Unable to "monitor" my vocals in NON multitrack mode

[OrlandoJetset]

Hi, for years I have been doing Create-->New Audio File and quickly capturing a mono file from my microphone for voiceover work. This worked throughout the years using a few different interfaces from Focusrite. 

I recently upgraded to Scarlett 4i4 (3rd gen) and for some reason, the out-of-the-box output presets only allow me to "hear myself" when recording audio if I go into Multitrack Session and record/arm the track. I find this is overkill for a simple VO, and def not the way I've worked for years.

Is there any way in Audition to turn on "monitoring" for the simple new audio file recording mode? Because it always just worked before, I always thought it was "on" by default... The fact that I can't hear myself in this mode now throws a wrench in the established workflow.

Please assist...

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

I think that you should be able to set this up in the control app that comes with the 4i4, although as I haven't got one, I can't be sure. It is a normal thing to do though, have a straight-through path to your earphones and avoid any latency, and that should be easy to set up.

[OrlandoJetset]

Thank you - I am not sure WHY Audition does not provide the option to "monitor" thru its software when doing new --> audio file. Since the feature exists in multitrack session, how hard can it be to implement in single audio file mode.

Ugh...looks like I'll either need to change my workflow to use multitrack, or I'll need to create a custom preset in Focusrite Control for VO in Audition.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_ · Accepted solution]

You have to bear in mind that the way Audition records in Waveform view is completely and utterly different from Multitrack - which you'd be better off using anyway. Multitrack recording goes direct to disk, but because it has an effects channel driven from the input which can be routed to an output, monitoring is possible. Waveform view does not have this option, so there is no mechanism available for it. So, how hard? - infinitely hard!

Originally when Audition's predecessor (Cool Edit) was created, there were several very dodgy aspects of computing that made any form of recording rather difficult anyway. So in Waveform view (used to be Edit view), recording was done to a temp file, and the whole process used up most of the resources of the machines available back then. Direct monitoring would have been a disaster anyway; the latency through the machine would have given you so much lag in the headphones that it would have been impossible to speak. And that still happens today, to an extent - which is why all manufacturers provide a direct hardware monitoring path if they provide a headphone output.

Computers have moved on in leaps and bounds, and that's why Multitrack now has direct-to-disc recording. Even with a power cut, you get everything up to the power loss saved, which would be very unlikely to happen with the temp file method that Waveform uses. Nobody's actually said this out loud, but it's pretty clear that Adobe wants to encourage people to use Multitrack recording, and they appear to be doing this by not attempting to upgrade the Waveform option...

[OrlandoJetset]

Thank you for such a great explanation 🙂