Can't get rid of metronome clicks

[soundprizm]

I set my metronome on a certain tempo and record a track.
Prior to recording, I make sure my monitors are off and my headphones aren't too loud as to be picked up by the mic. The recording goes fine. I playback and I still here a quiet click. What the hell is going on?!?

 

[JimH]

How are you doing the metronome click? If you're using MIDI click that goes to some instrument like a drum machine, and if the drum machine output is feeding into a mixer, then there might still be a path from it to the recording. Check the effect sends. The drum machine might be feeding into an effects send, which goes to the master, which is what you are recording.

If you have other MIDI instruments in your setup that feed into a mixer, any one of them might be responding to the MIDI click and then finding a path to the recorded output. To isolate it, you could try turning them off one at a time until the click goes away. Then check aux sends, etc.

Another way to go about the recording is to only use the metronome for the first couple of tracks. Record drums first and then use that track to keep time instead of the metronome. I find it easier anyway to keep time with some natural-feeling track like drums rather than a robotic click.

Jim

 

[soundprizm]

Maybe I misunderstood what you said, but I am not using any other equipment other than cubase and my mic. I'm using the metronome click in cubase. When I have it on it bleeds onto my track. The speakers are off when I am recording, so I don't have any idea of what else could be the cause.

 

[JimH]

When you said metronome "click", I just guessed that you were using MIDI and not the audio click, because the audio click is actually not a click but a beep sound. Anyway....

The only other thing I can think of is that your sound card is somehow bleeding the output back to the input. If your soundcard has a mixer application, check that the mixer is not setup to route the output back to the input. I guess it would depend on what soundcard you're using, though.

Incidently, just to rule out the possibility that the headphones are in fact leaking, I'd unplug them totally and then record a several seconds just as a test. If the metronome is still there, then I'd get out the sound card's user manual and check the routing possibilities.

Jim

 

[soundprizm]

Jim,

When you said something about my soundcard's mixer application. I remembered that I have a record volume on that application. It has settings for all the other inputs it has like: line in, cd in, what you hear.... Anyway that was the problem. I had it set on what you hear instead of line in. I feel stupid that I didn't check that before. Thanks for your feedback!