Record enabled tracks playing back early

[bluedreamstudios]

When I have a record enabled track that has plug-ins on it, the audio plays back early. When I take it off record enable payback is normal, or if I deactivate the plug-ins the playback is in time. I asked someone at the Pro Tools booth at NAMM and he showed me a check box setting in the I/O but I don't have any such option on my I/O. I'm running Pro Tools 2018.12.0

I also had this problem in the past and then I feel like there was an update where they changed it, but now it's back?

[BScout]

That is as it should be. Plugin delay compensation is turned off on record enabled tracks to reduce latency while in record.

There is now "blue mode" that will allow delay compensation while in record. To do that, right click in the delay comp area of the mix window ("cmp") and then choose "auto low latency off". The delay comp number will turn blue and the record track will now be as latent in record as it is when in play mode.

[bluedreamstudios]

Hmm.. "blue mode" doesn't change anything, the record enabled track is still playing back early. Am I mistaken? Did you used to be able to record in low latency mode with delay compensation on and not have the track playback early? And do you know what setting/check box I'm talking about in the I/O setup? it was so weird.. the pro tools rep showed me, then I go home to check it out and it's nowhere to be found. Is that because I just have regular pro tools and not HD.. or whatever they call it now?

[john1192]

Originally Posted by bluedreamstudios

Hmm.. "blue mode" doesn't change anything, the record enabled track is still playing back early. Am I mistaken? Did you used to be able to record in low latency mode with delay compensation on and not have the track playback early? And do you know what setting/check box I'm talking about in the I/O setup? it was so weird.. the pro tools rep showed me, then I go home to check it out and it's nowhere to be found. Is that because I just have regular pro tools and not HD.. or whatever they call it now?

if you look at Bscout's signature you will see ULT .. ultimate (used to be HD, HDX - whatever) so could very well be an HD ONly thing !!

[albee1952]

If you try to record new audio with high-latency plugins in play, this is what I would expect(because a record-enabled track with have no ADC). Look at your overall delay comp numbers(I bet its at least a few hundred samples). For me, the solution would be to disable plugins causing latency of over a few samples(up to 64, might sound okay, but I usually go for 10-11 samples at the most)

[BScout]

Originally Posted by bluedreamstudios

Hmm.. "blue mode" doesn't change anything, the record enabled track is still playing back early. Am I mistaken? Did you used to be able to record in low latency mode with delay compensation on and not have the track playback early?

No. But you've brought something up that wasn't mentioned before: "low latency mode"
Turn that off (do not enable.) It seems Avid still hasn't explained well enough what LLM is. But for what you are trying to do, it needs to be off.
LLM overrides blue mode.
LLM is only useful if you are using hardware monitoring of what you are recording from your audio interface -- which you aren't since you are using Pro Tools plugins in the record path.

Originally Posted by bluedreamstudios

And do you know what setting/check box I'm talking about in the I/O setup?

In Ultimate, using Avid hardware (or Avid emulating hardware), on the input and output tabs you get "Compensate for input delays after record pass" and "Compensate for output delays after record pass" checkboxes (one for each tab.) That has to do with hardware interface delays. I don't think regular users get this (and it wouldn't be applicable since it depends on it being a complete Avid hardware path: HDX card and interface.) At NAMM, you were most likely looking at a system like this. But that doesn't have to do with plugin delay.

[bluedreamstudios]

Yea that's the thing though, I am using an Apollo for monitoring so I have to be in LLM. The thing that stumps me is that this didn't use to happen before and I swear it was an update at one point but then now it's back

[BScout]

Originally Posted by bluedreamstudios

Yea that's the thing though, I am using an Apollo for monitoring so I have to be in LLM.

???
You have two choices:
Use LLM and not get any plugins in Pro Tools while recording (and their delay) or
You use LLM and monitor through the Apollo and only get the Console UAD plugins with no delay.

You cannot use the plugins in Pro Tools and LLM at the same time for the record track.

LLM shuts down the signal path out of Pro Tools on record tracks so you can have the lowest latency monitoring through your hardware interface only. But you have been describing hearing the plugins used in Pro Tools so you aren't actually using LLM.

LLM also means no delay compensation for the record tracks while recording. Because any delay compensation would mean it isn't low latency anymore.

(To be clear, this is record monitoring not general speaker monitoring that LLM is in reference to. Your speakers still stay hooked up where they are no matter what.)

[edwinstar]

i‘ve been talking with avid support about this issue. audio playing ahead on record enabled tracks, makes punch ins almost impossible. they assured me that this should not be and are currently investigating. could you go back to 2018.4 and let me know if the issue persists?

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by BScout

It seems Avid still hasn't explained well enough what LLM is. But for what you are trying to do, it needs to be off.

It's useless feature brought to us by Marketing Dept. They thought "low latency" sounds cool so PT needs to have such a feature that users can click on and off. Just turn it off and never give it another thought -- your low latency monitoring comes from choosing appropriately low playback buffer.