I have Cubase 13 and when you record your voice and you don’t want any delay compensation, you hit the delay comp button. However, it still does not sound exactly like speaking into a PC with a microphone and hearing back on headphones.
In Studio One, you have the ability to hit the mute button on a track and turn on the monitor button and it will still let you record on that channel. It provides a direct monitor sound of your voice which I don’t think you can get in Cubase. If you unmute the channel and speak, it then sounds just like the way it does in Cubase.
Any ideas if Cubase can do the same thing? Under Control panel, both my UA Apollo and my sons Moto, the direct monitoring is greyed out.
UPDATE: I found the answer. In UA Apollo, go to their setup and click off the delay compensation. On the Motu, there is a monitor button for each channel. Turn the monitor button off, and it is direct with no latency.
I use direct monitoring by clicking that button, but I was wondering … would you happen to know if Cubase can always offer direct monitoring, or is that only if the specific interface being used supports it?
In other words, is it possible that direct monitoring is grayed out because of choice of interface?
Yes, this option is very much interface specific.
Of course, even if the option is greyed out, direct monitoring is always available by using your interface control panel directly, this is only integration with the Cubase record monitor button.
Just curious, is there some list or something at Steinberg’s site that lists the interfaces that work with that??
I vaguely remember ‘back in the day’ that worked in VST 3.7/5 with my old RME Digi 96/8 PST card, but over on the Mac with my Digiface, I have to just use TotalMix to monitor (but thankfully I can use the MixConsole to watch the meters on the inputs).
I was using MOTU stuff since about 2000/2001 and that too, always had to use the internal CueMix for monitoring.
Same with my UAD - it’s never been an option since I started using Cubendo; I figured that was for specific drivers that had to support that for some reason, as in some sort of “workaround” when your hardware didn’t support direct monitoring on its own or something…
None I can find of.
I usually ask gpt4 for this kind of deep search where I instruct it to find all the models supporting ADM, searching through forums, manufacturer sites, communities, etc.
An example of the findings is below (don’t rely on it though..)
on windows, most, if not all ASIO audio devices can use ASIO direct monitoring from inside Cubase hence check box
the same device on Mac OS will have that greyed out as Core audio , despite it being in the SDK, doesn’t seem to have been taken up by the interface manufacturers.
expcept for… Steinberg. All steinberg interfaces have direct monitoring control from inside cubase using windows AND mAC os
In practive what this means is. On a windows computer, running Cubase with my RME UFX III cubase controls the total mix mixer, volume and pan are controled directly from the Cubase channel. You don’t have to have the total mix windows open at all…wheras on my M1 Max, I have to have the total mix window open and control it separately from cubase…a PIA after a while…
Correct - and in fact, that’s been my ONLY experience with Cubase (or any other DAW I’ve used) with the UAD. On MacOS, using the Apollo driver, you can’t enable it in the first place, so my entire workflow has always been either direct monitoring with my UAD plugin stack directly from the interface, or actual software monitoring through Cubase (since I’m only about 8ms latency live anyway). When I’m doing more complex routing, like when I’m recording myself playing music during a screen recording while also recording my voice and monitoring, then I’ll have a combination of cue routing to headphones inside Cubase so that I can audition without hanging to break down my ScreenFlow recording settings. But that’s the long “yes” answer to your question :).
Yep to piggyback on @Thor.HOG above, my interfaces have always taken care of that for me. My very first MOTU 828 I bought in like 2001 had CueMix built in and that was the first time I was ever able to properly monitor stuff going in. It got better with the 828Mk2 as well. My newish Digiface USB is the same way. I’m kinda lucky as I have a console going right into my interface, so I can control the direct channels there if things are too loud. But still gotta keep the TotalMix window open just in case I need to route something and whatnot.
I am pretty sure direct monitoring IS available in Core Audio but not a single developer has bothered trying it 20+ years down the line heh.
FWIW there are some alternatives for mac but none of these will be exactly like ASIO direct monitoring, but they get close enough..
Like Loopback by Rogue Amoeba,can route audio between apps and devices, for just routing audio with low latency.
Audio Hijack is another app from them that lets you capture and route audio, with just not as much latency as some other options.
MainStage’s designed for live but it gives pretty low-latency monitoring with effects. Again, you’ll need to tweak the settings to get it dialed in.
There’s also a free one, Soundflower; is open-source and lets you route audio between apps. It’s a bit rough around the edges, but it works.
@almaelectronix ,that’s NOT what ASIO direct monitoring does though. The whole point of it is you DAW controls the software/audio device mixer directly so you don’t need to have, for example ,Total mix open at all as Cubase changes the total mix levels and pan (in the background) from the Cubase channel.
I think a lot of people missunderstabd what it actually is. Especially Mac users who’ve generally never had this.
It’s big reason for Mac /Cubase users to use a steinberg interface. Also UAD hate direct monitoring, they flat out dont want youu to do it… they want you to use their console. I sent back my Apollo after an exchange with UA tech support on this matter. The Apollo window drivers were appaling at low latency… because they dont want you working that way…
I own Audio Hijack, it does not in any way facilitate what ‘direct monitoring’ does..
Its for capturing audio streams coming from an app or the system and renders it to a WAV. Its basically how I sample crap from YouTube or movies on my Plex server without having to get out my sampler and do it the ‘old’ way.
I’m probably one of them! So how does that work, exactly? On a Mac with a SB interface I can do the “direct monitoring” right inside Cubase? What about plugins? How’s that work?
Hi, yes you’re right it is not, that’s why I wrote:
I suggested these as alternatives for those who don’t have an RME hardware to use TotalMix. Unless tm can be used with others too, not sure if possible..
So, basically, for ADM to work, you need an audio interface that supports ASIO Direct Monitoring (ADM). The “Direct Monitoring” thing is all about low-latency input monitoring, which means it sends your audio inputs straight to the outputs without going through the software processing. Lots of interfaces have low-latency monitoring in their own software mixers, but the integration with Cubase using ASIO Direct Monitoring is specific.
Audio Hijack doesn’t do true direct monitoring like ASIO hardware does, but you can get something close to it by setting up a low-latency audio pass-through.
Capture the input by setting Audio Hijack to grab audio directly from your mic or instrument input. Next route it to output by sending that audio straight to your headphones or speakers without applying any processing. Last minimize latency by reducing buffer sizes as much as possible in the settings.
It’s still software-based, so some latency will always be there, but if you keep processing off and optimize the settings, it can be low enough for real-time monitoring. Not a full replacement for DM, but it works if you don’t have an interface that supports it.
