FOCUSRITE LIQUID MIX with PRO TOOLS

[southboundloco]

hey guys!

has anybody tried using the liquid mix with pro tools? how do u use it with pro tools and how about latency, at the website it says that it can be used as an RTAS plugin but how bout latency?... anyweyz any input is appreciated.

cheers

[dillon99999]

you will have latency - due to the firewire and the time it takes to travel back and forth to the device.

the UAD-1 has the same issue.

the TC Powercore will also experience the same problem.

Pro Tools M-Powered does not have ADC (Automatic Delay Compensation) - and that is why there is no real solution at this point regarding the latency issue.

if use the Liquid Mix for MIXDOWN (or MASTERING) only, you won't have to worry about latency.

it is only a concern when you are "tracking", as the latency of the device is prohibitive for doing vocals and guitar tracks, etc.

hope this helps.

[southboundloco]

i was reading about it on the net and i read somewhere that each instance of the plug has 1000+ samples of latency...so during mixdown i guess the solution would be to nudge things around so as to keep all the regions in time. am lookin at purchasing UAD-1 but i guess it still gonna be the same issue...

[dillon99999]

for the UAD-1, you use the "Delay Compensation" plugin on EVERY TRACK that DOESN'T HAVE a UAD plugin on it.

this keeps the tracks aligned correctly without having to nudge them.

i don't know what the liquid mix or powercore uses to do this task - but i imagine they have the same thing for them.

[Brent1515]

1056 sample firewire delay. Leaves it out for tracking as was said here.
I run Liquid Mix all the way across just as if PT were a traditional mixer. LM runs from its own processor, so 32 channels of EQ/compression and the CPU hardly blinks. In a way, it becomes its own delay compensation and you can leave LM switched out on specific channels while inserting native plugins behind it, too.
And, of course if there's channels where LM isn't inserted, those can be sent via a bus as a stereo sub mix. That way you can get away with using far fewer PT delay compensation plugs.

Brent

[southboundloco]

i am leaning towards buying the UAD-1 coz its got reverb included in it but i was just wondering if i use for example a liquid mix plugin wich has delay (obviously) on an auxilliary bus when submixing for example the kick...do u have to nudge all the kick track? so as to compensate for the delay or is it all right as long as its on an auxilliary? the main reason for this question is, i want the DSP card(if i finally decide to buy one)to handle all of my reverb needs(send /return style of mixing)to take the load off of my CPU(my 4.2 AMD dual core can easily handle compressors and EQ's but when i have 3-4 instances of convolution reverbs+couple of normal reverbs it struggles). but if i have to manually nudge all the tracks that i send to the reverb unit then i'd rather invest on buying a more powerful CPU like a 4.8 dual core or something.

anyweyz, what do u guys reckon?

[Bodie]

I've got it and use it with my system, but the primary system is a TDM system which has automatic delay compensation.

The thing of note is that each instance on a single channel compounds your latency. Numbers that come to mind are closer to 1056 or so...as such, if you have two on the same channel, your latency is double. If it's on a different channel, then it's the original latency.

See the pdf's on the Focusrite site, they cover this in detail. Since I have no issue with TDM, I've pretty much ignored it as an issue.

i am planning on doing some remote tracking on my laptop though, so I'm going to have to get down to the issue and figure that one out ;-).

Any findings appreciated.

Bodie

http://www.myspace.com/BodieMax

http://www.broadjam.com/BodieMax

hear BodieMax on Harborough FM this Saturday at 10pm UK time via the Internet on the Terry Hawke chillout show at http://www.harboroughfm.co.uk

[Bodie]

Updates to the bios are available here:

http://www.focusrite.com/beta/liquid_mix/

Keep checking back as I hear they demo'd V2 in Musikmesse this week and you can download it next week.

Bodie

[fhinspectit]

maybe it is just me, but it seems that the liquid mix and the uad cards are more of a pain if used with pt.

[dillon99999]

that is because you don't see the value of them.

use them for MASTERING / MIXING a recording - then you will see the true value of their usage, and why people put up with the latency.

the latency isn't an issue if you are using them just to mix down a track.

-----> don't try to put a square peg into a round hole