Missing Input Monitoring Button

Hello everyone,

 

I'm hoping someone can help me resolve what looks like a super annoying bug:

My Input Monitoring buttons are missing from my track headers. I've toggled it off and on in my track header configuration, and oddly it reacts by changing the length of the volume slider, as if that's what I've asked it to do. Every single other track header component hides and shows as expected.

 

I'm running the latest Sierra (10.12.3) and the latest Logic (10.3.1)

 

Fortunately I realized I could turn off Input Monitoring in the meantime by selecting the track and clicking the still visible Input Monitoring button on the in-focus channel strip in the lower left. Pretty annoying to need this workaround suddenly, though.

 

By the way, the issue seemed to start (as in the button disappeared) around when I started messing with Flex Time to quantize some audio. Despite this, turning off Flex Time does nothing to resolve the issue.

 

Thanks for any guidance!

Cheers

Have you tried resizing your track header, to make it horizontally wider?

(Odd that email notifications aren't on by default when I sign up for this forum. I didn't realize anyone ever responded. I guess I have to dig into settings and turn this on??)

 

Thanks for the reply, but yes, I have tried that. I should have mentioned it I guess.

 

Anyone else have any ideas?

(I guess I have to go out of my way to subscribe to my own post?? I don't see another way to receive email notifications when someone replies. This seems sub-standard-practice for forums, no?)

(I guess I have to go out of my way to subscribe to my own post?? I don't see another way to receive email notifications when someone replies. This seems sub-standard-practice for forums, no?)

You can choose your own personal Notification preferences under User Control Panel > Board Preferences > Edit Notification Options.

Thanks David. I did find that, and I also noticed a moment ago (when submitting a second post) that there is a checkbox upon initial submit to be notified when someone replies. Seems really silly to me that this isn't checked by default, since I can't imagine not wanting to know when someone answers my inquiry, hahahah.

Anyway, I'm over it. : ) Thanks again.

 

Regarding the original issue: Still hoping someone out there has a solve for this missing Input Monitoring button.

Oddly, it's only affecting the one LPX project, so I figured it would have something to do with some combination of features turned on not playing nice together... but I can't seem to bring the button back no matter how many enabled features I disable. The project is infected, I guess.

Unfortunately I can't offer any solutions but am having the same issue and have tried all the same things as you. I'm on El Capitan 10.11.6, but I just updated to 10.3.3 in Logic. I've never seen the input monitoring button in the track header in 10.3.3.

I believe I've solved my issue. I worked in my session on some bose wireless headphones when I was traveling and for whatever reason my session made my bose headphones the "permanently" assigned output and my apogee interface a "temporary interface". After I reassigned my apogee interface to be the "permanent" interface for this session I was able to reconfigure my track header and get the "input monitoring" tab back on it.

 

Not sure if this helps anyone else but it worked for me.

Weirdly, this happens to me too every time I use my USB mic with built-in audio output. Very annoying when I disconnect it and plug my headphones into the computer jack! Thanks for sharing your solution. Worked for me too. We should probably report this bug, I had it in both 10.3. and now in 10.4

 

((https://www.apple.com/feedback/logic-pro.html)

Hello!

I ran into the same issue and figured out what was wrong. I use a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 USB Audio Interface to connect my mic to my laptop. I wanted to listen to what I had just recorded and unplugged my usb device which caused my audio output and input to switch to my beats headphones. The beats have a mic, so Logic assumed I wanted to record from this mic, instead of my professional one. For some reason, this switch caused the input monitoring button to disappear, but when I returned to the original input/output selection that I used when I recorded the track, everything fixed itself.

