Only hearing music out of the left headphones

[Park Seward]

Those of you with experience in Focusrite know that the software supplied will work standalone. If she is trying to get sound from the Focusrite interface without correctly installing the software and adjusting it, she will never hear what she wants.

I have posted earlier the steps to adjust Focusrite software from the Focusrite web site.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Park Seward

Those of you with experience in Focusrite know that the software supplied will work standalone. If she is trying to get sound from the Focusrite interface without correctly installing the software and adjusting it, she will never hear what she wants.

I have posted earlier the steps to adjust Focusrite software from the Focusrite web site.

But she is not trying to get sound from the Focusrite in stand alone mode. Should be clear from the first post. And subsequent tests of just trying to play back from Pro Tools failed. So it's not a monitoring issue is it?

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Park Seward

Sorry. Didn't notice you had taken on the responsibility of moderator. If I want to repeat a suggestion because don't believe it has been followed, you may use your delete key of you don't want to read it. At lease three posters have suggested the same thing and I still don't have a clear answer.

Count how many times she was asked to check the headphones with another device.

She did reply before your post that playing back a simple existing audio track did not work...only played out the same earphone side as before. So it is not an input/mic issue. It does not matter whether she was trying to record to a stereo track or whatever. She cannot get playback of an existing song from both channels. So move on to the next step of useful debugging. Nope, you want to go back and fixate on the microphone/track question again...

So if an interface is not playing back from Pro Tools in both headphone channels from a simple session, and the headphone is known to work OK what are the possible cases????

... Track pans cranked hard left (hard to understand why they would be, but pointed out as a possible cause).

... Messed up Output IO (user has been asked to default that IO multiple times, also asked to paste a screen shot here).

... Faulty interface or headphone socket or adapter etc. (user suggested to wiggle the plug in the socket, try to borrow monitors/speakers to test with. and/or contact Focusrite).

So based on all the information in this thread and all your experience what other logical suggestions do you have to actually move forward her troubleshooting?

[Park Seward]

If she has the Focusrite interface active and does not have the Focusrite software installed, she won't hear anything. So since she is hearing something we can assume she has the software installed. But having the routing incorrectly set could produce the effect we are seeing here. There is a default setting for the Focusrite software. That should be checked.

I'm having a difficult time following what she has tried. Knowing the model interface would help.

I appreciate the directions/troubleshooting Darryl has given but I haven't seen her reply.

She says she has had this problem for awhile now.

Focusrite has a tutorial about the mic coming out of the left channel only. I listed that in the first page of this thread but haven't heard if that solution has been tried.

[MusicGirl]

It's still only playing out the left ear. I know that my audio interface is set up correctly. I've tried watching YouTube tutorials and everything but none have helped me. I'm going to try and contact Pro-Tools support, but they want my Pro-Tools ID but I don't know where it is.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by MusicGirl

It's still only playing out the left ear. I know that my audio interface is set up correctly. I've tried watching YouTube tutorials and everything but none have helped me. I'm going to try and contact Pro-Tools support, but they want my Pro-Tools ID but I don't know where it is.

Can you just try answering the many questions asked like.. (ideally quote this post and answer each question in-line)...

What exact model Focusrite interface do you have?

What exact model headphones do you have?

(oh a new one... what exact socket on the interface do you have the headphones plugged into)

When you had the audio session and added an audio track and then dragged a stereo MP3/iTunes/whatever audio file onto an audio track... and still only had playback out one channel, ... did you then try to do a default on the Output IO as suggested before?

Can you post a screen shot of the Setup>IO>Output page after doing that default reset there

Do you have any other cables, adapter (e.g. 3.mm to 1/4" etc.) between the interface and headphone? What exactly... model/part number or post a photo.

Has this ever worked correctly?

Have you made sure the headphone jack is fully inserted in the headphone socket and tried wiggling it, gently pulling it out etc. while listening to see if the other channel starts working while you do this. (faulty contacts inside a socket is very common)

Can you borrow monitors test with?

And if you contact support I suspect you need to contact Focusrite support (as mentioned several times already) not Avid support.

[Darryl Ramm]

And I guess another question none of us asked yet is when you play back system sound, or music though iTunes or similar do you get the same one-channel only output?

(What computer do you have and what OS version?)

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

She did reply before your post that playing back a simple existing audio track did not work...only played out the same earphone side as before. So it is not an input/mic issue. It does not matter whether she was trying to record to a stereo track or whatever. She cannot get playback of an existing song from both channels. So move on to the next step of useful debugging. Nope, you want to go back and fixate on the microphone/track question again...

So if an interface is not playing back from Pro Tools in both headphone channels from a simple session, and the headphone is known to work OK what are the possible cases????

... Track pans cranked hard left (hard to understand why they would be, but pointed out as a possible cause).

... Messed up Output IO (user has been asked to default that IO multiple times, also asked to paste a screen shot here).

... Faulty interface or headphone socket or adapter etc. (user suggested to wiggle the plug in the socket, try to borrow monitors/speakers to test with. and/or contact Focusrite).

So based on all the information in this thread and all your experience what other logical suggestions do you have to actually move forward her troubleshooting?

I keep giving you one but you refuse to acknowledge that it would help. It doesn't take that long to download and run the demo session and would at least drop out the variables of possible session setup errors once I/O is defaulted.

[Darryl Ramm]

Can you explain what "session setup error" a session with a single audio track can have that could cause the described issues?

Track panned hard left?
Output IO settings corrupted?
Audio track dropped in is mono on a stereo track?

At this point given the OPs inability to apparently answer a few questions clearly, by all means knock yourself out. Try the demo session, sacrifice a chicken, pay and call Avid support....

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Can you explain what "session setup error" a session with a single audio track can have that could cause the described issues?

Track panned hard left?
Output IO settings corrupted?
Audio track dropped in is mono on a stereo track?

At this point given the OPs inability to apparently answer a few questions clearly, by all means knock yourself out. Try the demo session, sacrifice a chicken, pay and call Avid support....

I give up - you win. Tried to help but you keep negating everything other people mention or have some snide remark about it. If you can't understand basic troubleshooting principles and starting with something that's a known good item then there's nothing else that can be said without violating the TOS and I ain't going there.