Workaround for E-Guit Recording with HD Native

[Mark Ziebarth]

Hi,
I’m a long time Pro Tools user but recorded with DSP systems (Mix and HD) only. Now I have the challenge to record E-Guitar with a HD Native system and can’t work the way I’m used to. Normally I’d like to put the guitar into the instrument channel of my preamp and record the line level audio only while I put an amp/speaker simulation plug-in on that channel to have a realistic monitor signal for the guitarist.
It seems to me there is no similar workflow possible with HD Native. Is there any cost effective solution to give me the same workflow? For example an external amp/speaker simulation with a dedicated line output? Any help appreciated.

Best

Mark

[JFreak]

check your playback buffer, it needs to be 256 or lower to be able to play live

[Mark Ziebarth]

Thanks Janne, my buffer is set to 64 samples but it didn’t work as exspected. I tried an Aux Track with Eleven on ( for monitoring) and a separate Audio Track to record on. But latency compensation put close to 2000 samples on the playback system, completely unusable. Do I need to disengage latency compensation?

[Darryl Ramm]

I'm not sure I'm following what the problem is. At 64 samples what exactly did not work as expected?

Are you hardware monitoring through an interface/mixer of doing full soft monitoring? What is the problem you are having, simple latency? An echo? only hearing the dry signal? other problem?

People do this all the time, you just track while software monitoring through a guitar amp sim at low-enough IO buffer size. You of couse have to turn off low-latency monitoring to hear the monitoring though plugins. Most of the native amp sims will not add additional delay over the IO buffer delay. And unlike vocalists or say people playing wind instruments here it's much simpler argument of time/distance without other comb effects. Running a guitar amp/cab that is say 15' away on stage or in a practice room is about a 15ms delay or ~700 samples at 44.1kHz. And tracking with a 512 or 256 sample buffer should be easily doable in most cases so the delay is hopefully not a significant issue.

Lots of other options. Eleven Rack or Fractal Fx etc. going into the interface and monitoring the wet off that (and tracking wet and dry). etc.

[JFreak]

Which plugin? Latency of 2000 samples seems weird to me, and it would be just the same with HDX

[Mark Ziebarth]

Eleven 2

[JFreak]

Still sounds weird. So you have an audio track with Eleven instantiated and that is routed to your output, and it still gives you 2k latency?

[Darryl Ramm]

Start simple

Start with a one mono audio-track session with Eleven II inserted on the track. No Aux.

Delay compensation will not matter in that case... there is no plugin delay with the Eleven Plugin. (Edit: well actually its *4 samples* @ 44.1kHz).

Make sure low latency monitoring is turned *OFF*.

See what IO Buffer size that can run at reliably.

Repeat in a real session.

[JFreak]

Pls try an empty session with only Eleven on it and report back. That plugin should be able to be recorded live

[Darryl Ramm]

The reason you see a ~2k delay comp is the magic pixie dust Pro Tools dual IO buffer. Where the IO buffer on the "disk" path is 1024 or 2048 (you should see that delay plus the small actual delay from the plugin) depending on sample rate. This has been much discussed in the past and you can search for those past threads.

But the solution is simply "no aux for you" -- just use the Eleven II plugin directly on the dry track you are recoding and monitor that.