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I can't hear myself while recording


quitobarajas

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AUDIO INTERFACE: Focusrite 2i2

MICROPHONE: condensor mic Tonor

 

Unfortunately I have been having to crank the volume knob on my audio interface all the way up and turning my instrumentals all the way just to hear myself while recording vocal takes. I followed the checklist that user Fuzzfilth provided in that thread. I still can't hear myself. I'm hoping this video demonstrates what I need to do and what it's like for me. I have also used two different condensor mics, so the problem isn't the mics, nor hardware, but the the program.

 

[video removed by user]

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I have tried to follow the video, but gave up after too much confusion and too many questions unanswered, so I agree, a video is not helping in even properly describing the problem, let alone solving it.

 

For one, I see you looking at an Aggregate Device in the Sound control panel (which has nothing whatsoever to do with Logic) but then in Logic you first use the Scarlett, which appears to work perfectly fine, only to switch away from that to some Multi-Output which no one knew until then. In essence you're further clouding the issue, rather than simplifying until you find what's the most probable cause. All that I can deduct from this is that the Scarlett was (and quite possibly is) working perfectly fine and I think you should just use that as the input and output device, which pretty likely would also make the volume controls on the Scarlett work properly. At the moment, no one can tell as there is no information about this ominous Multi-Out device and how it's connected to your loudspeakers.

 

Then, you seem to have plenty of signal on your vocal track, which would be confirmed if you actually recorded it, but have the one playback track so insanely loud that you can't hear yourself think over the din. In this case, turn down the playback track and everything will just fall into place.

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Let's start at what's normal. Do you have to crank your volume knob all the way up and turn the faders on your other instruments all the way down? I realize that a fader set to unity doesn't mean instruments will play back at 0dB. I'm just not convinced that it's appropriate to need to turn my instrument fader down -30db just to hear my vocals at unity as I record and then gain boost them several dB just to hear myself in playback alongside instruments. Am I supposed to slap a gain plugin on my stereo output channel with a limiter set to -0.1 just to achieve an appropriate level of loudness?
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Maybe we should steer back into less turbulent waters, 'all the way' down would be silence and 'all the way up' would be 6dB of gain to whatever it is and either may or may not be what's needed.

 

In a normal vocal recording situation, and given you have set your preamp's gain so you have a healthy vocal signal (which you do) you usually turn down the playback quite a bit, as during recording you don't have a crapload of plugins on the vocals, yet you want to hear precisely what it is that you're recording. So turning down a brickwall-limited hair-clippingly loud playback by 30dB might actually be appropriate. This is for you and the producer to work comfortably, for hours on end, as long as the talent is able to deliver.

 

Apart from your own preliminary vocal balance in the control room, you use a pre fader Send on each channel which feeds the talent's headphones so you can dial in precisely a) how much they want to hear of themselves, b) how much they want to hear of the vocal reverb (if any, but this helps intonation), and c) how much and what they want to hear of the instruments. This mix is completely independent from your control room mix, but I bet that there too you will have to turn down a full scale playback substantially.

 

Remember, the goal here is to get a great recording of a great performance, and if that requires an awkward 'mix', then that is precisely what you do.

 

And since you're not 'mixing', no one cares about loudness at this stage. You have several volume controls in a row for headphone monitoring, these are:

Send to an output (here you create the balance)

Output fader (usually at unity, or prevent clipping of the receiving HP amp)

HP amp input (so you don't clip the HP amp)

HP amp output (so you don't shred the talent's eardrums)

 

Use these wisely.

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  • 1 month later...
I have tried to follow the video, but gave up after too much confusion and too many questions unanswered, so I agree, a video is not helping in even properly describing the problem, let alone solving it.

 

For one, I see you looking at an Aggregate Device in the Sound control panel (which has nothing whatsoever to do with Logic) but then in Logic you first use the Scarlett, which appears to work perfectly fine, only to switch away from that to some Multi-Output which no one knew until then. In essence you're further clouding the issue, rather than simplifying until you find what's the most probable cause. All that I can deduct from this is that the Scarlett was (and quite possibly is) working perfectly fine and I think you should just use that as the input and output device, which pretty likely would also make the volume controls on the Scarlett work properly. At the moment, no one can tell as there is no information about this ominous Multi-Out device and how it's connected to your loudspeakers.

 

Then, you seem to have plenty of signal on your vocal track, which would be confirmed if you actually recorded it, but have the one playback track so insanely loud that you can't hear yourself think over the din. In this case, turn down the playback track and everything will just fall into place.

 

So this is okay?

 

[video removed by admin]

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Hi quitobarajas,

 

I see you removed the video you had linked to in your original post, and I removed the one in your last post.

 

Video is not an appropriate medium to ask for help in our forum. Instead, write your question in plain text.

 

There are multiple reasons:

1. Users often end up removing their videos (like you did here), which renders the thread useless to anyone else who may have the same issue/question.

2. Text is indexed by search engines (ours, Google, etc..). A lot of users search for information that way.

3. Text is faster and easier to read for people like Christian and I who spend a LOT of time reading questions/issues on forums and try to provide answers: you can easily speed-read, scan through text, skip parts that are of no interest, search text, spot some missing information and ask for precisions, etc.

 

So do describe your issue using text and we'll continue to help out.

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David, I understand that providing Text is important for making the website crawlable, but it is incredibly difficult to describe my issue without showing anyone audibly because it is related to me being able to hear myself in a specific manner. So I can provide a transcript of the video in addition with the link again, but I insisted that the video is important. Does that sound fair?
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The website being crawlable was only one of the reasons I cited.

 

To use our forum, formulate your question by text, with the help of screenshots where necessary. If you truly need to show something animated, then you can use a utility like LiceCap to create a quick animated gif, as we often do: https://www.cockos.com/licecap/

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I watched the video you posted in the other thread which I will not reply to since no one will understand my reply once you pull your video, as stated.

 

First, you could do with a tiny bit more recording gain. It seems you top out at -11, you could try to aim for -6, or, if your voice is not really dynamic (not really LOUD in the loud parts and not really quiet in the quiet parts) even for -3dBFs.

 

Then, you initially try to hear your unprocessed voice through a full level playback. This will never work to your satisfaction, as has been mentioned previously. Then you move away from the mic (which is a tad quiet to begin with) substantially, but you do not sing louder, which of course will get you drowned out even more by the already far-too-loud playback. Again, this won't work no matter how you turn it. For the proper technique, I refer you back to my other post above, especially this paragraph

 

Apart from your own preliminary vocal balance in the control room, you use a pre fader Send on each channel which feeds the talent's headphones so you can dial in precisely a) how much they want to hear of themselves, b) how much they want to hear of the vocal reverb (if any, but this helps intonation), and c) how much and what they want to hear of the instruments. This mix is completely independent from your control room mix, but I bet that there too you will have to turn down a full scale playback substantially.

If your interface does not have an output separate from the Stereo Out which you can use for this purpose, then yes, you do turn down everything else and turn up the headphone for the purpose of recording.

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