VOLT Direct Monitoring Mono Discomfort!

[jeeve]

Hi, this is a big problem for one of my clients to whom I advised to purchase a Volt 4. her mic is plugged into input 1, and her outboard mixer is plugged into inputs 3 & 4. When pressing the mono button to monitor the mic in the center while recording etc, inputs 3 & 4 are also monitoring in mono! This is a problem if she wants to play piano etc while recording a vocal. Everything live in her headphones (or speakers) is playing in mono. This is a design flaw that needs to be addressed. It's too late to add a second mono button for input pair 3 & 4 ofd course, but a simple driver app with panning controls would fix the problem.

What if 4 singers want to record while monitoring in direct to avoid Daw latency?

 

[Matt Hepworth]

Hi, this is a big problem for one of my clients to whom I advised to purchase a Volt 4. her mic is plugged into input 1, and her outboard mixer is plugged into inputs 3 & 4. When pressing the mono button to monitor the mic in the center while recording etc, inputs 3 & 4 are also monitoring in mono! This is a problem if she wants to play piano etc while recording a vocal. Everything live in her headphones (or speakers) is playing in mono. This is a design flaw that needs to be addressed. It's too late to add a second mono button for input pair 3 & 4 ofd course, but a simple driver app with panning controls would fix the problem.

What if 4 singers want to record while monitoring in direct to avoid Daw latency?

What you're looking for would need to be done in the analog domain, so a change to the app wouldn't be able to offer anything to change what mono does.

 

[bellows and brass]

can she monitor with her outboard mixer, and take a vocal line out of the volt?

 

[AlexR]

Hi, this is a big problem for one of my clients to whom I advised to purchase a Volt 4. her mic is plugged into input 1, and her outboard mixer is plugged into inputs 3 & 4. When pressing the mono button to monitor the mic in the center while recording etc, inputs 3 & 4 are also monitoring in mono! This is a problem if she wants to play piano etc while recording a vocal. Everything live in her headphones (or speakers) is playing in mono. This is a design flaw that needs to be addressed. It's too late to add a second mono button for input pair 3 & 4 ofd course, but a simple driver app with panning controls would fix the problem.

What if 4 singers want to record while monitoring in direct to avoid Daw latency?

I dont own a Volt 4 so I might be missing something, its a 4 inputs interface, so there's should be no issue in recording the piano in 3-4 and her vocal in 1, unless you are saying in order to "Direct Monitor" the vocal input the mono button has to be pressed?

Being a USB interface you most likely want to have the DAW handling the monitoring while using the latest possible buffer to avoid latency, and in which case there should be no panning issue.

 

[UA_User]

... unless you are saying in order to "Direct Monitor" the vocal input the mono button has to be pressed?

If it's not pressed, it will be hard panned. For example, inputs 1 and 2 will be hard panned left and right. Naturally, no one wants to monitor a vocal in one ear only!

 

[AlexR]

If it's not pressed, it will be hard panned. For example, inputs 1 and 2 will be hard panned left and right. Naturally, no one wants to monitor a vocal in one ear only!

I just watched an UA video about the volt input monitoring, I see what you are saying.
if you dont press Mono 1 and 2 will be left and right and so are 3 - 4. If you press mono her vocal on 1 will be panned in the center but so will be her keyboard on 3 and 4.

yes thats a little of an issue if you are trying to do input monitoring on several input sources. Have you tried no using Input monitoring and just dropping the buffer in your DAW? That will allow you to monitor trough your DAW with very minimal latency and pan anywhere wherever you want.

 

[UA_User]

yes thats a little of an issue if you are trying to do input monitoring on several input sources. Have you tried no using Input monitoring and just dropping the buffer in your DAW? That will allow you to monitor trough your DAW with very minimal latency and pan anywhere wherever you want.

Really not practical for anyone who mixes as they go. Although, one can always print or submix tracks to free up CPU-more fiddling around instead of making music. Much better to monitor OTB.

Honestly, some of the cheapo small mixers these days sound fine. It's really not a big deal to record through them, setup monitor mixes on them, etc, but I can understand that nagging feeling that it's degrading the signal path. Sure does save a lot of hassle though.

 

[AlexR]

Really not practical for anyone who mixes as they go. Although, one can always print or submix tracks to free up CPU-more fiddling around instead of making music. Much better to monitor OTB.

Honestly, some of the cheapo small mixers these days sound fine. It's really not a big deal to record through them, setup monitor mixes on them, etc, but I can understand that nagging feeling that it's degrading the signal path. Sure does save a lot of hassle though.

why not buying an Apollo Twin then? the Volt is a pretty basic inexpensive interface but sounds like your needs go above what an interface in that price range can do. With something like a Twin you would be able to monitor while using the onboard processing of the Twin, while using plugins and reverbs during tracking, and it will allow you to have 2 separate headphone mixes for your clients and yourself

 

[UA_User]

why not buying an Apollo Twin then? the Volt is a pretty basic inexpensive interface but sounds like your needs go above what an interface in that price range can do. With something like a Twin you would be able to monitor while using the onboard processing of the Twin, while using plugins and reverbs during tracking, and it will allow you to have 2 separate headphone mixes for your clients and yourself

"my" needs? I didn't start this thread...? I fully agree the Apollo's have the best built-in monitoring facilities (of any interface).

If one already has a Volt, like the OP's friend, and is a musician, there is a non-zero chance they or a colleague has some sort of mixer kicking around. So, it'd be a way to get to work with what they have, is all.

 

[AlexR]

"my" needs? I didn't start this thread...? I fully agree the Apollo's have the best built-in monitoring facilities (of any interface).

If one already has a Volt, like the OP's friend, and is a musician, there is a non-zero chance they or a colleague has some sort of mixer kicking around. So, it'd be a way to get to work with what they have, is all.

oh I see I thought you were the one that originally posted. looks like you just quote me when I replied to him and thats where the confusion started

 

[UA_User]

oh I see I thought you were the one that originally posted. looks like you just quote me when I replied to him and thats where the confusion started

No bigs.

The monitoring is one of the main reasons I decided not to get the Volt, and get an Apollo Instead (should be arriving today!). I was spoiled by everything being realtime on my old dedicated hard disc recorder, and it was a real hassle that I had to build up an analog rack just to monitor when doing computer recording. I had to downsize my life and don't have room for all that anymore, so the Apollo will hopefully be a good choice as far as solving those issues.