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Robotic Sounds in Vocalist's Headphone Mix


viktor.nacht

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Greetings Logicians!

 

I've been recording my fiancée/vocalist over backing tracks for about a year now, and I have minor issue that I'd really like to track down. She prefers to hear herself with a little bit of reverb while she records with the backing track playing. The end result is a very clean recording with lots of headroom, thanks to all of the advice from this site.

 

Unfortunately, she usually complains that the sound of her voice in the headphones has a robotic sound to it. We've managed to minimize it a number of ways, and we still get great results, but I'd really like to see if I can solve this once and for awhile.

 

Some related info:

 

AI is a FocusRite 6i6

'Puter is a 6-core Trash Can

Microphone is Rode NT-1

I/O Buffer is 32

Turning off all filters doesn't help

It happens with all Sample Rates & Bit Depths

 

Project layout is an audio backing track and a track for the mix.

 

It used to be much worse until I realized the FocusRite was doing internal mixing in addition to DAW in/outputs. Now all in/outs go through the DAW.

 

Any ideas on what I could be? The issue can also be replicated with simply starting a new project and arming the mic and saying Hello. :(

 

Best Regards,

 

V

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Thank you to everyone who took the time to reply so quickly. "Robotic" is the only word I can think of without hearing samples of other sounds, but it's definitely not distorting or clipping. I'm experimenting with the setup in that link.

 

But I'm curious: So sending all signals to/from the DAW you'll always end up with an audible delay?

 

Thank you so much!

 

V

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One quick test that would help us determine what's going on with your setup: go to Logic Pro X > Preferences > Audio :: General, and deselect "Software monitoring". Do you still hear the robotic sound?

 

I hear nothing at all coming from the headphone/monitors. I'm assuming this is because I turned off hardware mixing in the FocusRite. Before I made that it change it was much, much worse. I'm not trying to chase down the little bit that is left that is bother my vocalist.

 

Turning on Low Latency Mode - even with zero plug-ins - seems to tame it a bit. Is that normal, or are my ears tricking me just because it sounds different?

 

Thanks!

 

mt

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