Can echo be eliminated in software monitoring?

Question

Level 1

35 points

Can echo be eliminated in software monitoring?

Hi,

I've searched around here a bit and it seems the only answer is "hardware monitoring" but those were old discussions, so here's hoping…

I have an Akai EIE Pro interface, and an XLR mic, recording in GarageBand 6.0.5 and OS X 10.8.3 (all latest as of May 16, 2013). If I monitor through software, either via the EIE or via the Mac's headphone port, I get an echo. It's quick, but it's there, and needless to say extremely annoying.

If I disable software monitoring and go straight hardware, it's fine. But the problem is that I have no way to mute the microphone to listen to playback from garageband (or anywhere in the system for that matter). I could unplug the mic, or turn the gain all teh way down, but needless to say that's not ideal. About the best I can do is rotate the MONITOR knob all the way from IN to OUT; at IN I only hear the input (the Mic) and on OUT I only hear the output (the computer). This virtually eliminates the mic and it's "good enough" but it's still a crappy way to do things.

I'd been advised by an audio pro that software monitoring is best (presumably because then you are hearing what you're actually recording and not what the interface is outputting), but needless to say the echo is unnacceptable. He also advised that changing the buffer is the way to eliminate that, however Garageband has no buffer anymore. Digging into old posts I see that it used to, but no longer does.

I looked at Logic and it scares me 🙂 My needs are simple but the echo just isn't cool.

Any hope other than hardawre monitoring?

thanks

-Joseph

Posted on May 16, 2013 7:10 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 11, 2013 1:01 PM in response to jlinaschke

Hi Joseph,

I recently ran into this problem as well, very irritating indeed.

I do have a possible solution for you. You may notice that the track your working on says "Male Voice", this comes with its own preset effects.

If you hit "Track" / "New Track" / select "Real Instrument" / "Create"

Now you will notice that you have a new track in the timeline you can record on which says "No Effects".

As the name suggests this a track to record on with absolutely no preset effects.

After doing this I noticed that when I was recording via my headset the echo effect when using the monitor function had disappeared.

Perhaps I just got lucky, worth a try though.

Good Luck!

Benny

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Answer 2

isteveus

Level 5

4,334 points

Dec 12, 2013 6:56 AM in response to jlinaschke

First off the old threads about hardware monitoring are still valid. The basic concepts of recording have been around for as long as multitrack audio recording.

You can mute the mic during playback by Disabling Record on the track or turn down the input gain on the interface. Disabling the track is the better choice. Also your interface should let you choose between monitoring the mic input or the record return (software monitoring)

If you don't want echo on a track simply turn the echo effect off.

And recording a dry (no effects) track has the same affect as hardware monitoring so it defects the purpose of software monitoring.

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