club" setups where the DJ had a sound-isolated booth.

[Daniel Schürmann (daschuer)]

In our case, "Air Monitor" will add the Talkover mix back to Headphones and Both, which was original removed to avoid Echos/Delay. Is there as use case to short time monitor the air signal with lets say a momentary switch?

> For Mixxx, that would be Main, Headphone and the aux's.

OK, so there is no mixing bus/engine? Just allow to copy Aux1 for example.
What is the use case for listening to a single Aux channel in the booth?

[Inanna Moon (inannamoon)]

Correct, no mixing. Just select a source to send to Booth out.

For AUX send to Booth, that would be when there's both in-studio and "call in" guests. (My experience with guests is they dislike headphones and only reluctantly put them on when a MIC is live.)

If you want to propose an AIR monitor feature, that would be nice, but I think if a DJ brings AIR into an AUX, it's his/her responsibility to not send it to Booth. (I envision it only being available to Headphone.)

In the interest of not removing functionality that's already been implemented, I revise my list to:

Main no MIC, Main with MIC, Headphone and the AUXs.

Mixxx is already great for Internet radio as well as DJ-ing. Whoever added the Booth output, thank you. It makes Mixxx even more useful for radio. I'm only trying to suggest enhancements to make the Booth output even more useful.

[Be (be.ing)]

We have discussed implementing an auxiliary send bus for an unrelated purpose (using hardware effects processors), but it may also be useful for your use cases too, Inanna Moon. I think that would be better than repurposing the Booth output. That task is tracked in Bug #1740346.

[Daniel Schürmann (daschuer)]

To support this use case with an aux send bus, we need to allow to path booth to this bus as well. Does this fit?
The original request is more like a second headphone channel.

[Be (be.ing)]

An auxiliary send bus could be used like a second headphone channel.

[Inanna Moon (inannamoon)]

Adding additional options to the booth output seems much simpler than the aux send bus.

I'm not trying to re-purpose the booth output, only enhance it's usefulness.

Also, the "input copies" would be pre-fader.

[Swiftb0y (swiftb0y)]

Mixxx now uses GitHub for bug tracking. This bug has been migrated to:
https://github.com/mixxxdj/mixxx/issues/8953