Watery, duplicate signal with input monitoring

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Level 1

8 points

Watery, duplicate signal with input monitoring

Hi all – I’m still an amateur with Logic X, so this might be a dumb question. After months of normal functioning, now when I turn on input monitoring, the signal duplicates---as in, I can hear both the input and output channels at the same time, which creates an irritating watery, chorus-like effect with the instrument I’m playing. (It does not record this effect though.) When I mute the stereo out, it’s fine, but of course I can’t hear the rest of the instruments on the track. Also, this only happens with instruments running through inputs 1 and 2.

I’m using a Focusrite 4pre with it. I’ve tried playing with the input configurations on it, restoring the original settings on the Focusrite, AND clicked “initialize all except key commands” on Logic Pro X. I’ve also made sure my MacBook Pro’s input and output settings are both routed to the Focusrite. Thank you for any help! This has been driving me nuts.

MacBook Pro 15", 10.14

Posted on Jan 28, 2019 8:42 AM

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Answer 1

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rzazula

Level 1

96 points

Jan 28, 2019 9:40 AM in response to dhaldy

This will happen if you have both software monitoring (through Logic) and hardware monitoring (through your interface) on.

There is a slight time delay between the two signals and they will be slightly out of phase (giving the "watery" sound you hear).

Try turning off software monitoring in Logic preferences and see if that helps.

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Answer 2

rzazula

Level 1

96 points

Jan 28, 2019 9:14 PM in response to dhaldy

If you want to monitor through Logic to hear the effects (software monitoring), you'll need to turn off monitoring on your interface to get rid of the out-of-phase sound. There is an app that shows the Focusrite mixer (I forget what it is called) and you should be able to mute the hardware monitoring in there.

If you are experiencing delays between pressing the keys and hearing the sound, you can try to reduce the buffer size in Logic's Audio settings. The downside is that smaller buffers require more CPU power, so there is a limit to how small they can go and still work. But, it is worth fine-tuning.

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Answer 3

dhaldy Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 28, 2019 9:19 PM in response to dhaldy

UPDATE! It turned out to be a setting on the Focusrite that is similar to what you said. I needed to switch over to full digital monitoring---it turns out the settings had been changed to include analog signals. It looks like this wasn't an issue with Logic at all. Thank you again for your quick response and suggestions! Such a relief to figure this out.

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Answer 4

dhaldy Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 28, 2019 9:10 PM in response to rzazula

Thank you so much for your help! While, yes, turning off input monitoring takes away the duplicate signal, it also takes away the effects I have on the track, leaving the input totally dry. As a synth player it's pretty essential to hear the effects on instruments as I play, so this doesn't quite work. I also tried playing with the other two input monitoring options below and nothing works there either. Do you have another thought?

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Watery, duplicate signal with input monitoring

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