Balancing stereo into mono in AUM

islandtime

Hello All,

This is my first post and I'm not a musician, but rather helping a musician friend who is doing Facebook Live feeds and needs better sound quality than her iPhone offers.

As easy as it may seem, we're having a hard time setting up a basic AUM mix and wanted to ask for advice.

Here's the situation: I got her a Focusrite Scarlett Solo USB audio interface (Ios compatible w/ the adapter she needs). She is using Ch1 for MIC And Ch2 for Guitar. No other interfaces, just a voice and guitar.
This is a stereo signal, and Facebook uses stereo, so her audio is unbalanced--MIC out of left speaker and guitar out of right for the listeners. Obviously this sounds awful.

I'm good with computers, but she's not, and is 1400 miles away and it's been tough collaborating due to schedules and testing time. So I have not been able to try different options ad naseum..

I did a lot of searching and found a litle advice, but not the details we need to make it work, and. Here is what is configured now in AUM:

Channel slider 1
Input: Focusrite Ch1
Mix: Stereo to mono
Output USB Ch 1+2

Channel slider 2
Input:Focusrite Ch2
Mix: Stereo to mono
Output: USB Ch 1+2

My thoughts are the outputs are not correct. This may be sending the mixed audio back into the Focusrite audio interface and not to the iPhone.

So the question is: What settings need to be configured to balance Ch1 and Ch2 across both speakers and output to the Iphone directly so she can Facebook Live from the phone?

Also, we are not married to AUM although I think she does need some ability to tune the sound in the future to ongoing improve the sound quality.
We need to fix this fast so is there is another method (easier), we'll listen to advice! Your input on settings is massively appreciated!!!
Thanks so much everyone!

MrBlaschke

Hi there.

I do not have Scarlett Solo, but i have a Scarlett 6i6 so it should be identical from the in/out concept.
A quick test with a hardware Synth (MicroFreak, which is a mono-synth) with connected to just 1 input of the Scarlett gives me a signal in stereo (on both speakers). On the 2nd mono input i have a Kalimba, which is obviously mono - again this comes out in stereo if i define a stereo output.

My AUM setup is exactly like you described - 1 channel in on 2 separate lanes to the same Stereo Output:

So i guess you have the Scarlett itself misconfigured- i struggled with this interface configuration too at the very beginning.
If the screenshot above reflects your AUM session than that should be fine and the problem lies within the Scarlett hardware configuration.

Please let your friend check the configurations of the in-ports in the Scarlett configuration tool. (You need a PC/Mac for this with the Scarlett connected to it). I think you have configured each as mono and should switch to stereo.

Hope that helps.

islandtime

@MrBlaschke--Thank you! We do NOT have the third slider setup with USB 3+4 input and 1+2 output. Is that required to make this work if the Focusrite is configured as stereo? It seems like it is in stereo based on the channel separation.

If we use the config tool on the Focusrite and verify they are stereo, do we only need the third column configured?

Here is her last stream if you want to listen:

https://www.facebook.com/EricaSunshineLee/videos/10157122841165951/?epa=SEARCH_BOX

Really appreciate the advice!!!

MrBlaschke

Hi @islandtime
No - the third lane is just to show the difference to a stereo input signal. It is not needed for this.

For info: I can not access Facebook where i am so i don’t know what there is shown behind that link.

CracklePot

The way you describe your setup, you are sending the audio back out to the Scarlet.
How are you recording the audio+video? On the same iPhone running AUM?
If yes, then you need to get the AUM output to the app that is recording (maybe FB Live).
Even if not recording, but streaming, you still need to send AUM output to that other app.

Otherwise, the other app just uses the Scarlet inputs directly (instead of iPhone mic). That means anything you do in AUM will not affect what the other app receives as input. So, that Stereo to Mono isn’t getting applied.

noob

islandtime

@CracklePot _Thank you for the reply, I agree the outputs need to be different. FB will use whatever the Apple IOS is currently designating it's sound card, and this device is supposed to be a plug and play "takeover", and indeed the output now is through the the unit, just no mixes applied. So if I can get AUM to output to the right port, I think we can make progress from there.

@MrBlaschke The Focusrite software does not work on Iphones, so I need to convert in software. I am assuming I can't write the changes into firmware, user guide said nothing about write functions and if using that software would need her Macbook running the live feed (which is in the future with HD camera). IF we can write the config that would be nice.

There is also a feature on Iphones under accessibility/audio that lets you change speaker output to mono. I may try that first, but do not know if that affects only the local speaker or the sound card output.

I may try the third config for grins.

@noob Thx for the video.

Appreciate the help everyone.