Monitor headphones only playing out of one ear.

bulldog4574

New member
Hi all,

Complete newbie here and I'm pretty discouraged. I recently purchased a used Behringer B-1, a Focusrite 2i2, some refurbed m-50x's, and assorted accessories.

When i went to test out the mic, I'm only getting sound through the left earphone when the mic is plugged into input 1. When I plug it into input 2, i only get sound out of the right earphone. This is with the m-50x's plugged into the headphone jack with the 1/4" cable that came with it. The headphones worked perfectly listening to spotify. The mic and headphones also sound fine when recorded, it's only when I'm monitoring that i only get the sound of one ear.

I completely switched out everything: got a new interface, reinstalled all drivers and headphones, mic cable, headphone cables, and it's always just out of one ear when monitoring.

When i started troubleshooting, I saw a lot of people talking about mono inputs and needing to record to a mono track, but i'm encountering this problem without a DAW at all. If i just go to sound settings in windows and test the mic out, I experience this. If i "direct monitor", i have issues too, but there i'm getting sound out of both earphones, but the sound isn't in sync.

Am i completely missing something? The only thing I haven't switched out yet is the mic, but again when i recorded and played it back, it sounded fine and the recording came through in both ears. Any thoughts anyone?

Sorry if I'm missing something super obvious, but I did a lot of googling and still haven't seemed to have found the answer.
 
Are you on Windows or Mac?

The mono v stereo discussion people have been having with you is accurate. Just because its happening even without a DAW doesn't discount that. You've got to dig deeper into your OS and figure out your routing. It could be in your OS, could be in your Focusrite settings.

A stereo track is just two mono tracks panned Left and Right. So the OUTPUT of whatever is controlling your sound is saying 'take the Left and the Right INPUTS and combine them with panning to create separation'. But I would say it would be easiest to sort out the theory in your DAW but then you're still going to have to figure out the routing without the DAW.

What sort of control panel does the Focusrite have? Can you post screen shots?
 
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As said, this probably IS about stereo & mono - try recording to a mono channel in your DAW and see if it works. I doubt you have to change OS-level settings because frankly it sounds like everything is working as expected.
 
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