So I spent a lot of time on setting up my recording gear and software (and settings) today for my first AVOYP. One thing that bugged the hell out of me and I couldn’t figure out was that there was a pretty strong echo coming through my headphones. It showed up in my condenser mic, it showed up when I plugged my guitar straight into the AI, and it was there if I had both inputs active. I tried using amp sim plugins in Reaper and I tried using no amp sim. That echo was always there.
It made it a little bit of a pain to hear my own rhythm and to be able to tell if I was playing in time or not. But once I got a recording, I couldn’t hear that echo in the recording. Were the monitor headphones accentuating a subtle thing that much? Or is there some artifact of my setup causing it? Here’s how I was set up for the recording:
Guitar (with Taylor’s Expression System 2 pickup) + Mackie Condenser Mic (I like the sound of the guitar using both the piezo pickup and the mic) > Focusrite 2i2 AI > Reaper (no amp sim plugins enabled, only the ReaStream ReaPlugs edition) > OBS (using Camo app to get video from old phone into OBS) with no additional plugins.
Monitor headphones I used are Anker Soundcore bluetooth noise cancelling headphones that I plugged into the monitor port on the Focusride with a d’Addario 1/8-1/4 TRS adapter. I did not have the noise cancelling turned on.
I thought it might be echo from the room not having sufficient sound treatment. But that echo didn’t show up in the recording, only the headphones. I thought maybe it might be because I was combining two audio inputs, but the echo was still there if I disabled either input.
I think when I’ve had this, it was that I wasn’t monitoring “direct”. I.e. I was getting the sound in the ear phones after some digital processing had taken place, rather than the sound that was coming into the audio interface. There is usually something in the set-up that tells the system whether you want direct monitoring or not.
I would also suspect a latency issue with the monitoring in that case. Unfortunately, I neither use the same DAW, nor the same AI, so I can’t give any detailed advice. You could check the settings in reaper for latency and/or buffer usage and try to adjust it (if this is possible) or see if you have the option to enable direct monitoring somewhere, as Simon suggests, too.
I’ve got the 2i2 too.
It worked flawlessly for a long time. Then one day I started getting a echo too. It was horrible annoying. I think it was happening through the headphones plugged into the AI if I remember right. I think it was happening while recording only.
This was a while ago so I can’t remember exactly what I checked out to see if I could find what was causing this.
I do remember the cure.
I reinstalled the 2i2 driver.
It was also a instant cure for the echo.
I think I had 2 clues leading me to the driver.
I have my 2i2 is my default audio card. I couldn’t find 2i2 listed in my sound settings.
When I power up my computer 1st time for the day. I have a pop up that is the first thing I see telling me that my 2i2 is synced. I wasn’t seeing this pop up.
No idea if that’s what’s happening for you. But perhaps a idea worth looking into?
I’m not computer savoy, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
They are BT headphones, but they also have an option to use a physical wire. I initially bought these for long plane flights and I wanted to plug into the plane’s entertainment system. I was using the physical wire for this. The headphones were not powered on (which would have turned on the noise cancelling).
I use these instead of my other headset because I can plug them in to my AI for direct monitoring. My other headset plugs in via USB and has a mic boom for gaming and video conferencing and stuff.
I have the 4th gen 2i2, fwiw. Thanks for the link. I had direct monitoring in mono enabled. Switched to Direct monitoring in stereo and that made the echo go away.
I use my Helix and monitor from that. If I have the Helix set in the DAW as an output (playback) device, then I’ll hear the echo of my playing when it is first sent to my headphone monitor, then again after the DAW has processed things and played it back on the Helix. I get this when I want to record, but use a MP3 track played thru the Helix.
I don’t have a 2i2 and not sure if you can set it for playback. I think you can given HappyCat’s comment about setting as “default audio card” above. Look for something like the loop I described in your config and see if you can disable the playback to the 2i2 if you have it setup that way. When I record, I disable the channel I am recording from played to the output so I don’t hear the echo of the monitor.
Though related to your statement, no, I did not have my AI set as the playback device. my PC speakers were doing that job so I’d have to take the headphones off to hear the playback of the video.