2021 and still no sidechain latency compensation..

[RobertDorn]

The only solid work around for me is freezing the instrument track or committing it to audio. Which, of course, is a total workflow killer, because if I want to rearrange a part I have to unfreeze the instrument track or make the initial track off which I committed active again to edit some midi notes.

The 'disable plugin delay' function does seem to have side-chaining in sync, but this introduces other problems with the midi notes itself getting out of time.

I created a support ticket about this last week, after years of struggling with this issue. I even wonder if a HDX system would tackle this issue.

Originally Posted by felixwemmel

Hey,

I'm a little confused as to why there aren't more PT users complaining about the fact that you need HDX hardware in order to actually get sidechain latency compensation. It's truly crazy to me how this hasn't been fixed by now..

For example, I usually run into this issue when I use Universal Audio plugins (which introduce tons of latency) in a session and sidechain various instruments against the kick drum. The sidechaining won't be "in sync" with the kick/tempo, it will sound horrible. So I have to freeze the latent tracks (and unfreeze to make changes) if I want to actually hear the mix. It's a mess.

I'm sorry for the rant but I just can't believe that this is still a thing in 2021. AFAIK most (if not all) of the other DAWs have no problem with delay compensation for sidechaining.

If anyone has a SOLID work-around that they can recommend, I'm all ears.

Thanks,
Felix

[OliverH]

Have a (hopeful) update. I submitted a formal case about this issue to Avid support, as an active support patron, about 2 months ago. Should have done this years ago. They finally got back to me a couple weeks ago, apologizing for the delay and attributing it to a large influx of support cases they'd recently received.

They asked me to send an actual video recreating the problem, so I obliged. I had to check in a few times to make sure someone accessed and downloaded the video and my extensive notes describing the problem and explaining my recreation of it. I used a very simple session with just two audio tracks to illustrate the issue, hoping that would make it abundantly clear that this is a very base-level issue with the software and not the result of some overly complicated session with bonkers routings.

This is the response I got from Avid support yesterday:

"I got word from the Engineering Department that this issue was a legit bug and it will be fixed in the next update of Pro Tools."

Now, I'm not quite sure how seriously to take this reply yet, but if it's true...?!! Goodness oh me, will I be extremely happy if they are actually planning to roll out the fix for this horrible issue in the next PT release. I'm remaining cautiously optimistic since the first response to my case was that there was "no definite timeframe when it will get a fix," but then changing to the response above when I checked in with them about my video. But I can hope.


Just wanted to share what I heard.

[JingleDjango]

I want to believe.

[Simon2065]

Well maybe this is part of the Hybrid Engine that is coming out in June. If sidechain compensation has only been available to the premium customers (HDX users) so far and there is now the opportunity for HDX users to switch between DSP or native per channel with the lightening bolt button, it would be very clunky to have sidechain compensation work if you click the button (DSP) but broken if you deselect (Native). The Hybrid engine might make sidechain compensation easy to implement.

If this is the case then hopefully Avid would not decide to make sidechain compensation work natively only if you are a HDX user. That would be very provocative.

[midnightrambler]

Originally Posted by bolooki

keep submitting support cases!

I did one and got "are you still experiencing this problem?" Completely useless.

[OliverH]

keep submitting those cases. Keep submitting. Keep submitting.

[Simon2065]

See this thread http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t...ight=sidechain

Question is whether Avid allows sidechain compensation to work natively only for HDX users or allows for non-HDX users as well.

[Obsidian Dragon]

For Protools 2021.6:

Automatic Delay Compensation On Side Chains
Until now, Automatic Delay Compensation on Side Chains has been only available on Pro Tools HDX. With Pro Tools 2021.6, it is now available on all Pro Tools systems. This is a consequence of the necessary convergence between Native and HDX systems which the Hybrid Engine employs. To maintain consistent ADC performance with the Hybrid engine for HDX users, side chain delay compensation had to come to native systems. If side chain ADC didn’t work natively it would have been necessary to keep side chained tracks in DSP mode just to maintain the delay compensation, which wouldn’t have been an efficient use of DSP. That being said it also addresses a longstanding issue for native users.

[jeffro]

Check out avid.com/resource-center/whats-new-in-pro-tools?video=48380acb-0164-4078-bf00-108ca2ffe7d1 on the What's New in Pro Tools page.

[Franklyn]

Is the side chain lag compensation working properly? Has anyone tested it?
And what about older sessions where the sidecain is adjusted manually?