ADC in PTLE - a few questions

[Sf Audio]

So I'm reading up on Auto delay comp, and was wondering if my mixes are sounding less than what they could be....

I'm applying various VST plug ins via an RTAS adapter, and also the DUY everpack plugs, PSP vintage warmer, massey tape head and delay, and some others...

Most of my plugs are inserted directly on tracks, some on busses, and others via an aux track receiving an aux send from an audio track.

Each of these plugs will have some latency, I'm sure (I'll go about checking it soon enough.) If I do not manually correct these, is the cumulative effect of all the sample latencies causing smeared audio? If it's not noticeably affecting the timing of my tracks should I still worry about it?

thanks

[Bob Olhsson]

Manually correcting takes almost no time. Just set a time adjuster to the number of seconds you need to add and then option-drag copies to each track. You can create presets for your most common values.

[AlexLakis]

The answer is: Possibly. If you're hearing it, it needs to be fixed. If you're not noticing it, I suppose it's not a problem, eh?

CTRL-CLICK on the volume readout of the track (where it says "vol",) and cycle thru till it says "dly." This is the total amount of delay in samples that is being reported to Pro Tools by all plugins you are using on that track. Simply highlight the region(s) in the edit window and press ALT-H and nudge the region(s) forward that amount of samples and you're good (I make a note in the comments section of the number of samples I've nudged a particular track.) Other workflows can be applied for plugins on parallel auxes, but that's the basic gist of it. The only time you'll experience phase smearing is if you're using plugins on multiple mic'd sources (like, say, drum overheads and not on the room mic(s)) or if you're using parallel auxes or hardware inserts.

To me and many others, lack of ADC is basically a non-issue. In fact, most engineers I know who use HD prefer to compensate for the delays manually as opposed to relying on the buggy delay compensation built in to HD.

[Sf Audio]

Originally Posted by AlexLakis

The answer is: Possibly. If you're hearing it, it needs to be fixed. If you're not noticing it, I suppose it's not a problem, eh?

CTRL-CLICK on the volume readout of the track (where it says "vol",) and cycle thru till it says "dly." This is the total amount of delay in samples that is being reported to Pro Tools by all plugins you are using on that track. Simply highlight the region(s) in the edit window and press ALT-H and nudge the region(s) forward that amount of samples and you're good (I make a note in the comments section of the number of samples I've nudged a particular track.) Other workflows can be applied for plugins on parallel auxes, but that's the basic gist of it. The only time you'll experience phase smearing is if you're using plugins on multiple mic'd sources (like, say, drum overheads and not on the room mic(s)) or if you're using parallel auxes or hardware inserts.

To me and many others, lack of ADC is basically a non-issue. In fact, most engineers I know who use HD prefer to compensate for the delays manually as opposed to relying on the buggy delay compensation built in to HD.

Thanks for the info. I guess if you can't hear it it's not a problem...was just wondering if even slight sample delays affect the clarity of the audio. But it's purely a timing issue. Right?

[flommer]

Watch these videos by Peeder:

These will show you how to determine the true latency and how to compensate for it
http://www.screencast.com/users/peed...ders/tutorials

[TOM@METRO]

To me, it's less about plug-ins (although it would be good to have) because you can choose from so many "no latency" versions but when patching outboard gear into a mix It's a constant pain to keep things straight. You sometimes have to print the incoming signal and align it to get it right, and every subtle change brings a new problem with it. There are some plug-ins that induce latency that would serve us better if we did not have to be districted by the issue.

[Greg M]

SF Audio,

I think it would be worth your time to see how one of your mixes sounds when you have corrected the delay. Some people are more sensitive to it than others and if you have never heard one of your mixes without the correction, you may not know what to listen for (maybe you do).

Just to give you an example: I use plug-ins on drum tracks that induce 0 to 81 samples of latency depending on the track. When I record drums, I usually use 10-12 mics each going to their own track. The drum kit won't sound terrible without correction, but it sounds a lot better when I correct for the plug-in latency.

Just to be clear, some of the DigiRack plug-ins do create latency so you are not "safe" if you only use them. Also, plug-in latency can be so small that you won't experience "timing" issues but you may very well be getting some phasing.

Hope this helps,
Greg