help fixing plugin delay and delay compensation disaster

[Drew Mazurek]

If everything is Spotted to its original timestamp and things aren't lining up, then you have no choice but to manually nudge things back into place.

This will likely but done in intervals of the delays induced, which will be based on buffer settings and system throughput. So it won't be completely arbitrary guessing. Are you in touch with the various engineers that worked on it? Can they still bring the session back up? Are they willing to help? Start by taking one of the worst offenders and nudge it backwards and/or forwards by 256 samples, 1024 samples, etc.

BTW:
Multitracks: original master where each track generally contains one thing (although back in the day they had to buss multiple mics together to conserve tracks)
Stems: submixes, usually grouped by instruments or like instruments (drums or drums and bass, etc), made from the original multitrack. (we stole this from the film guys who group Music, Dialog, Effects, etc)

And yes this stuff matters. People calling multitracks stems are simply misusing the terms and they need to stop.

[prestonhavill]

FWIW, I pretty much sorted this problem out, but it was a pain in the ass.

I guess what I was originally asking was "is there a way to maintain improper latency/delay settings while bouncing out individual (about to say stems but i won't cuz some big film dude said not too) consolidated tracks". The answer is no.

I used a combination of spotting to original timestamp, importing audio from session file backups (I have them going back months), and nudging by ear/sight.

Also, FWIW, nobody has ever asked me for "whole region audio files" or "consolidated audio files", but i've been asked for "stems" hundreds of times, by engineers who have been working for decades and done tons of records, when the person meant individual tracks rendered to equal length. Pretty sure that the term "stems", when used in between the recording and mixing stage, means individual tracks of equal length, at least in the vernacular. When talking about stems in between the mixing and mastering phase, stems tends to mean sub-mixes.

Either way, debating this arbitrary vocabulary matter got my session no closer to finished, so thanks again for convoluting my thread.

[Drew Mazurek]

Originally Posted by prestonhavill

Either way, debating this arbitrary vocabulary matter got my session no closer to finished, so thanks again for convoluting my thread.

I wasn't debating. Glad to have helped. And glad you got it sorted.

Enjoy the rest of the project.

[its2loud]

a stem is a long stick thing usually attached to the butt end of a flower, sometimes has sticky thorns on it. Be careful, it can hurt. Happy Holidays!

I have some concerns with how PT11 now handles delay compensation and am not sure when it should be disabled on a per track basis. For example, say your use extra long delay in your session and have multiple plugins per track. Ie. Comp, eq, etc, etc. Now. When you go to record your final mix and "stems" (some people call the splits) in your session, should you turn off delay compensation on your record tracks? (I think it's Option + click in the mix window or something like that). Or should it just be left alone and let Pro Tools do its magic? This is assuming sync is ultra important when working with picture.

Thanks for any feedback.

[priorytools]

Fantastic … !