Hardware Latency Compensation with MTRX

[jrileyhill]

Hey all
We are thinking of switching to either an MTRX or MTRX Studio and there is a couple things I've been having trouble finding an answer to in documentation. I reached out to Avid sales and the person I spoke with couldn't give me an answer. If anyone with experience has time to let me know that would be greatly appreciated!

1. When connecting to the MTRX as a Dante interface through a PCIE Dante card, (for use with another DAW outside of Pro Tools) Are ALL inputs and outputs of the MTRX available to the Dante network? Or are some channels only accessible via HDX?

2. When using the MTRX through an HDX card how is latency/delay compensation handled for additional IO coming in through ADAT/Dante or Madi?
As an example say you were using an I/O Insert in Pro Tools to connect to a hardware compressor, which was sending and receiving on channels allocated to a Madi or Dante device. Does the MTRX track this additional latency and relay it to Pro Tools? would Pro Tools compensate that delay properly? Or would you need to manually enter the hardware delay for any channels being converted outside of the MTRX box itself?

thanks!

[creativecontrol]

Greetings,

Yes, all populated Dante options and built-in (MTRX ST) are accessible to the Dante network.

No, Pro Tools doesn't have a trail of breadcrumbs to know what formats you traversed before coming in and out of Pro Tools so these compensations would have to be manually entered.


best,


Jeff

[BScout]

Originally Posted by jrileyhill

1. When connecting to the MTRX as a Dante interface through a PCIE Dante card, (for use with another DAW outside of Pro Tools) Are ALL inputs and outputs of the MTRX available to the Dante network? Or are some channels only accessible via HDX?

All.
DADman in the MTRX units is a patching matrix. If you are using the 64 i/o onboard Dante, you can send those 64 (and received) from any other input/output on the system. Same true for the 128 channel addon card on the full size MTRX. It's up to you how you want to assign that routing but none of the other inputs/outputs are limited from your choices.

Originally Posted by jrileyhill

2. When using the MTRX through an HDX card how is latency/delay compensation handled for additional IO coming in through ADAT/Dante or Madi?

In essence, since Pro Tools does not know what you've patched to what inside of DADman, for a hardware insert you need to put the compensation inside Pro Tools. For instance Pro Tools only sees HDX ch 1 but in DADman, HDX ch 1 could be patched to analogue ins/outs or to MADI ins/outs. Those would have different delay comps. Avid's Jeff Komar (IIRC) has posted the complete delay specs for each type of i/o on these forums. And I believe there is a FAQ or KB on Avid that also documents this. And there are some delays that are fixed no matter what sample rate and some that vary depending on sample rate. For instance, on a full size MTRX with the A/D and D/A cards, I know my latency at 48kHz needs to be entered at 1.08ms on the H/W Insert Delay tab (this is accurate to the sample.) I just round-tripped the signal and measured. So you could do the math from the documented latencies, but it's just faster to measure.

One of these days, we'll be able enter delays in samples in Pro Tools and finally sample rate of a session won't matter. (I still find entering msecs kind of dumb for a DAW)

[jrileyhill]

Ah ok thanks for the reply's!
Yes hopefully soon there is also a way to ping the inputs/output and calculate the delay time automatically. (ala Logic, Reaper, Studio One)

One more question for clarification:
For example with the MTRX Studio, if 1-16 in and out on the HDX are routed to 1-16 d-sub in and outs built into the MTRX Studio, that latency must be compensated manually in the hardware delay tab as well?

[jrileyhill]

Originally Posted by jrileyhill

Ah ok thanks for the reply's!
Yes hopefully soon there is also a way to ping the inputs/output and calculate the delay time automatically. (ala Logic, Reaper, Studio One)

One more question for clarification:
For example with the MTRX Studio, if 1-16 in and out on the HDX are routed to 1-16 d-sub in and outs built into the MTRX Studio, that latency must be compensated manually in the hardware delay tab as well?

oh never mind I see my question is answered by the forum post you mentioned that Jeff Komar posted here: https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=413465
MTRX Studio AD->DA has additional hardware insert delay.

[creativecontrol]

Yes, we've discussed the possibility of creating an integrated ping tool which would be beneficial for these types of scenarios. I've also suggested that we use samples instead of ms with regard to the IO Setup Hardware Insert Delay fields.


best,

Jeff

[Sardi]

Originally Posted by creativecontrol

Yes, we've discussed the possibility of creating an integrated ping tool which would be beneficial for these types of scenarios. I've also suggested that we use samples instead of ms with regard to the IO Setup Hardware Insert Delay fields.


best,

Jeff

Did this progress further than just a discussion?

A Ping tool would be a VERY welcome addition and yes, definitely should be samples not milliseconds.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[gives]

Originally Posted by creativecontrol

Yes, we've discussed the possibility of creating an integrated ping tool which would be beneficial for these types of scenarios. I've also suggested that we use samples instead of ms with regard to the IO Setup Hardware Insert Delay fields.


best,

Jeff

Good idea!

G

[jiminyxmas12]

Originally Posted by creativecontrol

Yes, we've discussed the possibility of creating an integrated ping tool which would be beneficial for these types of scenarios. I've also suggested that we use samples instead of ms with regard to the IO Setup Hardware Insert Delay fields.


best,

Jeff

Hi, Jeff. Curious: any progress on the integrated ping tool? Even though we are neck deep into ProTools, my team is set on moving away from it due to a lack of common sense solutions like the one in question. Most if not all major DAWs have some kind of ping measurement tool.

Until the last major release complete with its new VIs and music focused marketing, we were beginning to believe Avid simply was giving up on music production and only focusing on post. Avid should recognize that those who are signing up for their low cost subscriptions still may want to use outboard gear, sometimes with external converters, and forcing them to either set delays manually or only buy Avid gear would be a strategic miss step.