No Output in Low Latency Mode

[Cayce]

Originally Posted by BScout

Pro Tools' software monitoring is the same as Logic Pro's "low latency monitoring" for all intents and purposes.

First, regarding familiarity. I've been in the studio for 35 years, making the transition from walls stacked with analog gear to DSP in 2003, when I began using Pro Tools 6.0.2 with a 002 Rack. Because of Pro Tools' instability, I went over to Logic in 2010. I know Logic like the back of my hand and got fed up with quirks never getting addressed by Apple, so just recently decided to give Pro Tools another shot, hoping it had grown up. I'm not a "newbie" by any stretch. I know how tracks are routed and armed, and none of that has anything to do with the fact that the Low Latency setting in Pro Tools is not Low Latency by any definition, period. Reducing the buffer size to a level inviting inadequate processing interruptions as a workaround is not only dumb, but unprofessional, and shouldn't be necessary.

As for your suggestion that Logic's low latency is the same as Pro Tools, understand this: I just opened my project in Logic, armed a new piano track to record, inserted a reverb and an EQ plugin, set the buffer for 512, activated low latency, put headphones on and hit Record. I got a zero latency signal with the effect of both plugins. That's how Logic embraces Low Latency. Pro Tools is nowhere close to that intelligent.

For the record, "Low Latency" is a clearly defined term. It means reducing latency. Activating Low Latency in Pro Tools only to have the signal interrupted so that monitoring can only be done through hardware is something that only makes sense in the land of Stupid, and defies what should be the prevailing objective of a DAW: to make workflow smoother.

I won't be monitoring this feed any longer. I think I'm done with this sojourn into the land of Stupid.

[arche3]

Originally Posted by arche3

Get an hdx card and avid interface. Use protools ultimate. Latency free monitoring.
This is the bare bones pro setup.

You are welcome.

Originally Posted by Cayce

First, regarding familiarity. I've been in the studio for 35 years, making the transition from walls stacked with analog gear to DSP in 2003, when I began using Pro Tools 6.0.2 with a 002 Rack. Because of Pro Tools' instability, I went over to Logic in 2010. I know Logic like the back of my hand and got fed up with quirks never getting addressed by Apple, so just recently decided to give Pro Tools another shot, hoping it had grown up. I'm not a "newbie" by any stretch. I know how tracks are routed and armed, and none of that has anything to do with the fact that the Low Latency setting in Pro Tools is not Low Latency by any definition, period. Reducing the buffer size to a level inviting inadequate processing interruptions as a workaround is not only dumb, but unprofessional, and shouldn't be necessary.

As for your suggestion that Logic's low latency is the same as Pro Tools, understand this: I just opened my project in Logic, armed a new piano track to record, inserted a reverb and an EQ plugin, set the buffer for 512, activated low latency, put headphones on and hit Record. I got a zero latency signal with the effect of both plugins. That's how Logic embraces Low Latency. Pro Tools is nowhere close to that intelligent.

For the record, "Low Latency" is a clearly defined term. It means reducing latency. Activating Low Latency in Pro Tools only to have the signal interrupted so that monitoring can only be done through hardware is something that only makes sense in the land of Stupid, and defies what should be the prevailing objective of a DAW: to make workflow smoother.

I won't be monitoring this feed any longer. I think I'm done with this sojourn into the land of Stupid.

Just do this. Don't worry about LLM. Lol. Don't be so mad about it.

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by arche3

Get an hdx card and avid interface. Use protools ultimate. Latency free monitoring.

Yea, a good suggestion for a PT newbie. And no, it is not latency-free.

C'mon gys, you don't need low latency monitoring feature nowadays. At all. Period.

If you have a normal 48kHz session and 256 buffer you should be able to monitor through all normal-latency plugins without a problem. I have been doing this since 2002 and let's not go into "i hear comb filtering" discussion as some of us are more divas than others and that's it.

