Virtual Instrument Question?

[kmusic]

Do i have to dump my virtual instrument data to an audio file..I seen some people do it like that...I was just exporting my final mix to a cd without putting my virtual instrument track to audio file.I dont know if i should or save some time and just export my final mix without dumping the VI to an audio file..Thanks

[filosofem]

Bus Recording Virtual Instruments is a good practice for aligning latency.

[cneal92]

One of the main reasons to print your VIs is to save system resources, and ensure consistent timing. MIDI timing can suffer during a BTD under certain circumstances (like using all available voices). During composition I leave parts as MIDI as long as possible, but ALWAYS print my VIs before mixing.

[kmusic]

So you guys dump your VI into audio files.....May be i get to Lazy sometime..Do you dump it via with the send inserts??That seems the best way

[nst7]

The easiest way is to buss the output of the instrument track to the input of an audio track.

To elaborate on the midi timing thing, the higher your buffer setting is, the more likely there are to be timing discrepancies. When you're bussing the instrument track to audio, try to use a lower buffer size. Deactivate other tracks if needed while you're doing it, in order to save on system resources.

[cneal92]

Originally Posted by nst7

To elaborate on the midi timing thing, the higher your buffer setting is, the more likely there are to be timing discrepancies. When you're bussing the instrument track to audio, try to use a lower buffer size. Deactivate other tracks if needed while you're doing it, in order to save on system resources.

This is just a latency issue and while it is an important point, it is not what I was referring to when I mentioned timing issues of MIDI when using Bounce to Disk.

[nst7]

I am going by a little blurb that's mentioned in the 003 Setup Guide, though it's not mentioned in the PT Reference Manual:

"In addition to causing slower screen response and monitoring latency, higher Hardware Buffer Size settings can increase the latency caused by RTAS plug-ins, and affect the accuracy of plug-in automation, mute data, and MIDI track timing."

It may be that it's been changed with PT9, or that it only applied to the older LE software, etc.

[cneal92]

Just to be clear, I am not trying to be an arse, or argumentative, etc. I agree with what you originally said and know why you said it, and it needed to be said. That is absolutely a great reason to print VIs. Especially considering as a project expands (more VIs), you generally have to increase the Buffer to get it to play, which increases the latency (and other timing issues).

The timing issues that I am referring to have nothing to do with the HWBuffer and are not mentioned in any of the manuals, etc. It is based around the engineering of the software and some "compromises" they had to made in order to make the BTD function work back when track counts were low. Now that the basic PT9 will do 96 tracks (mono or stereo), it "shouldn't" be an issue. However, I just prefer to have stuff as audio going into a mix and not have to worry about it. I also print VI's to free up system resources for the plug-ins I need during the mix process.