AX8: how to DI-record without hearing the DI signal?

[Shredguitar666]

Hi guys,

I am currently trying to DI record some guitars with my AX8 into my Steinberg UR22 interface.
I would like to hear what I am playing as I play it, but only the processed tone. Not the dry DI signal.
At the moment I am hearing both. Surely there is a way to avoid this?
What am I missing?

I have an AX8 patch with an FX loop where I have more or less tried to follow what this guy does:
I have to crank the levels of the FX loop though either via the AX8 patch, or by turning up the Out 2 (FX Send) knob on the AX8 unit.
The guy recommends turning this to zero, but this gives me hardly any signal (and a LOT of noise if I try to compensate in Cubase by increasing the volume of the audio clip).

 

[chipchappy]

If you create two audio tracks, you should be able to arm both for recording, but turn the monitor off for the DI signal one? I don't have time to watch the full video, so maybe he covers this too, and I can't comment without seeing your exact signal chain, but generally what i do is record the processed tone as well as a DI but the DI's monitor is just turned off so I cant hear any of the weird unprocessed signal. I use cubase too and just fold those guitar tracks so they're truncated together

 

[Shredguitar666]

If you create two audio tracks, you should be able to arm both for recording, but turn the monitor off for the DI signal one? I don't have time to watch the full video, so maybe he covers this too, and I can't comment without seeing your exact signal chain, but generally what i do is record the processed tone as well as a DI but the DI's monitor is just turned off so I cant hear any of the weird unprocessed signal. I use cubase too and just fold those guitar tracks so they're truncated together

I don’t use the “monitoring” that you can enable in Cubase on each track. What I’m talking about is simply the raw sound coming from my AX8. One input being the processed audio and one being the DI.

I have been doing loads of research on this lately. It seems that some audio interfaces come with a built-in mixing application where you can adjust exactly which input channels you want to listen to and which you don’t. At least that’s how I’ve come to understand it. Seems that UR22 doesn’t have this. Another interface called Audient Id14 Mk2 seems to have this so I’ve gone and ordered one of those. Hopefully this’ll fix my problem

It’s surprising this sort of stuff isn’t getting more attention on various forums. Maybe it’s just so basic and everyone somehow knows it. I didn’t though, and I’ve been recording audio for over 20 years (never DI though..haha).

 

[Winspear]

I don’t use the “monitoring” that you can enable in Cubase on each track. What I’m talking about is simply the raw sound coming from my AX8. One input being the processed audio and one being the DI.

I have been doing loads of research on this lately. It seems that some audio interfaces come with a built-in mixing application where you can adjust exactly which input channels you want to listen to and which you don’t. At least that’s how I’ve come to understand it. Seems that UR22 doesn’t have this. Another interface called Audient Id14 Mk2 seems to have this so I’ve gone and ordered one of those. Hopefully this’ll fix my problem

It’s surprising this sort of stuff isn’t getting more attention on various forums. Maybe it’s just so basic and everyone somehow knows it. I didn’t though, and I’ve been recording audio for over 20 years (never DI though..haha).

It's the mix knob on the front of the U22 - sorry bud haha. You'd set it 100% to DAW (right side) and enable monitoring on the Wet track in the DAW.
Good interface upgrade though!

 

[Shredguitar666]

It's the mix knob on the front of the U22 - sorry bud haha. You'd set it 100% to DAW (right side) and enable monitoring on the Wet track in the DAW.
Good interface upgrade though!

Maybe I’m not communicating the problem clearly enough. The mix knob on UR22 enables the sound from BOTH inputs to bleed through. The mix knob doesn’t distinguish between input 1 and 2. The UR22 doesn’t allow me to say “I only want to listen to input 1. I want to record both input 1 and 2 but I only want to listen to input 1”. I hope this makes sense? This is what I have gathered that the Audient interface would let me do via the mixing software that comes with it.

 

[Winspear]

Gotcha, right That would be a difference/advantage, yes, if you were set on using front end monitoring rather than playback monitoring for any reason.

My point was that you could have just used the DAW monitoring and enabled monitoring on just the one track in the DAW and achieved what you wanted with the UR22

Maybe I’m not communicating the problem clearly enough. The mix knob on UR22 enables the sound from BOTH inputs to bleed through. The mix knob doesn’t distinguish between input 1 and 2. The UR22 doesn’t allow me to say “I only want to listen to input 1. I want to record both input 1 and 2 but I only want to listen to input 1”. I hope this makes sense? This is what I have gathered that the Audient would let me do via the mixing software that comes with it.G

 

[Shredguitar666]

Gotcha, right That would be a difference/advantage, yes, if you were set on using front end monitoring rather than playback monitoring for any reason.

My point was that you could have just used the DAW monitoring and enabled monitoring on just the one track in the DAW and achieved what you wanted with the UR22

No worries
Yeah but that would have introduced latency wouldn't it? I would love just a simple latency-free recording experience, and then fiddle around with re-amping later on after I recorded all my DI tracks.

Anyway, I got the new interface, and it is everything I wanted. I am able to mute the monitoring of the DI signal, so I can listen to only my processed AX8 sound, while I record both at the same time.

 

[Winspear]

Yes - absolutely. Input zero latency monitoring is cool But DAW monitoring is very common usage and in most instances, with the correct buffer setting and a project not too crazy for your CPU, can be kept below 10 even 5ms which is completely comparable to sitting near a cab - so don't shy away from it if useful!