Clicks during playback issue

[Bluesisblue]

Hi,

I’m new to using Waveform to record. I have a basic question - how to NOT include the metronome clicking in the final rendered/exported audio file? When playing back the recorded song on a media player, the metronome clicked in the background, which obviously is not what I want. I am not sure what I did wrong in the settings - In the Clicks settings, I had Enable the Clicks checked with everything else unchecked. I have been pulling my hair out ever since. Please help! Thanks!

[Peter Widdicombe]

Firstly, make sure that you do NOT enable click during playback unless you really want that...

Secondly, what/how are you recording? Are you recording MIDI or direct in type devices? In that case, you should NOT hear the click when rendering.

IF you record with microphones in the same room (vocals or mikes in front of an amp), you have to watch it. If you're NOT using headphones for the mix, you're probably picking up ambient noise in the room, including that click track, in the audio file you're recording. Remember the microphone will pick up any sound in the room. Learn when you need to use headphones, and make sure nothing is playing through room monitoring !

Also, depending in your mixer/recording device; make sure you do NOT feed back the room mix into the track you record. If you're recording, note if you hear anything during periods you're not actively recording guitar/voice, etc. If you hear the "background" tracks or metronome during those intervals, rethink your mixer setup or use headphones.
(This is why a mixer with multiple outputs, or having 2 sets of busses on a mixer is "nice to have").

[Bluesisblue]

Thank you for the detailed reply!

I only enabled the click, but NOT clicks during playback. The mixer is Yamaha MG10. I use the line-level input (input 3) to record the guitar. Here comes a new question-when right-clicking Track 1, the audio input has two options: input 1 and 2. Should it have Input 3 there since the guitar comes in via input 3?
Anyway, I recorded the electric guitar via the line-level input, not the microphone.

I may try uninstalling and reinstalling waveform and make sure Clicks during Playback not enabled.

[pough]

A while back someone was asking for the ability to include the clicks in their rendered file and none of us could figure out how that might be done apart from using a click in a sampler being fed MIDI. So... how are you having this problem? What have you done to test? Is it in every song? What are you using to output the song?

The number of inputs on a mixer almost never matches the number of outputs. Generally speaking, it will mix them into a single stereo output, which can be split into two mono inputs in Waveform. I haven't used a Yamaha MG10 but it's very common for mixers to (forgive me) mix like that.

[Peter Widdicombe]

How are you HEARING the click track while you are recording;
What interface do you have from mixer to Waveform (audio, or USB audio (2 track or other...)).

When you are playing back the guitar track and you SOLO it with the click disabled, do you HEAR the click on the guitar track?

Oh, Waveform normally "treats" tracks as stereo; and a USB or typical input is stereo, so you can treat that input as either a stereo device(1+2), or as 2 MONO devices (input 1 and 2) which can be selected on input. I have actually recorded 2 vocalists to separate tracks before by panning the mixer hard left for one, and hard right for the other; and recorded one track from input 1 and the other from input 2. Set this on device properties in settings/audio devices, or more conveniently on the "useful information" panel bottom center in Waveform (enable it with the Up-Arrow on the lower left - you'll be glad you did if you haven't done so already).

If it truly is an MG10, it has no USB; so how DO you get audio in/out of the computer to HEAR the click track and any other recorded tracks while recording guitar?

Some mixers that use USB have the capability to NOT send back to the computer what it sent to the mixer via USB in the first place, OR to send back the full master output. Some ONLY have the capability of sending back the whole mix.

[Bluesisblue]

Hi Pough,
It's interesting I ran into that post when searching an answer to my question. I wish I knew what could be done to make this happen. I used Waveform 11 twice before to record and render songs. As far as I know, I set up the mixer and Waveform the same way this time - maybe I screwed one step this time. I actually had the same issue last time when recording. I sorted it out that time, but forgot how I did. Now it seemed to me I probably fixed it by disabling Clicks during Playback that time. However, it didn't work this time apparently - as explained above, when recording I only enabled the Click, with Clicks during Playback unchecked.

Hi Peter,
When playing back the recorded guitar track with SOLO selected and Click disabled, I still hear the click. I rendered the track as wav and mp3, respectively, and played them on Media Player. The clicks are still there.

The mixer is MG10XU. It has a USB interface. The guitar recording goes in the computer and plays back in the monitoring phones when recording. I did set the input as two mono devices and checked Live Input Monitoring. Attached is the screen shot of the settings.

In addition, I uninstalled and reinstalled Waveform earlier today. Nothing changed.

Again, I appreciate all your help and time!

waveform.png

[Peter Widdicombe]

Yeah, sounds like you actually recorded the click along with the guitar track. Your click was being sent as audio TO the mixer (and playing through monitors?) and you were recording the guitar coming back through the USB interface, which probably included both guitar and click.

You really don't have a lot of control over HOW the USB works on that mixer; I presume it gets the overall mix, as I indicated in a previous post. Some mixers (I have a 12-channel Mackie) have a "USB THRU" setting which when disabled, do NOT echo what comes IN on the USB port, back out to the USB port. This way you can record ONLY "new" stuff coming in through all non-USB ports.

An alternative is to get an additional audio interface (I got a UCA222 Behringer) and you can set it up as input from your FX Send - that way you can record ONLY devices (i.e. guitar...) that you specifically SEND to the FX send output to record. This does provide only a MONO interface, and doesn't let you use the onboard FX.

My soundcraft recently started acting up (probably a power supply/capacitor issue), and I'm back to using the Mackie ProFX12. The soundcraft was nice in that it had 2 separate buses, so you could easily record from one set of stereo buses, and send all the DAW stuff through the other one to monitors. I'm looking at a Behringer 1622 because of that extra "SUB" (that's submix, not subwoofer output like some reviewers have stated ) to record from; and bypassing the USB feature of the mixer altogether. In fact, it has submix, main, and 2 "sends". Unfortunately, few dealers in Canada seem to have it - none local to me!

[Bluesisblue]

I finally solved the problem. Before, the output was 1+2. Now I changed it to 1 and 2, separately. Also, on the mixer where the USB comes in and feeds back to the computer, I set it as MONO, which was STEREO before. Now when recording, I can hear the clicking on the monitoring headphones and see one output column jump at every beat. When playing back, no clicking anymore. I think the idea is outputting in two channels and feeding back in Mono.

Circling back to Pough's question above, to include the clicking in the recording, I'd say set up Waveform and the mixer as what I did in the beginning, i.e., Output 1+2 and USB feedback Stereo.

Hooray! Thank you guys for the help!!