HELP question about my mixes!

Hello logic forum. I’ve been working in logic for about a year or so and I’m mixing down an EP that I made with my band. I have experience mixing in ProTools and using some mixing software on iPad so I’m not a pro but also not a beginner. I’m having a problem after I mix down a song there is the sound of what seems to be the high hats appearing randomly in the mix at a low volume but definitely audible. It’s almost like it’s not part of the high hats in time with the song but rather randomly occurring throughout the song. It’s not so loud that I can tell if it is in rhythm with the song but it seems like it’s not. I have tried changing the signal path for the snare mic, which picks up some high hat, as well as the overheads which obviously pick up the hats as well. I have tried this by removing the snare mic and the overheads to not be included in the drum sum, but still can’t make it go away. It could be the reverb but I use different reverbs on every song so that leads me to believe it is not that. I use the Logic plugins plus various other plugins for the project. I use the Slate Digital compressors on the drum bus. I’m not sure if there’s something in the settings (preferences) that I am doing that I don’t need to be doing in order to get rid of this problem. If any of you have any idea please feel free to comment. At the end of the day, I will put the songs out no matter what but I’d rather get rid of this but I just can’t figure it out.

Tedious, but have you tried soloing each track (channelstrip) successively in order to pin point the origin of that?

If any of you have any idea please feel free to comment.

 

Start muting tracks until you don't hear it anymore. Then you can work backwards and pinpoint the culprit.

It’s not like that. It only appears after I have mixed down the tune. It doesn’t even happen if I just mix down the drums by themselves, like you would do if you were working with stems. I haven’t tried any other instruments like I did with the drums, but perhaps I should. Although I don’t think it’s any thing other than the drums.

What version of Logic are you using?

I believe it’s the second most recent or most recent. I haven’t updated the most recent operating system, but I purchased logic and the computer last July. I haven’t updated to avoid any problems. Maybe I should update?

Not necessarily, I wanted to double-check that you weren't working with an earlier version of Logic, where fade files could sometimes get corrupted and create unexpected "ghost audio" to appear... but that hasn't been the case in any of the more recent versions, so that's not the issue at play here.

 

What if you bounce in real time?

 

Or what if you route all your tracks to a bus and record that bus on a new audio track?

Thank you for your response and your phrase “ghost audio” is perfect. I believe I am bouncing in real time but I will check on that. I also tried something similar to what you are suggesting. I had read that it can be detrimental to put plug ins on the Stereo channel, so I routed everything to a Bus and put the plugins on that bus channel, but it did not help. Someone on this thread said I was tedious and maybe that’s true, but I wanted to explain it as best I could. This is not my first rodeo per se, so I wanted to make sure that the simple explanations of what was happening had already been checked out. This happens to everything that I mix in logic including just basic mixes for the practices we record. I do appreciate your responses and in the end if I have to keep it in there to put out my music and then I’ll do that. However, I figured it would be smart to reach out and see what other people thought.

...Someone on this thread said I was tedious and maybe that’s true, but I wanted to explain it as best I could. ....

I did not mean you were tedious.

I actually meant that my suggested troubleshooting approach was involving a tedious task (i.e. soloing each track, one after the other...).

My (french tinted) syntax probably was confusing, so please accept my apology.

No worries. I didn’t take offense. Logic is quite different than what I was used to in my previous projects. Most of those differences are good. Some are strange but the Logic plugins are a pleasant surprise. Very useful and certainly on par with other plug ins.

I had read that it can be detrimental to put plug ins on the Stereo channel,

 

Depends if you put 3 or 4, like I do, or 20 plugins, which obviously is exaggerated.

It's usually a good idea to separate your mix into groups, and then each one gets an aux, which then feed the stereo out.

Like stems aka rhythm guitar or drums or bass?

Like stems aka rhythm guitar or drums or bass?

 

Correct.

No worries. I didn’t take offense. Logic is quite different than what I was used to in my previous projects. Most of those differences are good. Some are strange but the Logic plugins are a pleasant surprise. Very useful and certainly on par with other plug ins.

Just out of curiosity, which other Logic version or other DAW did you use in your other projects?

Pro Tools in the late 2000’s and took a break for a while. Keep in mind that it was quite a different scene back then with recording. About 4 years ago I got an IPad and started using Auria by Wave Machine Labs. I was using a focusrite 818 for hardware. Now I have PreSonus with 8 inputs and I use an Art Digital Tube Pre for 2 extra channels.