Automatic Latency Compensation - PT 10 - Am I doing this right?

[gbross]

Pro Tools 10 - Windows 7 - 64 bit machine. MBox Pro (Firewire - not the latest Mbox Pro).

Scenerio:
Three mono tracks - Guitar, Bass, Ukulele

I record the guitar track first, no plug ins.
I record the bass track next, no plug ins.
I record the uke track last, no plug ins.

All three tracks recorded with Low Latency monitoring, buffer size 128, No Automatic Latency Compensation.

At this point I now assume that there is NO latency and all the tracks are in sync (no shifting needed by milleseconds to get all the tracks in sync). Am I correct?

I add a Master Track and put an Ozone 5 plug in on the track. I do a check of the latency of the Master track and see that it is around 2500 samples.

I set the playback buffer to 1024 and turn on ADC with the middle setting. I turn off Low Latency monitoring. I listen back.

All in sync now?

If I want to go back and re-record say the guitar track I need to disable all plug ins, set playback buffer back to 128, turn on Low Latency monitoring and TURN OFF ADC.

Correct?

Thanks for reading this and helping.

[Ant B]

if you're only adding plugins/inserts to master channel/fader you don't need adc on at all - to retrack something after you add ozone to master just make the plugin inactive.

[gbross]

What if I have a compressor and EQ on the instrument tracks. These ProTools standard plugins claim to have NO latency and when I check them they indeed have NO latency.

So... if the only plug in with latency is on the Master Track I don't need ADC at all in my song?

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by gbross

What if I have a compressor and EQ on the instrument tracks. These ProTools standard plugins claim to have NO latency and when I check them they indeed have NO latency.

So... if the only plug in with latency is on the Master Track I don't need ADC at all in my song?

Technically correct. I generally put nothing on the master track until final mixing. Actually, more than that, I prefer to leave it as a separate step entirely. I bounce with nothing on the master and then open the 2mix in WaveLab and do any mastering, as well as trimming the head and tail, and sometimes adding a fadeout. This is just a personal preference as I like to concentrate on mixing while I mix, and leave mastering for later, or do none if the project will go to a mastering house, which is my first choice(I hate trying to do it all as sometimes I(or any engineer) can become a bit jaded). A good mastering engineer is worth it for the fresh ears, regardless of what they actually do to the files(of course, a bad one.......)

[Ant B]

Originally Posted by gbross

What if I have a compressor and EQ on the instrument tracks. These ProTools standard plugins claim to have NO latency and when I check them they indeed have NO latency.

So... if the only plug in with latency is on the Master Track I don't need ADC at all in my song?

Yeah - but there is a catch..

I've found that it's easier for me to apply ADC early on (once tracking is finished) even if the immediate plugins I'm using aren't showing latency. The reason is if I'm doing a large mix I don't want to get deep into it and then switch to ADC do the whole "session must save and reload" thing. I'm jaded from having a crash when loading a ton of plugs etc and always open large sessions with plugins inactive.

So it might be wise, if you know you're going to get into a big mix (or any mix) with plugins that cause delay and you're done tracking to just apply ADC and mix forward with it on, that way you don't even have to think about it.