How do I mute my monitors while leaving headphones on? Very simply, I want to be able disable my monitor speakers and leave the headphones on.  This is obviously important when recording in the same room.

All the mixers I have come across place the main level controls before the phones output, which have their own level control.  This seems like a missed opportunity.

Sounds simple enough, but the thread Home studio mixer/mic/monitor/headphone setup questions, which is the closest I've found to a statement of the question, never addresses it.


  The biggest thing I am not sure how to do is set up my
  monitors/headphones on the mixer so that I can go back and forth when
  recording


Up to now, I have been driving my monitors from the 1&amp;2 bus of a mixing console.  This allows me to turn down the speakers using the group faders.  But this console is broken, and I would like to replace it with something simpler that is strictly for monitoring (since I don't need the preamps or EQ, etc.)  It seems like a simple line mixer should be able to handle my requirements.  But even the line mixers with 2 aux buses don't have single faders for those sends.

What am I missing here?  How is this normally done?
you are in the correct track: a small mixer would do the trick. Basically you have the pfl button that would get the specific channel(s)/souce(s) selected to your headhones jack (monitors) without modifying at all your master (and viceversa). Another option would be something like the Mackie Big Knob, made specifically for what you want, but in this case you can only select to monitor a source, not individual channels).