PLEASE, Someone help me understand Hardware Buffer Settings....

[led5150]

Ok, so happy new year everyone first.

Second, why is it that hardware buffer never works the way its supposed to?

I have an example for you. Right now I'm working on a track. Drums, Bass Guitar Synth, vocals. Real simple. Not that many tracks so loads of room for plugins. Yay. It's my dream.

Now, theoretically, I should (as I'm now mixing the track) be able to set my Hardware Buffer setting to 1024 to have the maximum use of plugin power. Right? Isn't that what every article ever written says? Low settings for recording, high settings for mix. That way, your system has 1024 samples to figure out what its gonna do with the audio.

Here's the problem. It all sounds great at 128, 256 even.... but when I switch higher, everything goes waaaaay out of time. Like comically out of time. Like the band got really drunk all of a sudden. WHY?! WHAT THE [bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep]? pardon the language.

Anyone know? Why does this not work right? I'm tired of trying to look for answers. Obviously I will just work at 128 as it sounds the best, but I thought I'd have some of you either show me the error of my ways or join me in a hardy [bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep] pro tools discussion. Either way, Thanks!

P.S. My system is PT HD 10.3.5
Mac OSX 10.8.4
Old 192s.

Oh, and I'm using a combo of UAD plugins, Native Plugins and DSP Plugins on multiple tracks in all sorts of orders and configurations. Maybe this is the problem, but I just want clarity

[Drew Mazurek]

Originally Posted by led5150

Oh, and I'm using a combo of UAD plugins, Native Plugins and DSP Plugins on multiple tracks in all sorts of orders and configurations. Maybe this is the problem, but I just want clarity

What is your ADC set to?

On HD, you're limited to a certain amount of compensation and you're likely going beyond that at the higher buffers.

[led5150]

It's set to "Long" 4095 Samples Per Channel.

So when HW buffer is set longer, the ADC doesn't work? Can you explain why?

[Darryl Ramm]

No just on old HD TDM/DSP systems "long" is only 4K samples on HDN or HDX or PT native it's up to 16K samples, if 4K is not enough then you are screwed, and with a combination if things you may be. One thing is to use very high latency UAD upconverting plugins like the precision multiband limiter or Studer tape emulator only on the main outputs so delay comp is not needed on them. As you increase the IO buffer size feeding say an already high latency UAD plugin all those latenties will add together. OTOH you want a large IO buffer feeding them for maximum throughput/performance.

Or your delay compensation delay settings may just be all mixed up. Try disabling it all together. Try measuring the delays through different paths/plugins and/or try to find which ones are just 'out' and investigate them. Read the PT reference guide to see how this stuff works.

[led5150]

Ah, so basically I need an HDX system. I really don't feel like fiddling with settings for every mix depending on what plugins I'm using etc. It ruins the creative process and takes your head out of the mix and into technicalities which is bad for the music.

Time to upgrade finally.

[crizdee]

Hi,

You will know when a track is beyond the capability of the delay compensation as the delay comp numbers will turn red.

There are some things to do which can help. make sure you have RTAS plugins first then TDM and try not to go back to RTAS after TDM etc. and using RTAS on AUX tracks also cause higher delay usage than using TDM.

The larger the buffer size the larger the latency on UAD plugs! much more than normal native plugins.



Chris

[Cosme]

For this question, I would spend a week just watching tutorials on youtube, buffer size depends on A LOT of factors and every setup is different. Happy learnings!