sample accurate mutes?

[tigerman]

Hi all , i have a series of mute automations over an audio track channel in pro tools, i've made those automations using "grid" mode so they are snapped to beats.
Main problem is that mutes are delayed a bit so when i mute i get a bit of the sound after the automation and when i un-mute i lose the sample start transient.

I've zoomed in and audio is perfectly in sync...

Is there any preference to set all automation sample accurate? else i have to go in "slip" mode and move all mutes manually.

It looks like it act in the same way with other automation aswell, i have a hp filter automation ina ff6 eq and i go from 300hz to 20hz without transitions, i had anticipate that a bit aswell, by the way i haven't tested it much..

Any clue please ?
thanks

[crizdee]

Originally Posted by tigerman

Hi all , i have a series of mute automations over an audio track channel in pro tools, i've made those automations using "grid" mode so they are snapped to beats.
Main problem is that mutes are delayed a bit so when i mute i get a bit of the sound after the automation and when i un-mute i lose the sample start transient.

I've zoomed in and audio is perfectly in sync...

Is there any preference to set all automation sample accurate? else i have to go in "slip" mode and move all mutes manually.

It looks like it act in the same way with other automation aswell, i have a hp filter automation ina ff6 eq and i go from 300hz to 20hz without transitions, i had anticipate that a bit aswell, by the way i haven't tested it much..

Any clue please ?
thanks

Set grid to samples?

Are you muting the audio track that has the regions on? or a bus fed by the audio track? if its a bus it will be out by any delay caused by the bus or any plugins on the bus.

Chris

[meech]

I've always noticed that mute automation seems delayed. You could select all your mute automation and nudge it to the left small amounts until it mutes the bits that should be muting ... I never use the mute automation now because of this. I just cut regions up and delete or mute the ones I don't want.

[Brandonx1]

Hi Meech,
Do you have ADC on? ADC will delay audio but does not delay automation to match it. So, if you have 400 samples of delay from ADC, the mute sound late by 400 samples. As far as I know, Volume, mute, pan (anything with the pro tools mixer) is sample accurate. Plug in automation is not sample accurate.
Best,
Brandon

[WernerF]

I've always wondered if the offset should be based on the ADC delay that is being reported by the audio track that you are mute, or whatever, automating or is it based on the highest total ADC delay in the session.

[tigerman]

Are you muting the audio track that has the regions on? or a bus fed by the audio track?

Both, and it acts the same, even on the audio track with no inserts at all, just the output.

Originally Posted by Brandonx1

Hi Meech,
Do you have ADC on? ADC will delay audio but does not delay automation to match it. So, if you have 400 samples of delay from ADC, the mute sound late by 400 samples. As far as I know, Volume, mute, pan (anything with the pro tools mixer) is sample accurate. Plug in automation is not sample accurate.
Best,
Brandon

Yes ADC is on and i currently have about 1150 samples, this is the reason for sure!! that's why at the beginning of the project automations was nearly in sync while now they're not anymore, too bad! i wished there was an option to auto adjust them based from DC, so basically i just have to nudge back of the same amount of samples i currently have from Delay compensation on that track? or globally based from the delay compensation value displayed in the "session" option panel?

I mean is it global or track dependant?

Thanks to all for the advices!

[Rail Jon Rogut]

Automation is not sample accurate - if you need to mute something sample accurately, mute the region.

Rail

[WernerF]

What about when you need to accurately mute a send to an effect, i.e. a reverb or delay. Does it just come down to trail and error or is the timing different every time as it is with midi at this point?

[Rail Jon Rogut]

Yes, automation is considered a lower priority event in Pro Tools... It's no more inaccurate though than automation on any large frame console using SMPTE.

The main priorities are to play back the audio, then the automation and finally update the screen.

I assume you've played with the Automation thinning options, but that's for continuous automation not mutes.

Rail

[WernerF]

Thanks for the info. I guess that it just comes down to giving the automation events a wider margin of timing error and hoping for the best result.