ROADTEST Hear Technologies Hear Back OCTO At a Personal Monitor Mix System Glance By StevelSavanyu riginally designed as a “cue-mix” sys- tem allowing performers in a record- Oing studio to control what they hear in Personal Monitor Mixing their headphones, personal monitor mixers Made Simple have moved out of the studio and onto live stages everywhere. Popular in houses of wor- Monitoring solution that brings pro ship and other performance spaces, person- quality fingertip monitor control to al monitor mixers take the burden off of the bands, churches and other users seek- FOH engineer by giving performers control of ing an improved listening environment what they hear. Digital technology has made to and performers — at a these systems easy to use and affordable — a down to Earth price. far cry from the earlier studio cue mix system designs. Building on the success of the company’s Hear Technologies Hear original Hear Back personal monitor system, Back OCTO Hear Technologies has improved its 8-chan- A basic Hear Back OCTO system combines a central Hub and nel Hear Back system while maintaining an one to eight OCTO Mixer controllers. PROS easy to operate personal mixer.

ii  A Little “Back” Ground… if the headphones have a shorted connection. Since this was more of a live “session” gig in my Large “scribble strips” on the mixer let users label studio performance space, I gave each vocalist A basic Hear Back OCTO system consists of each input control using dry-erase markers or a set of headphones and an OCTO Mixer. After a an OCTO Hub and up to eight OCTO mixers. P-touch-type labels. few minutes of instruction on using the individ- Each mixer connects to the hub using a standard The mixer has both 1/4” and 1/8” TRS head- ual channel controls to configure the “mix” and Cat-5e cable. A set of HearBus ports on the hub phone outputs (no hunting for adapters!), along using the master to set the overall headphone CONS allows an almost unlimited number of hubs to with a set of left and right line out connectors level, we were underway. daisy-chain together, expanding the total num- allowing the mixer to drive powered wedges or The gig went smoothly, and all of the us- ber of eight-channel mixers in a system. IEM transmitter inputs. An aux input connector ers said the OCTO Mixer was intuitive and easy Housed in a single 19-inch rackspace chassis, on the mixer allows a local to be inserted to operate. The only issue we had was when a the hub supplies and DC power to into the mixer’s audio stream. (A good example stereo link button was accidentally touched on the connected mixers. Designed to operate from would be a inserted mono channels 3 & 4 and the user had no idea 90 to 264 VAC, the Hub incorporates an internal into the drummer’s OCTO Mixer.) The mixer’s why their #4 input level no longer operated… power supply with a standard IEC power cord. built-in headphone is capable of sus- One of the things I really like about the Hear STATS (No unsightly wall warts here!) taining 2 of power! That means with a pair OCTO system is the simplicity of use for the per- The Hub accepts analog audio via a of popular studio headphones (such as the Au- former. Unlike some personal monitor systems DB25 connector (wired in the TASCAM DA-88 an- dio-Technica ATH-M50x), the OCTO Mixer can that offer multitudes of adjustable functions, Eight line sourc- alog standard), an optical port (ADAT lightpipe) drive the headphones to extreme levels which menu driven parameters and multi-function es on standard or the HearBus Port. A front panel switch on the could actually damage someone’s . Or, controls, the Hear OCTO system is simplicity at DB25 connector its best. Pick a knob, turn it, create your mix… It allows the performers to concentrate on their performance without being intimidated by the +4 dBu optimal, technology. +22 dBu max I next set the OCTO system up with my DAW interface using the ADAT lightpipe input. Again, setup was quite simple. In fact, it took more time Cat-5E cabling to route the DAW signals to the ADAT output on my interface than to connect and configure the Front and rear views of Hub OCTO system. Once I had signal flowing, I experi- 24-bit, 44.1/48 mented with different headphones and earbuds kHz hub selects which input is active and multicolor as I tell performers, (I have quite a collection…) for some in-depth LEDs on the Hub provide visual indication of in- you can blow your listening. In all cases, the signal from the OCTO put signal level. (I’m seeing more manufacturers brains out if you Mixer was clear, clean, detailed and… loud! Less than 1.5 using these multicolor LED’s as space-saving crank them up to mSec replacements for traditional LED bar graph me- too high! (With this ii  So, What’s the Take-Back? tering as improvements over simple peak signal in mind, Hear Tech- The Hear Back OCTO system was absolute- lights). nologies includes ly one of the easiest to use and set up personal 5.1 x 9.3 x 2.5 Eight “Mixer outputs” on RJ-45 connectors a large warning monitoring systems for both myself and the per- inches deliver digital audio, ground and DC power to box in the manu- formers using it. Audio performance excelled on the connected OCTO mixers. A solid-state auto- al about this very a wide variety of headphones and there was no matically resettable fuse on each mixer output topic!) discernable latency. prevents power supply damage from a shorted I liked having both 1/4” and 1/8” headphone 15.8 ounces cable or broken mixer. Each mixer is home run ii  Gig Time With connectors on the mixer, and I was not put in a back to the Hub and up to 200-feet of standard No SetBacks… The OCTO Mixer has easy to use position of needing to supply those ever-disap- controls and a mic stand mount Cat-5e cable can be used between the hub and I received an for convenience. pearing adapters. System with mixer. Additionally, a HearBus output port sends OCTO Hub and For the non-technical performer, the OCTO Hub, four OCTO the audio signals to another hub for system ex- four OCTO Mixers, along with four Cat-5e cables, Mixer’s front panel was intuitive and non-threat- Mixers, $2,299; pansion. power cord and a 10-foot DB25-to-TRS Male ening, making it an ideal choice for wide variety individual OCTO Mixer, $349 Rugged and designed for ease of use, the interface cable all packed in a nifty nylon “Tote of applications. True, it is limited to eight mix- OCTO Mixers are constructed of UV-stabilized Back” carry bag. The bag has movable dividers able sources (note that each of these can be a Hear ABS and incorporate a built-in standard (5/8” that enabled it to hold up to eight mixers, a nice subgroup feed, such as keys, drums, horns, etc.) Technologies x 27-thread) mic stand mount. Individual level touch… and this may be a limitation to some users, but controls for each of the eight input channels are Set up was quick and easy. Using the DB25-to- of course for those applications, the company’s provided along with a master volume control for TRS cable, I connected channels 1 and 2 to a ste- larger Hear Back PRO system fits the bill. heartech the mixer. Capacitive touch buttons with LED reo aux send on my console (overall band mix) Perhaps best of all, the expandability offered nologies.com status indicators allow odd/even channels to be and patched channels 3-6 into the direct out by the HearBus enables the user to grow their stereo linked. A bi-color LED indicates HearBus connectors on each of my vocal channels. I ran a system as needed. Start with a few OCTO Mixers, Clock signal presence and a red LED illuminates Cat-5e cable from the Hub to each OCTO Mixer. as more as your needs or budget grows.

56 NOVEMBER 2018 • fohonline.com