 

My advice is to use the same input/output devices you were using at the time of the original recording...it might work but at the same time who knows with this s#!+

I had this problem -record and inout buttons not showing and the input on the channel strip, and its menu choices, disabled. The problem was that my Mac Audio preferences and my Logic Pro audio preferences were not set to the same interface - I had amy main interface displayed, and also an aggregate input device that included the main interface and another. Once I set both the Mac and the Logic Pro audio input devices to the same one, the record and input monitoring buttons reappeared and I could select an input from the interface again. HTH. English Charlie

I had this problem -record and inout buttons not showing and the input on the channel strip, and its menu choices, disabled. The problem was that my Mac Audio preferences and my Logic Pro audio preferences were not set to the same interface - I had amy main interface displayed, and also an aggregate input device that included the main interface and another. Once I set both the Mac and the Logic Pro audio input devices to the same one, the record and input monitoring buttons reappeared and I could select an input from the interface again. HTH. English Charlie

There is no need to have your Mac and Logic Pro input devices be the same. They rarely are on my system. I'm not sure what caused that issue on your machine.

Hey, thanks Dave - it was a weird problem that is now resolved. Perhaps in all my efforts to fix this, I didn't exactly isolate the cause. And, although it wasn't my problem in this case, I'll also mention the classic mistake of thinking you are working with an audio track but it's a midi track - anther reason you don't get the input monitoring button.

Ah alright well thanks for the additional comments, in any case it's good to hear it's now resolved, that's what matters, so that you can move on to produce the music you want.

I had this problem -record and inout buttons not showing and the input on the channel strip, and its menu choices, disabled. The problem was that my Mac Audio preferences and my Logic Pro audio preferences were not set to the same interface - I had amy main interface displayed, and also an aggregate input device that included the main interface and another. Once I set both the Mac and the Logic Pro audio input devices to the same one, the record and input monitoring buttons reappeared and I could select an input from the interface again. HTH. English Charlie

 

This could be a cause of it, thanks for posting.

I have this missing input monitor button on the track header (but not the channel strip) in MANY of my projects. I don't carry my audio interface with me at all times and often want to work on projects while travelling, just with the headphone jack (so the I/O switches to built in output automatically and assumes I want to record with the built in laptop mic)... if the cause of the bug is a change in input devices as you suggest then that would explain why so many of my projects have had this problem.

 

It's a real issue when composing music for a show and you want to hit playback from Logic in a rehearsal room through a PA! If you don't remember to turn off all the input monitor buttons first, the internal mic causes feedback in the soundsystem. Even if you set the input device to 'none' in preferences, you can hear an input from the internal laptop mic (sometimes 'apply changes' is greyed out in preferences so it doesn't like having no input device).

If you don't remember to turn off all the input monitor buttons first

Why would these Input buttons be pressed and saved like that in the first place ? They don't engage on their own, so is there a reason ? Can you avoid that ?

 

in the MIXER, because they are not visible in the track headers!!

Display of Input buttons in the track headers is saved in Screen Sets. Have you tried that ?

 

hit playback ... the internal mic causes feedback

I'm not sure about that. Feedback would occur when you open the project, not when you hit play.

Why would these Input buttons be pressed and saved like that in the first place ? They don't engage on their own, so is there a reason ? Can you avoid that ?

 

Once one is pushed, it stays lit, even if you are not listening to the input on that track (preferences set to 'input monitoring only for focused track'). I could avoid it by always turning the button off again when I'm not monitoring the track, but with the preferences set that way I guess it doesn't always matter. Maybe that was a lazy habit of mine to leave some of them on, but it's easy to not notice they're on if they're not displaying in the track header! (They only display on the channel strip so if the mixer is not open, you miss it.)

 

Display of Input buttons in the track headers is saved in Screen Sets. Have you tried that ?

 

Screen sets won't help if the issue is that display of input buttons is not working. They are checked to display in the 'Configure track header' settings. You can see the track header changing width as you toggle this setting, as if it's making room for them, but they do not appear.

 

Feedback would occur when you open the project, not when you hit play.

 

Correct - feedback happens when you open the project. Sorry I wasn't clear - I didn't mean 'hit' the play button, I just meant playing back from Logic through a PA.

