InputDevice::MonitorMode confusion

Tracktion Engine
1

Hi,

I’m having trouble understanding how to set up input monitoring with the new InputDevice::MonitorMode in Tracktion Engine.

In most DAWs, users can separately control arming and input monitoring for each track:

  • Arming: Enabled recording for incoming audio on the track.
  • Input Monitoring: Allows incoming audio to be monitored in real-time.

I’m unclear on how (or if) this is directly supported in the current Tracktion Engine state. In Tracktion, an input device (e.g. a microphone input) sends audio to various destinations (InputDeviceInstance::Destination). A destination is a track. Each destination has a recordEnabled flag, which arms that track for recording. However, there’s no inputMonitoring flag for each destination. Instead, monitoring is controlled in the InputDevice class with MonitorMode, which has three options: off, automatic, or on.

The issue is that this setup doesn’t allow users to change input monitoring for multiple destinations individually, which seems like a basic need. Am I missing something here, or is this a current limitation in Tracktion? My knowledge of Tracktion Engine is limited.

Thanks,

Jelle

2

Your summary is correct but is it essential to have it per destination/track?

The easiest way to get this would be to set it to automatic and then use the recordEnable to turn monitoring on/off?

What scenarios would you have the same input device on different tracks requiring different monitoring modes?

3

Thank you for your response!

I can see where automatic monitoring can be useful. I believe Ableton offers something similar, but a drawback of automatic monitoring is that input monitoring is active only while the track is armed.

For instance, here’s a setup I often use when recording vocals (I use Studio One for my own music projects):

  • Track 1: Arming is disabled, but input monitoring is enabled, with a 100% wet reverb effect applied. This track acts as a reverb aux during recording going to the singers headphones.
  • Track 2: Arming is enabled, while input monitoring is off. This track records the dry vocal. After recording I’ll copy this track to do another take.

Screenshot 2024-10-28 at 20.53.50
Screenshot 2024-10-28 at 20.53.50384×906 36.7 KB

(In my case the direct voice signal is monitored within the zero latency Audient audio interface mixer)

Both tracks use the same mic input, with one track armed and the other set only for monitoring. I believe this configuration is not supported by Tracktion currently.

4

No it’s not.

But you could get a similar effect by just having a track with a single input then sending that to another track to use as an aux bus.

You only really have one track you’re recording to and you’re either monitoring this or not right?
You just can’t do it exactly like in your example.

5

Yes, that would technically work, but I prefer having my reverb aux track as a separate track that I can easily remove once my recordings are done. It’s similar but the workflow is a bit different.

Anyway, I understand now that what I’m looking for isn’t possible. That’s all I wanted to know, I thought I might be missing something.