Instruction Manual

260 Recording

Input Monitoring

The feedback problem results whenever you have a loop in your mixer

path: the output of your mixer is patched into the input of your sound card.

Feedback can happen with or without input monitoring, but since input

monitoring can add several levels of gain to the signal flow, it’s of greater

concern when you have input monitoring enabled. Input monitoring is

disabled by default when you install SONAR, and you enable it with the

following procedure.

To Enable Input Monitoring

• Turn your speakers down, and on an audio track that you want to

monitor, click the Input Echo button so that it’s lit up (on) . To

disable monitoring for this track, click the button off.

• Turn your speakers down, and on the Playback State toolbar (to

display, use the Views-Toolbars-Playback State command), click the

Input Monitor button so that it’s lit up—this enables input monitoring on

all tracks. To disable monitoring for all tracks, click the button off.

Now you can hear your instrument in real time with any plug-in effects that

you want to patch into the current track. You might also hear an echo,

because the dry signal is coming out of your sound card slightly ahead of

the processed signal. To eliminate the dry signal, see the next procedure.

To Eliminate the Echo from Input Monitoring

1. Open the software mixer that controls your sound card. If your sound

card uses the Windows mixer, open the mixer by using the Start-

Programs-Accessories-Entertainment-Volume Control command,

or double-clicking the speaker icon on the Windows taskbar.

2. In the Play Control window of the mixer, check the Mute checkbox in

the Line-In column, or in the column of whatever jack your instrument is

plugged into, and close the mixer window.

Now you can hear only the processed sound when you use input

monitoring. Using WDM or ASIO drivers for your sound card keeps latency

to a negligible amount.

Note: This procedure does not eliminate feedback from your system, only

the echo. If you experience feedback, you have a feedback loop

somewhere in your mixer setup.