Monitoring via Cubase vs. ASIO direct

[Doug Nelson]

This is quite mysterious to me, as I just plugged in a mic for the first time today, so be gentle.

Using Cubase SX2 with an Audiophile 2496, M-Audio DMP3, Audio Technica AT3035 mic.

I plug the mic in, record my speaking voice as a test, and all sounds nice and dry, but I can't monitor my voice using headphones (the monitor button does nothing). So I check into my configuration and I see ASIO direct monitoring is selected. I turn it off, and now the monitor button works as expected.

So I have the mystery of why the monitor button doesn't work in native mode, but that's not why I'm posting: turning off ASIO direct makes my voice recording sound quite flangy. If I turn on the monitor button I can hear this flangy effect in the headphones. Nothing has changed except turning off ASIO direct monitoring.

So, to sum up:
ASIO direct on, recording sounds great but monitor button doesn't work.
ASIO direct off, monitor button works but recording too distorted to use.

Explanations? Solutions?

Thanks in advance.

[MacQ]

ASIO direct monitoring (via ASIO 2.0) is supposed to be the method whereby you can record zero-latency audio and monitor that directly through your audio interface. In this case, the monitoring functions of Cubase are bypassed entirely. This is fine for many kinds of recording, but not if you want effects on the foldback to headphones (for a vocalist to hear reverb on his/her voice, for example).

So, to get effects, you need to disable ASIO direct monitoring, and monitor via Cubase as you are doing. The problem is, this introduces the latency of your ASIO driver into the signal chain. On many cards as well (not sure about your card), the input is already monitored via hardware, so when you monitor-enable a track, you hear the zero-latency signal as well as the delayed signal (3-10ms, usually), and you get that nasty flanging sound.

What you should do, if you'd like to record without those flangy effects, but would still like to be able to have effects on your voice (via software), is to disable the input monitoring on your audio interface (in the settings of your card itself). This way you'll only be hearing the signal that's getting piped through Cubase.

I have an RME FireFace 800, and what I like to do is to keep the direct-monitoring (via my card) enabled, and run a 100% wet monitor track for the vocalist in Cubase. This way, the small delay is not noticeable, and I can even run upwards of 20ms latency and still have perfect effects foldback (pre-delay of 20ms is not unreasonable for reverb).

Does that help?

~MacQ

[Doug Nelson]

That helps a lot! It took a lot of trial and error, but I finally figured out I had to mute both WavOut 1/2 inputs in my Delta control panel. It now behaves as (I think) it should.

But is there any reason I wouldn't want to have it set up this way? It sounds like a win/win to me, as my monitor button works and I can hear any added effects.

And there's still the lingering mystery of why the monitor button does nothing in ASIO direct mode.

Thanks again!

[MacQ]

The reason is that if your input latency isn't low enough, it'll be very difficult or distracting to record your voice with such a delay on what you can hear. ASIO Direct Input monitoring was developed back when this was an issue with slower machines. These days, just about anybody can record at 3ms or lower, which is pretty much unnoticeable.

~MacQ