Pro Tools 2020 Virtual Instrument/Midi Timing

[Howardk]

Having a lot of issues with timing problems from Virtual instruments such as Stylus RMX and HALion6. Seems the audio timing ends up very different, depending on if the plugin is all just out of its main output, or if I spread it across multiple auxes (which I much prefer). I must admit I have not done a lot of MIDI in Pro Tools over the years, but really prefer it because of access to my HDX cards and it is the audio environment I know best. Any magic tricks to getting Pro Tools to play nice in this area?

I am on a Mac Pro Ultimate 2012 12 Core 3.46Ghz on Mojave Pro Tools 2020.5, EB7 Chassis with 2 HDX cards. It is a pretty stable system for the most part, and I have buffers at 1024. This problem is much less pronounced with Automatic Delay Compensation Off, but still feels out. . . and there are other reasons i would like ADC engaged.

I have not worked on this exhaustively yet, but hoping some early insight may help be get this worked out quickly. . . or do I have to switch to Logic or Cubase Pro for this project?

[Howardk]

Ok, I found some very strange behaviour. . . Stylus RMX seems fine when all the audio is routed to the Aux it resides one. . . but it really acts up when audio is piped to other auxes. . . for example, when I have Stylus inserted on a stereo Aux, the 1st layer routed to that Aux and the 7 other layers to 7 additional Auxes the timing goes south. The Main Aux (with the plugin) has delay compensation of 0, and the others are at 10085. . . the playback is completely out of time. If I disable the delay compensation on any one or more of the auxes, then the delay compensation on the Main Aux changes to 4163, and the timing seems decent. This is certainly not proper behaviour. I will post a link to a video later. . .

[XJENSEN]

Yes, I can confirm similar behaviour with NI Maschine. Haven't tested whether it has been improved on the latest version of PT, though. Because of the ultimate list of problems with MIDI and delay compensation in Pro Tools, I needed to switch completely to Logic Pro for compositional work.

[Darryl Ramm]

For the OP's problem, can you reproduce this in a simple test session with no other plugins in use? What happens when you open that using built in output as the playback engine (to remove any native-dsp buffer latencies).

Is 10085 a typo? Did you mean 1085?

I have never seen Stylus, but it is really had to imagine a multi-output plugin vendor not wanting to time align all the discrete outputs, even with a complex internal mixer and fx units. So anything else going on should hopefully be aux induced latencies or maybe other plugins on the auxes?

[climber]

Very strange... I’ve been using RMX and ProTools for many years and never noticed this. I always run it using separate outputs into auxes. It’s a part of my regular creating template.

[Howardk]

Here is a quick little video, kinda rough, just from my phone. . . you will see how the kick is way out of time, and as soon as I disable ADC on one of the auxes, it moves into time. For now, the temp solution was to disable ADC on one of the unused Stylux RMX Auxes. . . I just wish stuff worked, so I could get work done with confidence. . .

Link to Video

[Darryl Ramm]

Nice work around. I wonder if that is related to past ADC/send problems that folks have reported for years. Dave (Albee1952) has mentioned it multiple times in the past. e.g. https://duc.avid.com/showpost.php?p=2443869&postcount=8

[Howardk]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Nice work around. I wonder if that is related to past ADC/send problems that folks have reported for years. Dave (Albee1952) has mentioned it multiple times in the past. e.g. https://duc.avid.com/showpost.php?p=2443869&postcount=8

I don't know, but I continue to have ADC issues here and there when tracking. Often have to render VIs and turn off ADC or else anything being recorded is a problem with latency for the players. I have had that problem since ADC began, and although better these days, it is certainly not perfect, and things like this really mess up flow when trying to move a project along.

I will try and thin out this session and see how minimal it can be, and still exhibit this particular problem. . . so little time and some much technology, which we have become too reliant on. . . lol