Automatic Delay Compensation?

[Dax Xenos]

Greetings,

I am considering cross-grading from PT LE 8 to 9. As I understand it, PT 9 has "Automatic Delay Compensation", but I have had this explained to me two ways...that this means it will compensate for plug-ins which create delay issues, like Drumagog, or that this will prevent latency issues when playing along with a session. Does automatic delay compensation fix one or both of these issues? My primary objective was to simplify the use of drumagog, but I didn't know if I was correct in my understanding.

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!

-Dax

[theOnlyMoment]

I'm not a pro tools user (yet) but here is how delay compensation works.

When you insert a plugin, there will always be latency as the audio has to go through the plugin and out again. As far as I know, the previous versions of Pro Tools didn't "automatically compensate" for this. And so you had to adjust the delay to get everything in sync again. With ADC you don't have to do this anymore, Pro Tools will automatically do this.

I may be wrong, but that's what I know.

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by theOnlyMoment

I'm not a pro tools user (yet) but here is how delay compensation works.

When you insert a plugin, there will always be latency as the audio has to go through the plugin and out again. As far as I know, the previous versions of Pro Tools didn't "automatically compensate" for this. And so you had to adjust the delay to get everything in sync again. With ADC you don't have to do this anymore, Pro Tools will automatically do this.

I may be wrong, but that's what I know.

This is essentially correct. No DAW can make things earlier during recording. The ADC feature backs all tracks up to the one with the most latency. So if you had a track using a plugin with say 4000 samples of latency, all other tracks would be backed up by that amount, which is great for mixing, but is not so good for tracking(same as any other DAW). Its easy to quickly make a few plugins inactive to eliminate that latency for tracking/overdubbing and you can view the latency in the MIX window to see what you are dealing with at any given time.

[Shan]

Originally Posted by albee1952

Its easy to quickly make a few plugins inactive to eliminate that latency for tracking/overdubbing...

...or just track using LLM.

Shane

[Jack-Drumagog]

Originally Posted by Dax Xenos

Greetings,

I am considering cross-grading from PT LE 8 to 9. As I understand it, PT 9 has "Automatic Delay Compensation", but I have had this explained to me two ways...that this means it will compensate for plug-ins which create delay issues, like Drumagog, or that this will prevent latency issues when playing along with a session. Does automatic delay compensation fix one or both of these issues? My primary objective was to simplify the use of drumagog, but I didn't know if I was correct in my understanding.

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!

-Dax

Dax,

Thanks for your interest in Drumagog in PT. Yes, Pro Tools 9 LE added plugin delay compensation for plugins. If you turn this on and set it to "Long", Drumagog will playback in time with your project and you will not have to drag/nudge your track back manually.

Depending on how many plugins your track is compensating for, check your delay indicator next to the track. It is compensating for delay if the indicator is green. It will turn red when it has gone over the allotted amount of delay and will not compensate for any delay.

Cheers,
Jack

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by Shan

...or just track using LLM.

Shane

Yes indeed, BUT, not all interfaces offer LLM(Low Latency Monitoring), and does LLM compensate for Plugin latency, or only buffer latency?

[Shan]

Originally Posted by albee1952

...does LLM compensate for Plugin latency, or only buffer latency?

LLM bypasses PT altogether, therefore no compensation is needed. It's akin to monitoring through a separate console. The signal goes from AD straight to DA and get's mixed with the output from PT, hence no latency(other than the .48ms ADA conversion of course). On this topic, LLM actually got a bit of an upgrade in HD Native and now has a separate mixer and other features, which is great to see.

Shane

[jntracks]

the operative detail here, is that when a track is record enabled in LLM mode it's sends and inserts are automatically put into bypass, since they can't be used in this mode.

[upscaps]

Originally Posted by albee1952

So if you had a track using a plugin with say 4000 samples of latency, all other tracks would be backed up by that amount, which is great for mixing, but is not so good for tracking(same as any other DAW).

That's not accurate. You can leave on all the plugins on all tracks except the stereo master in Samplitude, Cubase/Nuendo, Logic and there is no such issue when tracking.

[Silvio]

There's something I don't understand about delay compensation when tracking.

When I record-enable a track and record on it, ADC turns off on this track to avoid extra latency and allows me to play in sync with my mix.

So if I record my track perfectly in time, then when I will disable the record button on my track, ADC will turn on again on this track. And then apply the delay compensation my sessions requires to this track. Then my "well-synced" recorded audio track will be delayed, and then be too late?!

And what if I record a track which go thru a bus? Then it's the bus which is delayed. Then when I record my track, the bus will stay delayed. Then what have I to do?

Please..... Can anyone explain it to me please? Much appreciated...