I very much suspect the changing of the audio device to a temporary one causes this, check if you can show Input buttons with an actively chosen audio device, save the project, unplug the device, open the project again. After the obvious error message "Using temporary audio device XY", are the buttons gone ? If yes, there's your solution. I personally would not want to go public (be that rehearsal or performance) with a temporary driver. FWIW, I might end up with no input buttons...

 

Maybe that was a lazy habit of mine to leave some of them on

This does earn you a resounding YESSSS from the entire congregation, if just for the fact that even if the buttons were visible, you'd get feedback upon opening the project.

This does earn you a resounding YESSSS from the entire congregation, if just for the fact that even if the buttons were visible, you'd get feedback upon opening the project.

 

Lesson learned when I first did this without an audio device plugged in! I would never open Logic with mics active and speakers on, but the automatic switch to built in mic caught me out.

 

I just tried what you said and yes, this must be the cause of it. Opening any project without the audio device causes input buttons to disappear on the track headers.

Some buttons to be displayed on the track header, same has to be wide and high enough...

I ran into this issue too, and I've figure it out how to solve it.

You have to reset the input at "LogicPro X > Preference > Audio > Devices".

Make sure your input device is correct, without the brackets.

 

Example. Say if your interface is SteinbergUR22

Your setting should look like this :

Output Device : Steinberg UR22

Input Device : Steinberg UR22

 

Instead of :

Output Device : Steinberg UR22

Input Device : (Steinberg UR22) <----- if it has this brackets, you wont be able to see your input monitor on the bar.

( but you could still use the input monitor in your "inspector bar" it still works )

 

After you change it, it should solve the problem.

Hope this help !

Hope this help !

Thanks so much for registering an account just to provide help! Much appreciated. It's always helpful to share everyone's experience about a topic.

Hi gang.. I just joined today, as I was also trying to solve this problem.

 

In my case, the cure was to open the mixer (X) and then I simply clicked the 'I' button twice on the mixer channel I wanted the 'I' button to also appear on in the channel header. Voila! It magically popped back up.

 

If I hadn't found this forum, I wouldn't have thought to mess-around with the mixer to see what would happen - so thank you all for posting your various hints, etc on here. In the event someone is still having trouble getting the 'I' button back up, I hope my cure fixed your problem too.

 

Take care...

 

Jamie

Just had the same problem. Taking a hint from the "audio" input/output suggestions above I check my input and output settings. For some reason under audio preferences I had both "US-16x8" and "(US-16x08)". The one with parentheses was selected (I don't know why...) and the Monitor "I" button disappeared. I changed the selection to "US-16X8" without the parentheses and everything is back to normal. Thank you.

Same issue here - changing audio input/output device from temporary to permanant solved it.

I believe I've solved my issue. I worked in my session on some bose wireless headphones when I was traveling and for whatever reason my session made my bose headphones the "permanently" assigned output and my apogee interface a "temporary interface". After I reassigned my apogee interface to be the "permanent" interface for this session I was able to reconfigure my track header and get the "input monitoring" tab back on it.

 

Not sure if this helps anyone else but it worked for me.

 

Thanks for this – was scratching my head for 10 minutes over this and your reply answered the question. I had been monitoring with my AirPods when this happened, so it must have to do with the wireless headphones in some weird way.

Don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure the Input Monitoring button disappears for inputs/outputs that introduce such high latency (namely, wireless devices, like Bluetooth headphones) that input monitoring isn't feasible. When I/O is in parentheses in Logic, it's because that's the device that's currently being substituted in place of whatever the project was expecting to be able to use. Point being, yes, it's because wireless devices were set as the default interface.

I don't think that Bluetooth audio monitoring is enough performant to be useful in Logic yet.

Yes, I encountered this behaviour too. I went to audio preferences and selected 'alternative' input and output audio settings temporarily, then reset the audio settings to what they originally were, and the input monitoring buttons reappeared. It does seem to do with changing the input/output devices.

 

barry

As has been said, launching a Project without the original audio device will temporarily switch to another, available device, which then will be shown in parentheses in the devices preferences. This will cause the Input buttons on tracks to disappear.