Babyface Pro FS with 9 band PEQ for 2 different headphones simultaneously

[artburda]

I was playing around with a Babyface and tried to copy the functionality of the Adi-2 Pro. A great feature of the Adi-2 Pro is the possibility to use two headphones at the same time but with separate volume controls and separate EQ profiles for each headphone. So you get basically a 7 band PEQ (incl. bass/treble shelves) with the Adi-2 Pro per headphone. The Babyface however only provides a 3 band PEQ per input/output and both headphone outputs use the same output channels 3/4. So, how to make the Babyface more like the Adi-2 Pro?

Maybe the following was already suggested on ASR, in that case feel free to post the link to the corresponding thread.

Getting more PEQ bands per analog output pair

• Open the Fireface USB Settings and set "Optical Out" to "ADAT". Set the Clock Source to "Internal". By setting ADAT you get more than two digital input/output channels to play with. On the Babyface connect the optical output to the optical input.

• Open Totalmix FX and load an empty Snapshot. Make sure that the "Routing Mode" is set to "SUBMIX" (1). In the "hardware outputs" section click on "ADAT 3/4" (2). In the "software playback" section double click on the "AN 1/2" fader so it's at 0dBFS and routed to the ADAT 3/4" output channels (3). Make sure no other software playback channels are routed to it.

• In the "control room" section, click on "Assign" and assign "PH 3/4" to "Phones 1" and make sure "AN 1/2" are assigned to "Main Out".

• Than click on "Phones 1" in the "control room" section. In the "hardware inputs" section double click on the "ADAT 3/4" fader so it's at 0dBFS and routed to the "Phones 1" output. Make sure nothing else is routed to "Phones 1".

• You can repeat now the last 3 bullet points. Instead of routing the software playback channels "AN 1/2" to "ADAT 3/4", route them this time to the hardware outputs "AS 1/2". Than click on "Main" in the control room and route the hardware inputs "AS 1/2" to it.

Now you can combine the 3 band PEQ from the digital output, the digital input and also the analog output, which gives you a 9 band PEQ. In case of the mains out you would have to connect the XLR outputs to an additional headphone amplifier in order to use two headphones simultaneously.

Beware of digital clipping:
After applying the EQ, don't forget to lower the level of the digital input/output, otherwise you will clip the digital signal. To be safe, lower it by the same amount as the highest eq boost you applied. Unless you boosted two EQ bands close to each other, in that case you would have to lower the level a bit more.

Higher sampling rates:
Since ADAT supports 8 channels with 44.1/48khz and 4 channels with 88.2/96kHz, the suggested setup for 2 headphones works for sampling rates up to 96kHz.

Have you tried something similar? Maybe there is a more elegant way to achieve the same with the Babyface? To be honest, I don't know if I now still need the Adi-2 Pro :-D

 

[FINFET]

Thank you for sharing some really interesting tricks. If you make some further analog output and input loop connections, it might be able to expand to 12-band if my understanding is correct? Though this setup occupies all the ADAT inputs and outputs so functions of Babyface is limited but if a multi-band hardware EQ is a must then that looks like a good solution. Still the Babyface has to be connected to a PC when EQing then I think software solutions like plugins in a DAW or EqualizerAPO will do the job as long as latency is not a strict requirement.

The Babyface has a built-in Loopback function, which might be used instead of physically connecting optical inputs and outputs. But the loopback signals are not displayed in Totalmix if I remembered correctly, but can be utilized in DAW or streaming software.

 

[artburda]

The Babyface has a built-in Loopback function, which might be used instead of physically connecting optical inputs and outputs. But the loopback signals are not displayed in Totalmix if I remembered correctly, but can be utilized in DAW or streaming software.

I tried that. But it doesn‘t work. When you use loopback in Totalmix FX it doesn‘t show the looped back signal in the corresponding input channels. The looped back signal can only be accessed by a DAW or other software.

 

[FINFET]

I tried that. But it doesn‘t work. When you use loopback in Totalmix FX it doesn‘t show the looped back signal in the corresponding input channels. The looped back signal can only be accessed by a DAW or other software.

That's something I don't quite understand about Totalmix. They should at least put an indicator to show the loopback signals and methods to route the signal to playback channels.
Anyway, the built-in loopback can still be used to add three more bands without connecting analog hardware if my understanding is correct. Set your final hardware output to other channels (for example, AN 1/2) instead of the headphone. Loopback that channel, play the loopback channel in a software playback channel with low latency player, then route the software playback channel to your headphones. But a software router or mixer will get in the way, which increases the complexity and possibly latency, so might as well just use EqualizerAPO instead.

 

[artburda]

I‘m using macos, so no equalizerapo. I tried some macos alternatives and got mixed results. For me 9 bands or even 6 bands are enough and I can keep everything within Totalmix FX, so no additional latency or points of possible failures.