LOL Shaun, I don’t think he was asking for advice on getting headphones.
G, in practice you are right, speakers close to you and headphone with cue signal on one ear is what most people will use. The cue/master balance is something different from split cue. There was a recent post on the blog you might want to look up. And if your controller doesn’t have split cue, you might be able to go fully mono and set your software to emulate split cue, but that is still different (and mono, albeit that that isn’t a bad thing necessarily).
With cue balance you hear the stereo sound in BOTH ears, only the amount of cue versus master can be changed from only cue through mix to only master. With split cue (a switch or button usually) you tell you controller to send the cue signal to one ear, the master to the other. So when you mix with headphones on, it’s (a lot imho) easier to mix than with just cue/master balance.
If a venue has no booth (and you don’t have one you can bring with you), then you are pretty much left with mixing in headphones. And in your case that means good use of the cue/master balance for mixing. Although I have heard one person ever say he can mix even when the house PA is further away from the booth, I won’t recommend it. The delay between the sound leaving the speaker and reaching your ear is already noticeable with a few meters distance. Also speakers will usually be facing away from you, so you hear way more bass and less mid/high.
Finally, there is no right or wrong in how you set up your workflow. If it works for you and you get the results wanted, then by all means, follow your instincts. I’ll usually listen to the incoming track on cue when it’s lower in volume than the other, then take my headphone off and listen to the house PA, although at times I will just keep listening to the incoming track in one ear on my earphone as well.
Hope that helps some.
Greetinx.
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