Audio Recording Stops/Limited/Cuts Out when input hits high note or high loudness level

[whatitdo]

M1 Macbook

RODE NT-USB Mic [Problem appears to happen with ANY mic]

Logic Pro 10.7.7

 

When I am recording audio vocals in Logic with my mic, the incoming audio seems to completely stop and cuts out until the level of the audio input is reduced (usually takes 1-2 seconds). This only seems to happen to a very noticeable level when you hit a sustained high note. For example, if I speak normal/vocals into the mic, everything works as intended, but when there is a high note, it cuts the sound when the high note is hit and doesn't pick up sound again until the singing is volume is lowered.

At first, I thought this was a plugin problem, but I went as far as restoring Logic to default with all plugins removed on an empty project. Still the same problem. I'ved tried with and without sound montoring on and I have tried it with all buffer ranges with no noticable difference.

Secondly I thought it was a problem with my mic, but I was able to isolate that its NOT a broken mic, because the audio works fine in Garageband, voice notes, or any other program that can record audio no matter how loud I get. There is no cutting out of the input device. Just in case, I also tried changing cables of the mic. The internal mic monitor of the mac shows no sound reduction happening during the Logic cutout/reduction... The mac is receiving the input, so the problem seems to be isolated to Logic only.

Thirdly, I assumed it was a CPU or Memory problem, but CPU shows only 15% CPU usage and all other programs are closed. Empty strip. My memory is more than half unused.

Lastly, I removed my Rode NT-USB and used the internal macbook speaker (should've done this first), and was easily able to duplicate the problem by yelling into the Macbook speakers and hitting a very high note. Immediately Logic would cut the sound.

 

When the sound is cut it is either completely silent for the brief period, or there is some very low, slight garbled noise, almost as if Logic is getting something but not able to process it.

 

I discovered this when recording at a normal level as some of my accents were being cut out, and then when I went back, I couldn't figure out why Logic was missing miliseconds of sound, but then after some trial and error I found that it was high notes. The louder/higher you sing into the mic, the longer it cuts out. If you sing in a loudly a low, grumbly voice, it is less likely to cut out.

 

 

I'm stumped as to what is going on and I've done everything short of uninstalling Logic completely and trying a reinstall. Its also baffling that recording works perfectly in Garageband and all other program on the same computer.

 

 

Any ideas on what I can do?

[des99]

This could be Logic's feedback protection kicking in - how are you monitoring - on speakers? Really loud on headphones close to the mic?

When you sing loud and high, does it sound like feedback? (!)

Edited January 29 by des99

[whatitdo]

9 minutes ago, des99 said:

This could be Logic's feedback protection kicking in - how are you monitoring - on speakers? Really loud on headphones close to the mic?

When you sing loud and high, does it sound like feedback? (!)

I am using a pair of Audio Technica monitoring headphones. When singing really loud or high, it is accurate sound  for about 1 or 1/2 seconds before it appears to cut out completely. When listening back to the audio recording, you can here a barely audible garbled signal somewhere in the very far distance.

I also thought it could be feedback, but I have tested this with sound monitoring off and the headphones unplugged. I even installed BlackHole and set the output to there to make sure sound wasn't exiting anything.

 

Could it be corrupt driver?

[des99]

It can't be a driver issue because you already said you don't get the problem using GB, which is using the exact same input -> drive -> core audio -> recorder chain.

[whatitdo]

Update:

 

I spent the better part of this morning trying to troubleshoot this issue. I went as far as completely deleting Logic Pro, deleting all the logic entries in preferences, and doing a fresh install.

The problem still exists on the fresh install.

Something struck me when I was testing my mic in Garageband. It sounded like it was picking up so much more depth and background noise like a condenser mic should do vs when I use it in Logic and I remembered a few weeks ago, I was having trouble getting Logic to record my Keyboard output. So I decided to try to record the audio output of my Yamaha PSR-E473 keyboard via USB connection.

Shockingly, Garageband records the keyboard perfectly, and I can hear the sound through my headphones via sound monitoring. Logic, however, is picking up a signal each time keys are pressed (I can see the input level meter jumping a little) but I can hear no sound through monitoring. When recording the sound, I hear garbled noise.

Usually I only use my Keyboard with midi in logic, and the only raw audio I record is vocals, so it never occurred to me that my Logic Pro has been broken for so long. So this does not seem to be isolated to my microphone at all, but all USB audio input that is being sent to logic.

I'm not using any external audio devices or controllers in between.

Again, my mic and keyboard work and record flawlessly in Garageband. However Logic will only heard and record garbled audio noise from my keyboard, and any time you hit a high note on my microphone in logic, it becomes either silence or garbled noise. (Both internal mac mic and external Rode NT) When the mic is at rest and sound monitoring is on, Logic is recording considerably less depth and background noise than Garageband.

 

If Logic and Garageband are using the same core drivers, it almost seems like there is an extremely aggressive Noise Gate and compressor in Logic Pro that can't be turned off. So aggressive that is immediately suppressing piano keystrokes as noise from my keyboard. Or something is just broken in MacOS that is only affecting Logic Pro.

 

I'm stumped. I have tried running Logic using Rosetta and disabling all other background programs on my Mac with no avail. I think the only thing I haven't done is reinstalled MACOS. (I'm running the latest Mac OS Ventura BTW). This has  basically rendered my Logic Pro DAW as worthless to me until I can fix it. 

I'm not really sure what to do.

 

 

[JakobP]

Very strange problem indeed... Have you tried recording without your yamaha connected to the mac ? What sample rate are your projects set to ?

