Stereo sound ONLY when record is armed.

[tommytime555]

Pulling my hair out a little bit.. When record is armed in PT what I'm getting under the headphones sounds slightly digital, or doubled, or something --- I cannot quite put my finger on it.... My actual recording console's (audient iD22) "mixer" is definitely off/muted so I'm not getting a double signal (which is what it sounds like)... Playback sounds GREAT, its only when the record button is armed that it sounds bad.

Any suggestions?

Thank you much!

T

[albee1952]

SO what you are hearing is a doubling? That's not "stereo". Still betting you have more than 1 signal to the phones. Does the Audient have a knob labelled MIX(between input and recorded audio)? Do you hear your live microphone if you mute the track in Pro Tools?

[Darryl Ramm]

Please answer Dave clearly about this... do you hear a switch from mono to stereo? etc.

I like that you went to hardware monitoring as the first idea. But like Dave I'm still stuck there as the best reason. I'd like to know how exactly you have made sure it's still not playing.

Make sure all the monitor mixer paths are disabled, not just main out, so including the cue mix to headphone and the DAW return (a classic way to mess up is things like DAW return feedback paths).

Do you hear anything wrong recorded into Pro Tools or is it only heard when monitoring? (if it's only when monitoring it really points to the hardware mixer).

When you make the IO Buffer very large does everything shift to a long delay or does it get strange/worse in other ways?

Can you turn up the different interface monitoring mix levels and see when/if this get worse or totally different and use that to help be sure that you are not hearing part of that still.

Check low-latency monitoring is not enabled in Pro Tools. Try muting all other tracks/paths.

If it is not that then (Hail Mary time...)

Check you have a valid/latest driver for the interface, that it's not using aggregate IO. Power cycle the interface. Reboot your Mac. (yes I've seen software controlled interface mixers go "out to lunch" on rare occasions and need this punishment).

Check what your monitoring path in IO setup. Trash prefs. Delete and default all the IO paths. Make sure the monitor path is correct for what you are using.

[tommytime555]

I so so appreciate the help here, guys.

The one that is catching my attention here is this:

Make sure all the monitor mixer paths are disabled, not just main out, so including the cue mix to headphone and the DAW return (a classic way to mess up is things like DAW return feedback paths).

I'm not totally sure how to go about changing/checking the *monitor mixing paths*... Is that done in Pro Tools? DAW return feedback paths... I'm not so sure what that means....

Again -- the recorded play back sounds pretty dang good (very close, if not identical to listening straight out of the iD22 mixer.. its only when I have record toggled in PT that it sounds a little *digital*... There MUST be some sort of monitor path setup wrong...

Here are some pics of my iD mixer: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/p92cep1jw...ySyjDQxRa?dl=0

I will try to answer each question individually tomorrow morning.

Really appreciate the help here.

Tommy

[tommytime555]

Originally Posted by albee1952

SO what you are hearing is a doubling? That's not "stereo". Still betting you have more than 1 signal to the phones. Does the Audient have a knob labelled MIX(between input and recorded audio)? Do you hear your live microphone if you mute the track in Pro Tools?

Also -- I definitely don't hear anything when muting the track in PT.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by tommytime555

Make sure all the monitor mixer paths are disabled, not just main out, so including the cue mix to headphone and the DAW return (a classic way to mess up is things like DAW return feedback paths).

I'm not totally sure how to go about changing/checking the *monitor mixing paths*... Is that done in Pro Tools? DAW return feedback paths... I'm not so sure what that means....
[/url]

DAW Return == DAW THRU in ID22 speak.

Look in the manual for you ID22 and understand what the "DAW THRU" inputs and outputs do. I don't use the ID22 and so would need to read the manual myself to get all the details... but I notice in your screenshot that the hardware mixer DAW Thru inputs are not enabled but some DAW Thru output are... if those signals get out of the hardware mixer into Pro Tools and then into the Pro Tools mix that could explain what you are hearing.

You can normally turn down/disable any DAW inputs or outputs from these hardware mixers themselves itself or obviously find where they are going to in the DAW and turn it down there or just not use those DAW input/output. And you may not be using any of those anyhow... but check.

Also -- I definitely don't hear anything when muting the track in PT.

That helps prove some (OK many) things, ... but be paranoid. If you have a mix going into Pro Tools though one of the DAW THRU mixer outputs and mute parts of Pro Tools you may be removing the problem you are looking for (e.g. especially mute only the single Pro Tools input track, which you may be doing already, and check the track input in Pro Tools is the actual hardware input and not one of the Daw THRU IOs).

If things don't make sense with naming in the IO setup delete the paths and click the Default button on each IO page. I don't know what they call them label them in Pro Tools IO but I'd hope the DAW THRU IO paths should have sensible names to help show what is going on. Hopefully that's also covered in their documentation. And likely you are just not using any of those inputs or outputs anywhere, which would be great to confirm.

If you get lost there, also give screenshots of the Pro Tools mix windows showing all the track IO selectors. (I hope this is a really small session, if not can you reproduce it in a really trivial session) as well as Setup>IO>{Input,Output,Bus}

And if you get rid of all DAW THRU possibilities then try the other stuff I mentioned. Especially basic troubleshooting 101 stuff like trash prefs and test with a new empty session.

[albee1952]

Still fishing a bit as you are lean on info. Are you indeed working on a Mac? I have to ask as Audient and Windows are not a happy combo(or weren't about 6 months ago)

[tommytime555]

I feel like you should both be sending me an invoice or something. I really appreciate your time.

So I gave it all a fresh listen this morning to triple check that my actual recorded play-back was good, and it is --- but when recording is armed -- (I'll try to explain this better), it doesn't necessarily sound *bad*, but like you are both saying - it sounds double-routed and is phasing a bit, or phase-cancelling (not sure which term is correct).

@ Dave - yes sir, I'm using a Mac. iMac 27" Retina, fairly new.

@ Darryl - I think you may be onto something with the I/O setup but I don't understand this enough to troubleshoot it super well.. I am attaching more screenshots that might help paint the picture a little better?

Thanks so much!

Pics:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g9yox79b0...anuuoSo3a?dl=0

[albee1952]

One common "newbie" goof when getting started in recording is; thinking you need to record every source(your voice, your guitar, etc) onto a STEREO track(because your final product will be a stereo recording). Which type of track to use(MONO vs STEREO) is about the source sound. A voice is(usually) a mono signal, so it would be recorded to a MONO track. From there, it can be panned across the stereo field(the virtual space between your left and right speakers), or it can be processed so that it becomes a stereo sound by adding effects like ping-pong delay, stereo pitch shifting(one side pitched up and the other side pitched down), reverb, etc. Maybe none of this helps with your current problem, but its good to know anyway

[Darryl Ramm]

The screenshot shows a mono analog input track.