Input Monitoring

Input monitoring lets you hear yourself while recording. Hear your voice or instrument through FlowState's effects in real-time, so you know exactly what you're capturing.

What Is Input Monitoring?

When you sing or play into a microphone:

• The sound goes into FlowState
• FlowState can play it back through your headphones
• You hear yourself with any effects applied
• This helps you perform better and hear issues

Enabling Input Monitoring

1. Select your recording track
   Click the track you want to record on in the track list (left side of the screen).
2. Arm the track for recording
   Click the red R button on the track header. It illuminates when armed.
3. Enable monitoring
   Click the headphone icon on the track header (next to the M, S, R buttons). The button glows when active. You can also press I when the track is selected.
4. You should now hear your input
   Speak or play—you'll hear yourself through your headphones with any vocal effects applied.

Monitoring Modes

Always On

• Hear your input all the time
• Even when not recording
• Good for practicing or warming up

Only When Recording

• Hear your input only during recording
• Silent during playback
• Prevents doubling when playing back takes

Off

• Never hear your input through FlowState
• Use this if you have hardware monitoring
• Or when you're not recording

Latency

Latency is the delay between when you make a sound and when you hear it:

• Some latency is normal in digital audio
• Very low latency feels natural
• High latency makes performing difficult

Reducing Latency

• Use Chrome — Best performance for web audio
• Close other apps — Frees up processing power
• Use a good audio interface — Lower latency than built-in audio

Monitoring with Effects

Hear effects on your voice while recording:

1. Add effects to the track
   Set up EQ, compression, reverb, etc.
2. Enable monitoring
   Turn on input monitoring as described above.
3. Hear yourself with effects
   The effects are applied to your monitoring signal.

Common Issues

Hearing Double

If you hear two copies of your voice:

• Your audio interface may have direct monitoring on
• Turn off either FlowState monitoring or interface monitoring
• You only need one

Feedback/Squealing

A loud squeal when you turn on monitoring:

• You're using speakers instead of headphones
• Switch to headphones immediately
• Lower the volume to stop the feedback

Can't Hear Myself

Input monitoring is on but no sound:

• Check that the correct input is selected
• Make sure the track is armed for recording
• Check the input meter—is it showing signal?
• Check your headphone volume

Delay Is Too Long

If the delay makes it hard to perform:

• Try closing other browser tabs
• Close other applications
• Consider using your audio interface's direct monitoring

Hardware Monitoring

Some audio interfaces have "direct monitoring":

• Routes input directly to output with zero latency
• Completely bypasses the computer
• Turn off FlowState monitoring when using this
• You won't hear FlowState effects while recording

Using Voice Commands

Best Practices

• Always use headphones — Prevents feedback
• Set levels first — Get good input levels before performing
• Check the recording — Play back to make sure it captured correctly
• Turn off when not recording — Saves CPU and avoids confusion

Next Steps

• Learn recording basics
• Apply vocal presets
• Process your vocals