What do I need to emulate this setup?

[simonbestParticipant]

Hi, first of all, I wasn't sure where to post this, I think this is the section that fits better.
A friend of mine that owns a restaurant that sometimes hosts live performances has asked me what would be needed to emulate the kind of setup that you can see in the following video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_XJ_s5IsQc

So as you see, it would be a live, detailed recording session. The final output should be sent to the audience's headphones, and you should have independent headphone mix groups for the musicians. My question is what would be an efficient way to achieve this? What gear would be absolutely needed?

[Nick D.Participant]

you would need a console with enough sends to give each musician a separate mix or multiple consoles to accomodate and some sort of headphone amplifier either for each musician or one that has separate input/output (not all headphone amps have this) then the audience would each need a headphone amp playing the stereo mix. I know the headphone amp I have has 6 independent output controls and each control can drive 3 headphones. so 18 headphones total from my amplifier, but if you wanted to give each audience member their own volume control it would have to have some sort of separate control for attenuation.

Using a headphone mixing system like the DBX or behringer looks like it would be the best choice if you have more than 5 or 6 musicians as most consoles will start to run out of sends really fast. It would be better to treat this as a live show being recorded than a studio session with an audience. I also do live sound and I would say that the Midas/Behringer would be the most cost effective and efficient way to do this as they all connect digitally and expand easily. The Midas M32 has better preamps and converters than the X32 and if you are going to record than that's what I would use, but for live use the difference is not noticeable. The system uses ultranet (cat 5 cable to each headphone system) which allows 16 independent console sends to be controlled by the headphone unit. the live engineer can make it a little easier for everyone depending on how big the band is and what each persons needs. For instance he can send a drum bus instead of sending individual elements, same with FX, or any other busses or can just send the individual channel, but stereo sends still require 2channels which limits the send count. however you are relying on the musicians to mix themselves...

[simonbestParticipant]

Hi Thunderhousestudio, I have a clearer idea now of how to plan it now, thanks for the thorough reply!

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