[whatitdo]

3 hours ago, JakobP said:

Very strange problem indeed... Have you tried recording without your yamaha connected to the mac ? What sample rate are your projects set to ?

Yes, I've tried recording with no Yamaha plugged in and still have the same results. The sample rate is set to the default 44.1Hz. I also just tested the other frequencies and the same thing happens.

[des99]

What is your audio input device set as in Logic’s audio preferences?

It sounds like you have the computers’ in-built microphone selected, maybe?

[whatitdo]

Well, after 2 days and countless hours of trial and error, I found the issue, and it is a huge flaw/bug in Logic Pro X and the latest versions of MacOS.

Apparently, there is something called "Mic Mode" in the latest version of MacOS that cannot be found in any of the standard sound settings of MacOS, nor can be found in Logic Pro X settings.

In MacOS Ventura, "Mic Mode" can only be found by clicking the control panel (volume sliders) in the upper right, and somewhere in the upper right corner is a discreet box that says "Mic Mode". This will give you two option "Standard" or "Voice Isolation".

Apparently, when I updated my computer to MacOS Ventura, this "Voice Isolation" mode was turned on by default, and this Mic Mode only works in certain programs. Hence why I could record perfect vocals in Garageband but could not do so in Logic. Only Logic support Mic Mode.

The reason this is a bug from this update is that "Mic Mode" also affects instrument input. So the piano strokes from my usb keyboard input were being filtered out by "Voice Isolation" Mic Mode as Logic is reading the audio as if it is a mic input.

 

Fixed two problems at once! Logic now records all external audio the way it should. This explains why Garageband was recording such better vocals and why Logic just sounded... off when I'd record them there. I searched high and nigh for a solution and there is virtually no documentation out there about this Mic Mode or people experiencing problems with it. I saw other people have identical problems to mine, but they never found the solution.

So guys... Turn off the hidden voice isolation Mic Mode! It can also interfere with external instruments connected via USB as well as microphones and is better suited for programs like Discord. A noise gate would be far more appropriate than this MacOS Mic Mode that no one seems to know about.

 

This is hilarious because I was literally about to replace my computer, which might have fixed the problem. I might have even believed I had a faulty Mac if I had done that. Hopefully Apple can release an update that puts "Mic Mode" in the sound and microphone settings instead of hidden obscurely only in control panel that people use for media control.  It might save a lot of people time. Now off for the next two days reinstalling and activating all the plugins I deleted trying to solve this BS.

Edited January 30 by whatitdo

[des99]

9 minutes ago, whatitdo said:

So the piano strokes from my usb keyboard input were being filtered out by "Voice Isolation" Mic Mode as Logic is reading the audio as if it is a mic input.

Hmm... can someone else confirm that if they have their audio interface selected as Logic's audio input, that this Ventura "Mic mode" affects the incoming audio from the interface?

If so, that would appear to be a *huge* problem - but at the same time, I find it very unlikely that it *should* or would affect *all* incoming audio from an audio interface, not just from it's own internal mic.

My guess is that you had your internal mic selected as Logic's input, rather than your mic, or your USB keyboard when trying to recording from them, and thus the voice isolation "mic mode" *would* affect your recordings - in this case, the problem was you had just not chosen the correct device in Logic to record from. (And It *was* correctly selected in GB, which was why it sounded like a condenser mic and sounded better than the internal mic on your computer.)

Edited January 30 by des99

[whatitdo]

1 minute ago, des99 said:

Hmm... can someone else confirm that if they have their audio interface selected as Logic's audio input, that this Ventura "Mic mode" affects the incoming audio from the interface?

If so, that would appear to be a *huge* problem - but at the same time, I find it very unlikely that it *should* or would affect *all* incoming audio from an audio interface, not just from it's own internal mic.

My guess is that you had your internal mic selected as Logic's input, rather than your mic, or your USB keyboard when trying to recording from them, and thus the voice isolation "mic mode" *would* affect your recordings - in this case, the problem was you had just not chosen the correct device in Logic to record from.

No, I definitely did not have my internal mic selected. I am not that big of a noob 🙂

I can reproduce this bug right now as I am sitting at my workstation

 

Output: Rode NT-USB

Input: Digital Keyboard

 

If I click on keys and of my keyboard, I hear the audio output from my keyboard clearly and correctly in my headphones.

 

If I change only ONE setting... and that is going into the MacOS control panel and select "Voice Isolation" from Mic Mode, I only hear garbled faint noise... near silence from my keyboard. Changing it back to standard restores the audio signal.

 

I'm guessing not many people have came across this problem yet because most people use midi these days and/or have their audio being routed through external controllers and devices. Also, this problem only becomes obvious via microphone if you sing loud, high notes... not something common in music these day.

But both my mic and my keyboard are affected by this voice isolation mode for certain.

[des99]

16 minutes ago, whatitdo said:

I am not that big of a noob

Fair enough! 🙂

16 minutes ago, whatitdo said:

If I change only ONE setting... and that is going into the MacOS control panel and select "Voice Isolation" from Mic Mode, I only hear garbled faint noise... near silence from my keyboard. Changing it back to standard restores the audio signal.

That's very concerning...(!)

If it truly behaves like this, it would seem to be some additional processing on the incoming audio streams, from whatever the source, microphone or not (which seems a... questionable design choice!)

It seems this feature is in Monterey too. (Though I can't seem to find/access it here on my machine.)

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mchle82b42f0/12.0/mac/12.0

Edited January 30 by des99