Hardware FX: Return Delay / HW-Insert

[pasthq]

Uploading two screenshots here because I wanted to put in the roundtrip ms for my sound to go through my external FX and back as a HW insert delay.



It seems to be not really doing anything though. Any suggestions? Any better way to do this?

[Darryl Ramm]

What are you trying to do? With what exact interface (and what exact IO ports are you using for the insert) and what exact outboard effects boxes. Exact make/models please.

The better way to do this is to use inserts properly .... Your screenshots show you using sends, that is not how you use hardware inserts in Pro Tools. They are "inserts" just like plugins just you select "io" in the insert menu. The Pro Tools Reference Guide may help here, at least for basics on using hardware inserts, it is not so useful on clear info on latency and ADC with hardware inserts. Especially pay attention to the need to match HW Insert input and output ports as described in the Reference Guide.

Make sure ignore errors is *not* checked in the playback engine dialog panel as that can introduce latency errors (and having it enabled in the first place is a bad idea). Make sure Low Latency Monitoring is also not enabled because of other bugs...

Normally when ADC is enabled HW insert latency is correctly compensated, but there are (expected times) when it will not be, and then those can be compensated for in the ADC +/- field on that track. The Setup>IO>HW insert delay setting is *only* for correcting additional latency due to the external boxes, and that typically only happens for digital boxes.

For any hardware insert setup you should start with getting the insert working with a straight through cable. Confirming the ADC correctly compensates for the insert latency. Setup>IO>HW insert delay should be set to 0 for this.

[pasthq]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

What are you trying to do? With what exact interface (and what exact IO ports are you using for the insert) and what exact outboard effects boxes. Exact make/models please.

The better way to do this is to use inserts properly .... Your screenshots show you using sends, that is not how you use hardware inserts in Pro Tools. They are "inserts" just like plugins just you select "io" in the insert menu. The Pro Tools Reference Guide may help here, at least for basics on using hardware inserts, it is not so useful on clear info on latency and ADC with hardware inserts. Especially pay attention to the need to match HW Insert input and output ports as described in the Reference Guide.

Make sure ignore errors is *not* checked in the playback engine dialog panel as that can introduce latency errors (and having it enabled in the first place is a bad idea). Make sure Low Latency Monitoring is also not enabled because of other bugs...

Normally when ADC is enabled HW insert latency is correctly compensated, but there are (expected times) when it will not be, and then those can be compensated for in the ADC +/- field on that track. The Setup>IO>HW insert delay setting is *only* for correcting additional latency due to the external boxes, and that typically only happens for digital boxes.

For any hardware insert setup you should start with getting the insert working with a straight through cable. Confirming the ADC correctly compensates for the insert latency. Setup>IO>HW insert delay should be set to 0 for this.

Yes, this was going together with my other post but I chose the hardware insert route on the basis of a SoundOnSound tutorial to try it out.



I want to go from Input in ProTools and sounds in PT12 into an external reverb/delay unit (Roland DEP-5) and back and need to compensate the roundtrip delay from the Roland FX unit.

[BScout]

The insert delay comp tab in IO Setup only works with inserts. Not something you do elsewhere (like send and return on inputs and outputs.)
It's specifically only with the actual inserts tab.

Inserts have to be on the same input and output. If you send out 3-4, you have to return on 3-4. You can't return on different channels. This is if you are trying to use the Inserts tab and the Insert delay comp tab.
Since you are using a scarlett and want to send out on analogue and return on digital, this isn't going to work.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by pasthq

Yes, this was going together with my other post but I chose the hardware insert route on the basis of a SoundOnSound tutorial to try it out.

I want to go from Input in ProTools and sounds in PT12 into an external reverb/delay unit (Roland DEP-5) and back and need to compensate the roundtrip delay from the Roland FX unit.

First off you might be biting off a lot with different problems. Why not just work in the box with reverb/delay plugins?

But if you want to use inserts then you should do what I suggested and read up on them in the Pro Tools Reference Guide, create inserts properly (not using sends). Since Pro Tools can only create hardware inserts between matching pairs of output and inputs you are going to need to do that on a matching pair of a 18i20 line output and it's matching line/mic input.

Enabling ADC will apply a automatic correction for the H/W insert latency (IO input + output) Pro Tools sees reported by the driver and since you are using the primary analog I/O on the 18i20 this should be reported correctly and you should confirm with ADC on and just using a straight through cable that the correction is correct. You should be able to measure to a sample accuracy.

Since the DEP-5 is digital box it will have some additional latency, but since it's a Delay/Reverb unit you might not care about the latency, but if you do then you can measure that and in this case apply it to the Setup>IO>H/W Insert Delay.

Make sure ignore errors *not* checked. You are on Pro Tools 12 might not have the ignore errors latency bug but just leave it off anyhow.