It's a little different in Logic than Nuendo, but there ARE relatively simple ways to achieve what you're after. I sure wish Apple would add something Cubase/Nuendo's "Control Room" section to Logic...
However, here's a primer on the way it works here and now in the real world of 8.02
The "output" faders in Logic's mixer are directly tied to their hardware destinations. Thus you have a 'master out 1-2' fader that corresponds to your interfaces 'main' outs. If your headphones are connected, for example, to outputs 3-4, there should also be a stereo output fader to represent that.
So how to quickly switch between monitoring on headphones or main speakers?
Well, in most studios you want the flexibility to have a different 'cue mix' on headphones and the 'main master mix' that goes to the outputs, right? So you set up a "headphone bus", which is just an aux channel with it's "output" set to wherever your headphones are (let's say 'outs 3-4').
Then, you can either assign a 'headphone bus send' to each channel in your mixer, (just like on a real mixer), and/or put headphone sends on each of your submix aux channels. I have 8 submixes for vox, backingvox, guitars, drums, percussion, keys, etc. And 8 more effects busses. Each of them has a 'headphone send' which defaults to 12'oclock, which gives me a good headphone mix to start. If I want more or less of any thing, then i can use either the individual channel 'headphone send' or the submix bus sends... Make sense-ish?
But all of that is still really a separate 'headphone mix' and 'master mix' situation.
If I want to monitor the 'real' mix on headphones, I do one of two things. 1 - my MOTU interface has a headphone out which mirrors the master outs. I plug my phones in there and turn down the master output volume. Or 2 - Don't assign any channels or busses to the "master output". Instead route them all to a "master bus". And then assign THAT bus to the master outs. Why?
Well, just remember that the 'master out 1-2' fader represents the physical output itself. It is NOT assignable. But a bus/aux is. So if you send everything to a an aux first, then you have a situation more like what you're familiar with from Nuendo. Now you can either switch the output of your 'master bus' to any physical outputs you want (headphone out, alternate speakers, etc), or you can use 'bus sends' on the new 'master bus' to send the main mix to headphones, alternate speakers, etc.
Hope that's clear enough. It sounds more complicated than it is, and once you make this part of your basic recording template, it's not something you have to think about ever again. It just becomes part of your basic workflow.
I like having a 'master bus' that is then routed to the main outputs, because then - if you put plugins on the master bus, instead of the 'physical' output, it's easier to switch plugs on and off, or have certain tracks bypass the 'master' plugs and go direct to the outputs. This comes in handy when you're creating stems, for example, or want the kick drum to rise above everything else and not get pulled down by the 2-bus compressor for example.
cheers.
T
