Distortion & dry signal issue

[vandijkbv]

Hey everyone,

I’m having an issue while livestreaming on TikTok using a specific preset. The people watching the stream can hear both the distorted sound and the dry signal, but on my end, I only hear the distortion signal through my studio monitors and headphones—no dry signal.

Here’s a breakdown of the situation

On the livestream, viewers hear both the distorted and dry signal.
In my studio setup (monitors and headphones), I can only hear the sound as it supposed to be, with distortion.

Any ideas on how to fix this? I’m not sure if it’s an issue with my audio routing, the preset, or TikTok’s audio processing.

I added my preset and a snippet of the audio how the people who are watching it are hearing it.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Chuck P]

Without understanding your setup or what you are actually doing while livestreaming, this is pretty tough to diagnose. But broadly speaking, an unprocessed sound is generally:

1. Getting blended into your processed sound by the Axe (which I don't think is the case here),
2. Coming through a mic that you are using to livestream,
3. Coming from an unprocessed DAW track that you use for re-amping, or
4. Getting blended into your processed sound by some device between your guitar and Axe (like a patch bay or interface that might have "monitoring" functionality

 

[vandijkbv]

Without understanding your setup or what you are actually doing while livestreaming, this is pretty tough to diagnose. But broadly speaking, an unprocessed sound is generally:

1. Getting blended into your processed sound by the Axe (which I don't think is the case here),
2. Coming through a mic that you are using to livestream,
3. Coming from an unprocessed DAW track that you use for re-amping, or
4. Getting blended into your processed sound by some device between your guitar and Axe (like a patch bay or interface that might have "monitoring" functionality

My setup consists of an Axe FX connected to my PC via USB, and a microphone plugged directly into the mic input on my PC, which I mute while playing. I use headphones as my monitor. Everything is configured in the TikTok Studio app for Windows, with the Axe FX set as the input.

The issue only arises when I use the Pitch Block. The Virtual Capo works as expected in my headphones/monitor, but the audience only hears the guitar's normal tuning. The same happens with the Dual Detune—while it works on my end, the audience receives a disorted and dry audio signal instead.

 

[sprint]

My setup consists of an Axe FX connected to my PC via USB, and a microphone plugged directly into the mic input on my PC, which I mute while playing. I use headphones as my monitor. Everything is configured in the TikTok Studio app for Windows, with the Axe FX set as the input.

The issue only arises when I use the Pitch Block. The Virtual Capo works as expected in my headphones/monitor, but the audience only hears the guitar's normal tuning. The same happens with the Dual Detune—while it works on my end, the audience receives a disorted and dry audio signal instead.

Take a close look at how your AxeFx3 USB channels are routed. USB Ch1/2 (out1) is only what I understand you want going to your audience (preset output) - make sure other channels (ie 5/6 which is Axefx at input) are not getting inadvertently passed thru.

Remove the mic completely from your routing and see if the issue still occurs (if no, then the mic is likely somehow the issue (could be picking up the accoustic sound of your guitar + ambient processed sound)).

 

[Andrew Male]

My money would be on your mic isn't really muted.

 

[vandijkbv]

Take a close look at how your AxeFx3 USB channels are routed. USB Ch1/2 (out1) is only what I understand you want going to your audience (preset output) - make sure other channels (ie 5/6 which is Axefx at input) are not getting inadvertently passed thru.

Remove the mic completely from your routing and see if the issue still occurs (if no, then the mic is likely somehow the issue (could be picking up the accoustic sound of your guitar + ambient processed sound)).

So if I understand correctly, I need to turn off USB5/6 completely?
The mic isnt the issue as I tested it without mic and the problem still occurs.

 

[FractalAudio]

See Section 3 in the manual.

 

[sprint]

So if I understand correctly, I need to turn off USB5/6 completely?
The mic isnt the issue as I tested it without mic and the problem still occurs.

USB 5/6 from Axe to computer input carries the sound from Axefx input1. So, to answer a question with a question, why would you need/want that dry only guitar signal passed to your audience?

 

[Chuck P]

The issue only arises when I use the Pitch Block.

Burying the lede a little here, eh?

 

[sprint]

another possibility, tho not likely, is that the DAW / Plugin / Studio software has incorrectly assigned the USB channel names (swapped them around). This happened to me once - since then, when setting up something new, I always check by ear to confirm that the USB channel I select, is, in fact, delivering from the source I expect.

 

[vandijkbv]

another possibility, tho not likely, is that the DAW / Plugin / Studio software has incorrectly assigned the USB channel names (swapped them around). This happened to me once - since then, when setting up something new, I always check by ear to confirm that the USB channel I select, is, in fact, delivering from the source I expect.

I believe the issue is still with the Pitch Block. When I use other presets that don't include the Pitch Block, there are no complaints about hearing the dry signal.

 

[sprint]

I believe the issue is still with the Pitch Block. When I use other presets that don't include the Pitch Block, there are no complaints about hearing the dry signal.

The track you posted above looks / sounds mono to me - but the preset yields stereo - are you possibly collapsing the Axefx stereo output signal to mono somewhere downstream from Axefx? (that might well make the shifted effect in the preset sound strange - and in this scenario, the strangeness would likely dissappear with the shifter off as you've noted).

 

[vandijkbv]

The track you posted above looks / sounds mono to me - but the preset yields stereo - are you possibly collapsing the Axefx stereo output signal to mono somewhere downstream from Axefx? (that might well make the shifted effect in the preset sound strange - and the strangeness would likely dissappear with the shifter off as you've noted).

Yes, it's mono. Otherwise, some people might only hear one side of the stereo depending on their device. I use the Mono converter in the TikTok Studio app, even for the backing tracks. However, even when I turn off or remove the pitch blocks in the preset, people still hear the dry signal. I also tried using the 'kill dry' switch on the pitch, reverb, and delay blocks, but that doesn't seem to help either.

 

[sprint]

Yes, it's mono. Otherwise, some people might only hear one side of the stereo depending on their device. I use the Mono converter in the TikTok Studio app

I know some stereo presets can be successfully collapsed to mono with minimal impact to the tone, but to my ears, your preset (scene2 with reverb off) sounds very comb filtered when I collapse it to mono at end of chain (mainly due to the Pitch1 block which is introducing the modulated detune on the left side). But anyway, the mono tone I'm hearing is admittedly different than the clip you posted above which suggests the transform to mono is not the issue ("no stone unturned as they say").

However, even when I turn off or remove the pitch blocks in the preset, people still hear the dry signal. I also tried using the 'kill dry' switch on the pitch, reverb, and delay blocks, but that doesn't seem to help either.

Looked at your preset several times and I've found no dry coming thru the preset as a whole or the pitch block specifically (Pitch mix is at 100%, turning voice1/level1 to 0 completely mutes the pitch block which feeds the left side) - since you also don't hear any dry coming out of the preset directly on headphones or local studio monitors, then I'd say the most logical next place to investigate closely for the issue is downstream from Axefx. Did you review your USB routing as I suggested above? (it sounded from your previous post like you were possibly routing in AxeFx USB outputs 5/6 (dry from Axefx Input1) - bringing in 5/6 will def introduce a clean dry signal like what you posted.

Anyway, sorry I'm not able to pinpoint it - am out of gas on further suggestions on this other than I'd recommend that you try to find a way to be able to run end to end tests thru to and including Tik Tok that you can monitor yourself and hear the anomaly coming through Tik Tok while tweaking various parts of the complete chain to try and narrow down more specifically where its introduced or to better understand the behaviour.

Will be watching for your "a-ha" moment as I'm quite curious to know whats happening.