Instrument Track Commit still broken in Pro Tools 2019.12

[XJENSEN]

Hi guys,

In another attempt to get a grip on this ongoing problem (re. https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=387939) I did extensive further testing today.

When I listen to, commit (with/without ADC) or just old-fashionedly record an external MIDI instrument's audio, this surprisingly results in completely different amounts of delay of the recorded material.

Only the manual recording is more or less where it should be.

Delays I get when recording a MIDI snare drum (playback engine at 1024 buffer):

Commit with ADC - 2300 samples delay
Commit without ADC - 6400 samples delay
Record without ADC - 256 samples delay

So, the Commit feature seems still broken in Pro Tools 2019.12 and should not be used for recording external MIDI instruments. I really hope they will fix this some time.

[musicman691]

I don't know if commit was ever meant to use with external MIDI instruments.

[daeron80]

I also am confused by the concept of committing external MIDI instruments. Seems self-contradictory.

[XJENSEN]

Well, in the old days we only had regular MIDI tracks and would record to an Audio track, before mixing, right?

If Commit for Instrument tracks would work, this would be nice, as it can automatically copy over send and vol/pan automation.

And it kind of works, only the implementation seems flawed because of the extra delay that's showing up. I don't really have an explanation where this delay is coming from.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by XJENSEN

Well, in the old days we only had regular MIDI tracks and would record to an Audio track, before mixing, right?

If Commit for Instrument tracks would work, this would be nice, as it can automatically copy over send and vol/pan automation.

And it kind of works, only the implementation seems flawed because of the extra delay that's showing up. I don't really have an explanation where this delay is coming from.

Like I said I don't think commit was made to work with external MIDI gear.

[XJENSEN]

I see not a single reason why it shouldn't work. The option is there all right.

[cqd]

I would think you'd have to bounce external instruments in real time..

[XJENSEN]

Indeed. I was using the real-time commit option, which should do exactly that. But still the audio arrives out of sync. In my book, that reads like a bug...

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by XJENSEN

Indeed. I was using the real-time commit option, which should do exactly that. But still the audio arrives out of sync. In my book, that reads like a bug...

Not in my book. I still submit it wasn't really designed to work with hardware synths. That it sort of works at all I'd consider gravy. And don't forget the MIDI delay that PT suffers from.

[TNM]

Originally Posted by XJENSEN

Well, in the old days we only had regular MIDI tracks and would record to an Audio track, before mixing, right?

If Commit for Instrument tracks would work, this would be nice, as it can automatically copy over send and vol/pan automation.

And it kind of works, only the implementation seems flawed because of the extra delay that's showing up. I don't really have an explanation where this delay is coming from.

Avid doesn't have an input instrument ADC like Logic and Cubase have. It's not a bug, it's just not there right now.. In C/L you have a literal thing called an external instrument plugin for this that compensates all the latency on bounce.
It *should* work with HDX though, which compensates inputs.
So.....
Maybe ask Avid, but I doubt it's even remotely a priority.

what I do is record my midi gear as audio. What's the difference? Dry audio files then I work with beautiful dry audio files to create my mix. Easy as pie.

I compose as much as I can and do very rough mixing on the go with the Apollo (monitoring fx), then record dry in one bulk 32 track run.

Of course, if you are using an interface without any of it's own DSP/Mixer that goes entirely native through pro tools, this would indeed be a nice feature.

perhaps Avid should remove the possibility from non HDX versions (maybe HDN does it properly as well though?)


EDIT: I just noticed you are on HDN, i had to click the profile which I had forgot to do prior posting, which I guess means it's a HDX only thing.

If HDX doesn't do it either then it's definitely a bug, as HDX specifically has input delay compensation.