Tracklane is muted but still hear dry guitar signal
March 6, 2021 12:49 PM Subscribe
Recording question: I use Logic X and recently replaced my DI, and now when I mute a track, I can still hear the dry guitar signal which didn't use to be true. What happened?
Basically I replaced a Presonus DI with a Steinberg UR44C. Things are mostly the same, but for some reason I still hear dry guitar in my headphones no matter what I do, whether or not Mute or Monitor is enabled. Is there something obvious I need to change in my MacOS settings maybe? I don't see anything on the DI itself. The old DI had a "Mix" knob that basically fixed this. Thank you!
Basically I replaced a Presonus DI with a Steinberg UR44C. Things are mostly the same, but for some reason I still hear dry guitar in my headphones no matter what I do, whether or not Mute or Monitor is enabled. Is there something obvious I need to change in my MacOS settings maybe? I don't see anything on the DI itself. The old DI had a "Mix" knob that basically fixed this. Thank you!
First things first - your UR44C is a USB audio interface, not a DI. A DI is a different (and much simpler) piece of gear.
What you're describing sounds like direct monitoring, which is a feature of most interfaces that feeds the input signal directly to the headphone or monitor mix, without it passing through your DAW at all. This is great for vocal recording, because it lets you hear yourself in your headphones with almost zero delay, but it's annoying for things like guitar where you often don't really care about the dry signal.
I had a quick skim through the UR44C manual, and it's not immediately obvious how to disable direct monitoring. I agree that there aren't any hardware controls that look relevant - I think you want to go into the included dspMixFx UR-C software and mute the input that your guitar's plugged into (and any other inputs you don't want to directly monitor). If you only ever want to hear playback through Logic, you can just click S on the DAW channel to solo it.
posted by spielzebub at 1:56 PM on March 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
What you're describing sounds like direct monitoring, which is a feature of most interfaces that feeds the input signal directly to the headphone or monitor mix, without it passing through your DAW at all. This is great for vocal recording, because it lets you hear yourself in your headphones with almost zero delay, but it's annoying for things like guitar where you often don't really care about the dry signal.
I had a quick skim through the UR44C manual, and it's not immediately obvious how to disable direct monitoring. I agree that there aren't any hardware controls that look relevant - I think you want to go into the included dspMixFx UR-C software and mute the input that your guitar's plugged into (and any other inputs you don't want to directly monitor). If you only ever want to hear playback through Logic, you can just click S on the DAW channel to solo it.
posted by spielzebub at 1:56 PM on March 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
Yeah, this is weird. I have the 2-channel version, and it has a hardware control that does exactly what you're asking about, a Input/DAW "Mix" knob like your Presonus did. I'm using that knob constantly, especially in these days of Zoom, so it's odd that the higher-level model would require you to go dig in some app settings to change this.
posted by jeffjon at 2:37 PM on March 6, 2021
posted by jeffjon at 2:37 PM on March 6, 2021
Response by poster: I'm stumped. Nothing I've downloaded has helped clarify anything.
posted by critzer at 2:39 PM on March 6, 2021
posted by critzer at 2:39 PM on March 6, 2021
Echoing spielzebub, this review seems to suggest that this has something to do with your settings in Logic and/or the dspMixFX app rather than Mac OSX settings.
(The Steinbergs come packaged with a version of Cubase, and the monitoring controls are supposedly seamlessly incorporated into that DAW, otherwise you have to get into that dspMixFX app.)
posted by soundguy99 at 2:48 PM on March 6, 2021
(The Steinbergs come packaged with a version of Cubase, and the monitoring controls are supposedly seamlessly incorporated into that DAW, otherwise you have to get into that dspMixFX app.)
posted by soundguy99 at 2:48 PM on March 6, 2021
That link above mentioned that if you're capturing a stereo source you might need to pan hard right or left to get your mute? I dunno, like I said, I don't have one of these.
posted by RustyBrooks at 2:48 PM on March 6, 2021
posted by RustyBrooks at 2:48 PM on March 6, 2021
Did you try muting the guitar track or soloing the DAW track in dspMixFx UR-C? Did that do anything, or did it seem not to have any effect?
posted by spielzebub at 3:02 PM on March 6, 2021
posted by spielzebub at 3:02 PM on March 6, 2021
Echoing what spielzebub said, there’s a figure in the manual in the appendix titled “Signal Flows” that shows that the phones 1 output is from the unit internal mix 1 and the phones 2 output is selectable between mix 1 and mix 2. A quick way to test if what you’re hearing in the headphones is coming from the internal mix is to see if you hear the dry guitar signal even with your DAW application closed. If you do, then you need to use the dspMixFX app to mute those input channels in the internal mixer so they don’t get sent to the headphones.
posted by doctord at 7:26 PM on March 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by doctord at 7:26 PM on March 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks all, I just ended up returning it and sticking with my Presonus instead which was never really broken, I just wanted the higher 32 resolution I suppose.
posted by critzer at 8:45 AM on March 7, 2021
posted by critzer at 8:45 AM on March 7, 2021
This thread is closed to new comments.
https://forums.steinberg.net/t/ur44-inputs-monitoring-with-logic-pro-x/672179
posted by RustyBrooks at 1:52 PM on March 6, 2021