Fact is you CAN record thru plugins at 256 buffer and if your computer is faster and want to go crazy and use 32 buffer be my guest but that is unnecessary. Even the glorified HD-TDM systems had a default of 128 buffer so as soon as first native plugin was inserted into the mixer, the latency was in fact BIGGER than full native system having 128 buffer (because TDM+native > native).

So please guys, just drop the LLM altogether, don't know why that feature even is there anymore...

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by albee1952

My best advice; turn LLM off and set your buffer to 64. For me, LLM is a mess(IOW, useless) and nobody seems to be able to explain why, so I just quit trying.

This. But use only as low buffer as you NEED, a.k.a. if 256 doesn't work for you try 128 and so on.

[Darryl Ramm]

Activating Low Latency in Pro Tools only to have the signal interrupted so that monitoring can only be done through hardware is something that only makes sense in the land of Stupid...

Thanks for being our tour guide in the land of stupid...

[Cayce]

To all who tried to help;

I think I owe apologies all around for being in one of the worst, most frustrated states I’ve experienced in quite some time. It began exactly a month ago when I tried upgrading my Mac from Sierra to High Sierra, only to have it die halfway through, a fairly new, powerful, 27” iMac. I’ve worked with Macs since before they had internal hard drives (ancient) and nothing I could do would revive it. Took it to the Apple store to find that between OS 10.12 & 10.13, Apple rewrote the OS file architecture, effectively killing a lot of machines when upgrading, as it did mine. It took them two weeks to swap out my logic board and hybrid drives, so all studio activity came to a halt. Afterward, amidst the chaos of updating softwares and drivers to the new system, I also decided it was a good time to get out of Logic and move into Pro Tools, throwing myself on a nearly vertical learning curve. Bad idea. It’s been a month of high anxiety and when I encountered what I thought was this legitimate latency issue, I kinda went off the rails, venting on this forum. I regret that, and am sorry for not appreciating your help.

I decided today to try some of your suggestions. I disengaged the Low Latency setting, set my HW Buffer Size to 32 samples, armed my piano track—with active plugins—and started recording, fully expecting Pro Tools to choke, as Logic surely would at that setting. It never did. I was able to record for an hour with no latency and no processing interrupts. It performed perfectly.

So I learned two things: One, that Pro Tools apparently has its processor management configured in a way that, even at as low as 32 samples with active plugins on a track, will record without latency or interruption. Logic can’t do that, which had me believing it just can’t be done. I stand corrected. The other thing I learned—as I have repeatedly, and have repeatedly forgotten—is to recognize when I’m out of my depth and unfit to be in a discussion, and to maybe just shut up & listen.

Sorry for being such a frustrated mess. Hoping to make friends with Pro Tools.

Thanks for your help.

Cayce

[The Weed]

Lowering the buffer works fine if your computer can handle the load AND the plug-ins you're using are (very) low latency inducing. As an aside, bypassing plug-ins will not stop them from causing latency, the plug-ins must be made inactive. Also, you should use the highest buffer possible before any latency causes monitoring issues as the higher the buffer the less the CPU is tasked.

And thank you for the Mea Culpa, many would not be so willing to do so.

[Sardi]

Originally Posted by The Weed

And thank you for the Mea Culpa, many would not be so willing to do so.

Agreed.

Nice to see someone own up to their mistakes for a change.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Southsidemusic]

Greatly appreciated on forums and in life actually -----^^^^^-----

We all been there and hope to see you more here on the forum with helping and getting help

[Richard Culver]

I googled to find this thread to figure out why "low latency monitoring" turns off monitoring.

I did find an answer but it was not what I expected.

This feature, whatever it is intended to do, seems to kill the monitoring for any track you are are trying to record to.

Should it not be labeled low latency playback monitoring?

Or have I missed a setting?

It seems to me you don't want this for recording.

My solution was to leave that off. And Delay compensation does not seem to do anything at all.

The only thing I could do to get my system with my hardware not to have delay was to lower the buffer size on the hardware and remove any plugins from the record track.

From what I read the most reasonable responses I saw here are that you should beef up your hardware if you want real-time processing of FX without delay.