Significant Bleed with Stereo

ginacc

Hello - I'm in a bit of a panic because I just realized that we're getting a slight (but sometimes extremely noticable) bleed from our click/cues track (Panned hard R) onto the rest of our tracks (Panned Hard L.) We route each side into different inputs on our mixer, and the Tracks channel IS picking up the click bleed.

We've using iPad 9 with the headphone out. This bleed is not just with StageTraxx - I'm getting this bleed on every DAW I'm using, different devices, different headphones. I've scoured the internet for solutions and nobody seems to have them. We have a big sold-out show on Saturday and I'm wondering if I should very quickly switch to using an audio interface and routing my multitrack channels through that somehow -- would that even solve the problem of the L/R bleed? I'm not sure. I have a 2-channel Scarlet 2i2 that I could use to route click and track separately but I'm assuming I'd need to run out and get an iPad 10 and a dongle? I'm using the Lighting out on my iPad 9 to run our midi-controlled video (visibox.)

If you have any quick advice on fixing the bleed OR quickly upgrading to an iPad 10/audio-interface/docking solution please let me know. Thank you!

peter

Try to route your tracks to the mono left / right output option in Settings > Audio Routing.

If that does not help you might have a faulty headphone socket or cable. Switching to another cable might help.

If you want to use your Scarlet interface, you need to connect the iPad to a powered usb hub and then connect the interface and your midi interface to the hub.

ginacc

peter Hi Peter - everything's already routed L/R - we've been using it this way for a long time. I tried several different cables, devices, headphones, and it's all the same.

Damir

ginacc everything's already routed L/R - we've been using it this way for a long time. I tried several different cables, devices, headphones, and it's all the same.

after a lot of internet research, someone suggested that the bleed can be corrected by using a Stereo DI box, and that actually worked perfectly. It completely cut out all the bleed.

Its good news, but it makes no technical sense, you said you tried headphones/devices , they usually have short leads and Xtalk would not be an issue there, unbalanced stereo leads need to be of high quality and as short as possible , the fact a DI box has fixed the issue sounds like you were using long unbalanced leads of poor quality.

ginacc

So we found an unexpected solution for this -- after a lot of internet research, someone suggested that the bleed can be corrected by using a Stereo DI box, and that actually worked perfectly. It completely cut out all the bleed. Leaving this in case anyone else runs into the same issue.

ginacc

Damir I was using AudioTechnics headphones, then Shure 215s - these were all right up next to my computer so not long leads and not poor quality.

Damir

ginacc I was using AudioTechnics headphones, then Shure 215s - these were all right up next to my computer so not long leads and not poor quality.

That’s why I think your problem was the output headphone socket , the fact it works OK with DI box means the automated circuitry that adjusts itself to work with different devices has correctly setup itself to suit the DI box , but it was not doing this when you plugged in other devices, it would be interesting to now plug in you headphones and check for x talk again, perhaps that circuitry that automatically adjusts itself for impedance matching has a problem.
Or perhaps now it’s working correctly again.
A DI box is just another load device to the headphone Jack it should not make any difference to X Talk problem it just gives you ability to send signals long distance as it changes non balanced signals that are designed for short distance leads to a balanced signals that can travel long distance.
Hopefully your headphone Jack is fine from now on after the DI box plug in.
Some older mixers with automatic impedance matching inputs suffer from this where the system is not working all that reliably with some input devices.
This problem can occur when one side of connector has a bad connection so the automated circuitry sets One side to higher impedance and the other to lower impedance and you get a mismatch causing xtalk.
A fix can be by pulling the connector in and out quickly a number of times to clean and make a solid connection on both left and right side, this won’t help if your socket is badly worn.