Latency with the 003 Factory?

[yeloop]

Hi Guys,

I'm currently using a Yamaha n12 with Logic Pro 9.

Looking at making the move to ProTools LE after a series of disappointments with Logic...

One of the most important things for me is latency for monitoring, both with effects and without. At the moment I can run straight through my n12 if I need to, for sessions where I need no latency.
On top of that, Logic has incredibly low latency when I want to monitor through Logic, even with quite a few effects running.

My question is... can PT LE run with a low latency (a buffer of say 64 or 32), and allow me to play in real time with lots of effects?

Has anyone moved to or from Logic, who could offer a direct comparison?

Cheers,
Mike

[albee1952]

I record bands at the 64 buffer and have zero complaints about latency, even when the drummer is playing my Roland kit and hearing ezdrummer thru the phones. Don't be confused by the "Factory" nomenclature. All the 003 variants operate the same. The "Factory" bit is simply a package of extra plugins included in the price(if you are still shopping, I would skip the Factory version and put the extra cash toward a good reverb plugin as that is the first thing you will need. The rest of the stock DigiRack plugins work just fine for a lot of stuff, but Dverb is not a good reverb by most opinions. Red112(I think that's what its called), IK Classik and TL Space are all a good step up.

[yeloop]

Originally Posted by albee1952

I record bands at the 64 buffer and have zero complaints about latency, even when the drummer is playing my Roland kit and hearing ezdrummer thru the phones. Don't be confused by the "Factory" nomenclature. All the 003 variants operate the same. The "Factory" bit is simply a package of extra plugins included in the price(if you are still shopping, I would skip the Factory version and put the extra cash toward a good reverb plugin as that is the first thing you will need. The rest of the stock DigiRack plugins work just fine for a lot of stuff, but Dverb is not a good reverb by most opinions. Red112(I think that's what its called), IK Classik and TL Space are all a good step up.

Hi There,

Thanks for the quick reply!

That's pretty awesome to hear that you can run lots of recording tracks at once at 64.

Would this include running some or all of the tracks being recorded through effects as part of the monitor? (As in plug in effects, virtual instruments, etc?)

When using Cubase briefly (on my Mac Pro), I found that after a few tracks recorded, there was no longer the power to record multiple tracks through effects at a low buffer... I could only go as low as 256, which of course had an unuseable amount of latency!

Moving to PT8 from Logic will be a big step, hence I want to be very sure PT can deliver the low latency of Logic (which is amazing!).

Cheers,
Mike

[nst7]

Keep in mind that Protools does not seem to handle virtual instruments as well as Logic (when you start to use more than one or two). You may find that you have to record them to audio as you go along while tracking (to save on CPU). When mixing, you may be able to go back to using the actual VI's again, possibly.

Also, Protools does not have an offline bounce, so when recording VI's to audio tracks it must be done in real time.

[albee1952]

When I record bands, I generally have up to 16 audio tracks, plus 1 or 2 verbs and maybe a pair of stereo instrument tracks for drums and piano. Also usually have several AUX sends in place to give each player "more me" in their phones.

[nainesh]

Originally Posted by albee1952

When I record bands, I generally have up to 16 audio tracks, plus 1 or 2 verbs and maybe a pair of stereo instrument tracks for drums and piano. Also usually have several AUX sends in place to give each player "more me" in their phones.

However Albee I thought it might be worth pointing out that you do have a more powerful computer (looking at both your sigs). Also VI's tend to be more demanding in PT than audio.

Mike, I have the same computer spec as you and I love working in Pro Tools. I often run a few virtual instrument instances such as BFD2, some Sampletank instances and a couple of structure instances. On top of this I tend to have a few audio tracks of guitars and vocals. However my system struggles to run at 32/64 buffers especially if I have effects such as TL space and eleven in my session. I tend to track edrums at 32 and a few vi's at 64 but thereafter work mostly at 128.

My worry is that if you have seen Logic cope with your VI demands and are hoping to match it in Pro Tools that you might be disappointed unless you upgrade your system or work using the methods nst7 pointed out.

If you think you might be editing a fair bit of 'audio' as part of your writing, recording process you'll probably love Pro Tools (It's so easy compared to Logic it's ridiculous). If however you are a big VI fan and will have high instance count of these you might want to try and get some hands on use out of PT before you make the leap.

[albee1952]

Good point, and since I don't use Logic, I can't really comment on any comparison.

[jhamrick]

Originally Posted by nainesh

Mike, I have the same computer spec as you and I love working in Pro Tools. I often run a few virtual instrument instances such as BFD2, some Sampletank instances and a couple of structure instances. On top of this I tend to have a few audio tracks of guitars and vocals. However my system struggles to run at 32/64 buffers especially if I have effects such as TL space and eleven in my session. I tend to track edrums at 32 and a few vi's at 64 but thereafter work mostly at 128.

Eleven (RTAS Plug-in) and TL Space eats away at my ability to mult-track at low buffer rates as well.

[Carl Fuehrer]

I use Redline Reverb and TL Space for nearly all my reverbs.

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by jhamrick

Eleven (RTAS Plug-in) and TL Space eats away at my ability to mult-track at low buffer rates as well.

All amp sim plugins are cpu hogs. Its the nature of the beast. For direct recording(or quiet recording) using a POD or an ISO cab are good bets. Palmer makes an excellent direct box/speaker emulator if you can afford it(I think around $600). Or they have one without a load that requires a load(which can be a speaker OR a THD Hot Plate).