Headphones with a passive mixer?

[Spork829]

Hi all!

 

I've been looking for a cheap and small solution for mixing multiple outputs from my PC into a single output so I can hear everything through my headphones at once.

 

The reason for this is I'm a musician using Reaper, which takes complete control over all sound playing in Windows. Meaning that if Reaper and Windows are set to use the same output, Windows cannot play any sound outside of Reaper while it's running. 

 

I think the easiest solution is to set Windows to a different output and mix them, so that Reaper is outputting through my motherboard audio, while Windows is coming through, say, the port on my monitor over HDMI. 

 

The only thing I've been able to find that's cheap and is stereo rather than mono is this thing. 

 

Will this be able to drive headphones, or will I need an amp in between? If so, do you guys have any recommendations for bang-for-buck headphone amps? Or is there a small, cheap powered stereo mixer I couldn't find? Or some other solution entirely?

 

 

Thanks so much everyone!

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1 hour ago, Spork829 said:

The reason for this is I'm a musician using Reaper, which takes complete control over all sound playing in Windows. Meaning that if Reaper and Windows are set to use the same output, Windows cannot play any sound outside of Reaper while it's running.

This sounds interesting to me and is something I've never experienced with any program, but it has reminded me of a setting that I've never noticed to have any impact:

 

 

I don't suppose you have this checked?  Does the problem go away if you uncheck it?

[Spork829]

5 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

This sounds interesting to me and is something I've never experienced with any program, but it has reminded me of a setting that I've never noticed to have any impact:

 

 

I don't suppose you have this checked?  Does the problem go away if you uncheck it?

Yep, I've tried quite a few troubleshooting steps including unchecking that box, which doesn't have any effect. As far as the internet seems to know, there's no way to get Reaper not to act this way. I've also noticed the opposite effect, where Reaper won't be able to use the output device if certain other programs are open, particularly Spotify.

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1 minute ago, Spork829 said:

Yep, I've tried quite a few troubleshooting steps including unchecking that box, which doesn't have any effect. As far as the internet seems to know, there's no way to get Reaper not to act this way. I've also noticed the opposite effect, where Reaper won't be able to use the output device if certain other programs are open, particularly Spotify.

Interesting... an external mixer would solve this but I can't help but feel like there's a more convenient (not to mention free) solution here, and I'd hate for you to buy something if that's the case.

If it does come to a mixer though, I don't have any experience with passive ones so I couldn't recommend a unit, but I have a few general points to mention surrounding the subject:

• You shouldn't need an amp or anything unless you needed one anyway.  Such a device should not significantly alter the sound
• Don't worry about being mono, depending on the design, you could split the stereo signal first and run on separate channels, or just use two mono units.  May not be cheaper in the end but, it might be, so don't completely rule it out.

As for a powered mixer, there are a few small budget options that should work but as with many things, you get what you pay for, so depending on how pristine you need the sound to be, a cheap option may not be good enough.  For all I know the same might be true of a passive mixer but I don't know about that.

[Spork829]

3 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Interesting... an external mixer would solve this but I can't help but feel like there's a more convenient (not to mention free) solution here, and I'd hate for you to buy something if that's the case.

If it does come to a mixer though, I don't have any experience with passive ones so I couldn't recommend a unit, but I have a few general points to mention surrounding the subject:

• You shouldn't need an amp or anything unless you needed one anyway.  Such a device should not significantly alter the sound
• Don't worry about being mono, depending on the design, you could split the stereo signal first and run on separate channels, or just use two mono units.  May not be cheaper in the end but, it might be, so don't completely rule it out.

As for a powered mixer, there are a few small budget options that should work but as with many things, you get what you pay for, so depending on how pristine you need the sound to be, a cheap option may not be good enough.  For all I know the same might be true of a passive mixer but I don't know about that.

Thanks for the info, I may just try out the passive mixer, because it will be useful for me to have anyways. 

 

I've tried some software mixing options, the most promising of which was Voicemeeter, but AFAIK it doesn't seem possible to route one physical output into another within Windows.