Teddy Riley's Audio Issues Ruin Babyface Instagram Battle

Teddy Riley and Babyface's battle was the talk of social media Saturday night, but for all the wrong reasons ... and Teddy Riley's audio equipment is to blame.

The two music legends were supposed to square off as part Swizz Beatz and Timbaland's Instagram battle series ... and nearly 400k people were tuned in to watch it go down. Babyface was solo, set up in what looked like his home studio, and Teddy had something more elaborate ... with a microphone and crew around him.

The audio issues were immediate, Teddy's sound was muffled, ruining the timing and quality, while Babyface's sounded perfectly clear.

Teddy -- who had what appeared to be an audio crew with him -- took several pauses, trying to fix the tech issues ... but the sound never improved and the competition ultimately got canceled.

Fans were disappointed ... and the whole thing turned into a social media frenzy with memes and even tweets sent out by celebs mocking the whole thing.