Audio and headphones
Route the room mix and headphone preview, set useful levels, and recover from device changes.
On this page
Master is the mix sent to your speakers. Cue / Preview lets you hear decks and audition tracks privately. Set up both routes before starting a performance.
Choose the outputs#
Stop the decks and preview, then open Settings → Audio. Output changes are unavailable while playback or pending audio work is active. The settings show the reason when a change is blocked.
One multichannel interface#
- Choose your interface for Master.
- Choose Same as Master for Cue / Preview.
- Select a stereo pair for each route. The usual automatic assignment is Master 1–2 and Cue 3–4.
- Connect speakers and headphones to the corresponding physical outputs, and test each route separately.
Check your interface’s own headphone routing. A headphone socket may monitor a fixed pair rather than every pair your interface offers. Select the pair you can actually hear. Choosing the other bus’s pair swaps the assignments; the tooltip explains the change before you click.
Separate devices on macOS#
You can choose a separate device for Cue / Preview, such as an interface’s headphone output while Master uses another speaker device. Select each device and its stereo pair in Settings. Grit remembers the physical devices and channels.
If a selected device is unavailable, Grit reports the problem rather than quietly moving your mix somewhere else. Reconnect it, or choose a connected Master device or System Default to recover. Changing Master this way also clears an unavailable separate cue device.
Laptop or a single stereo output#
Without a cue route, preview can play through Master while all decks are stopped. The preview button identifies this as Preview on Master or Play on Master.
Once a deck is playing, queued, being scratched, or still producing an effect tail, Master preview is blocked. A deck going live ends an existing audition. Configure a headphone route if you want to audition while performing.
Cue a loaded deck#
Enable the deck’s Cue button. Cue is taken before the deck fader, so you can listen with the deck volume down. Stem selection, EQ, and filter still shape what you hear. The crossfader affects the room mix and leaves Cue independent.
The bottom bar provides Cue level and Cue / Master. The latter blends the cue bus on the left with the room mix on the right, allowing you to compare a candidate against the mix in headphones. The Master side is taken before room volume, so lowering the speaker level does not remove your headphone reference.
Know which tempo a preview uses#
| Where you preview | What you hear |
|---|---|
| Prepare editor | Selected section loops at its original tempo; optional metronome |
| Library or Perform’s track browser | Candidate at its original tempo |
| A loaded deck in Perform, using Shift+Enter | Selected section at session tempo with the deck’s pitch lock and transposition |
Preview does not load a deck or change that deck’s transport. Entering Perform stops Prepare preview.
Set levels with room to mix#
0.0 dB means unchanged level. +6.0 dB is the upper limit and −∞ dB is silence. Double-click or Option-click a fader to reset it to 0.0 dB.
Layering tracks and boosting EQ adds level. If LIMIT stays lit beside the master fader, lower deck or master levels. The master limiter catches peaks; the meters still show the level before limiting so you can see overload. Start at a low speaker volume when testing a new route.
Reconnect deliberately#
An accepted routing change reloads acknowledged decks stopped. Device loss and recovery also leave playback stopped. Check the selected outputs and headphone path, then launch a section when you are ready.
For silence, wrong-channel sound, or repeated device failures, use the checks in Troubleshooting.