Has anybody used 3rd party virtual mixing consoles as front-end for lower latency?

[bashville]

For a totally native system, (running HD Native in my case) the idea of the UA or Waves console has me thinking that even if an interface doesn’t offer external DSP, that some virtual console running a single verb or processing plug-in could be a low-latency solution for recording one or two tracks vs. trying to set Protools’ buffer to a lower setting, especially once you’ve already been making mix decisions and the CPU load is getting higher. So using a program like some of the ones I’ve listed below might allow you to monitor your input with some simple effects on it at a low buffer setting, basically giving you a virtual signal split so you can monitor it before it goes through the PT mixer. I’m not quite sure what the interaction would be between the 3rd party software and the HD interface, but presumably I could still monitor all my in-the-box stuff from the normal stereo out, I’d just have to mute the output channel of the record track and listen to it coming from the “console”.

This is all in the hopes I could use the monitoring from the 3rd party app at least at a 64-128 setting, while the PT session chugs along at 512-1024 maybe. Here are the links to various apps I found:

https://www.macworld.com/article/302...r-devices.html

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/voi...er-by-vb-audio

(that last one is for Windows, but I like that it looks dead simple, and maybe is light on CPU). I’m on a Mac

http://cdm.link/2011/02/the-79-virtu...rrison-mixbus/

This also brings up the idea of SoundFlower, but apparently that app is no more…

Any thoughts? Something I’m missing? Thanks

[bashville]

Presumably you could configure a whole other DAW to do this, but you'd still need some 3rd party pipe solution like Jack, which looks like it's built into the Harrison app. It also seems like something simpler and more dedicated to this task wouldn't use as much CPU.

[bashville]

Also to be clear I'm only talking about using it as an input chain. Also I'm not talking about regular plugs like Slate's "Virtual Console" to emulate the sound of a console. I mean an actual separate app acting as a physical console just to monitor input before it hits the PT mixer....

[BScout]

You need an FPGA mixer to do something like this and be actually useful. RME's TotalMix, UA's Console, MOTU CueMix DSP, Antelope's mixer, etc. run on the audio interface hardware to route back without going through buffers for things like this. Why they are advertised as zero latency monitoring.

The minute you go through a buffer, you might as well be doing it directly in Pro Tools. The latency of a loopback has already been added. At that point, use a different DAW than Pro Tools to record if there is one that goes lower for your system. No point in mucking with two -- then take the audio afterwards, import it into Pro Tools and mix in Pro Tools.

[bashville]

Originally Posted by BScout

You need an FPGA mixer to do something like this and be actually useful. RME's TotalMix, UA's Console, MOTU CueMix DSP, Antelope's mixer, etc. run on the audio interface hardware to route back without going through buffers for things like this. Why they are advertised as zero latency monitoring.

The minute you go through a buffer, you might as well be doing it directly in Pro Tools. The latency of a loopback has already been added. At that point, use a different DAW than Pro Tools to record if there is one that goes lower for your system. No point in mucking with two -- then take the audio afterwards, import it into Pro Tools and mix in Pro Tools.

Yeah, it makes sense that I can't miraculously get two different buffer speeds out of the same interface. I wonder if I could do this with say a cheaper Focusrite box that doesn't have DSP in it, then feed that into PT with SPDIF or ADAT or something. I'm still also on the lookout for the price point where you can start looking at decent converters plus DSP while still relying on my Digi-Avid hardware to do the actual interfacing with PT.

[The Weed]

RME's TotalMix FX is great for this, plus you get a great interface and rock solid drivers.

[WKG]

Originally Posted by The Weed

RME's TotalMix FX is great for this, plus you get a great interface and rock solid drivers.

Yup. I use TotalMix for almost all tracking/cue mixes. It's really flexible with EQ, comp, reverb/delay as well.