feels like a noob question.. can't hear track before punching in

[awritersparadise]

little things like this when you haven't touched things in years.. setting up new system.. all is golden now.. but for the fact that when I'm in record mode on a track... say I'm recording a guitar.. I have it so the pre-roll is a few secs ahead so I get some lead time before the punch... well normally I would hit record and I hear my -recorded- guitar for a few seconds and then it punches in at my desired spot... but now.. the moment I hit record the track's audio goes quiet.. I no longer get to hear the -recorded - guitar from the moment I press record.
Thanks for your help.

[Darryl Ramm]

Track input monitoring...the “I” button on each track... A Pro Tools HD feature now in Pro Tools standard. Well described in the Pro Tools Reference Guide (once you know what it is called).

[awritersparadise]

Thanks for the reply! That's the first thing I tried, but when I select that, it immediately goes quiet.. I don't hear the track at all when that is engaged.

[Darryl Ramm]

Because you have low latency monitoring selected?

[awritersparadise]

I had low latency monitoring selected, yes. but when I turn that off.... it fixes the prob, but then I have a slight 128ms latency present when monitoring.

My previous setup I always had low latency selected, and never had to engage the "I" button... I used it that way for many years without the track muting when I press record.... so, not sure what has changed now that I've reinstalled new software.

[Darryl Ramm]

Well that is native being native you can not monitor through Pro Tools (native/standard) without the IO Buffer induced latency. You can monitor through your UAD console with near zero latency... sounds like you need to pick wether you are doing hardware or software monitoring and stick with one.

If you want the exact same past behavior as HD/TDM then you can get that with HDX, but many folks get it to work without it. I suspect you need to give the UAD console more of a go here. Turn on low-latency monitoring in Pro Tools and do all monitoring from the console. You may just need to turn up that input you are tracking in the console.

[awritersparadise]

my previous setup I used to have 2 separate output options..
Analog 1-2.. and Apollo MON L/R... but now... but it shows up as :
Analog 1-2 (Stereo) -> Apollo Mon L/R
in one swoop..
I/O setup (see attached image).. and output list in track mode (attached as well) https://we.tl/t-osuWNtrs13
This is the only difference I notice from my usual setup..
before.. in edit mode, all tracks' output were clearly simply APOLLO MON L/R . as opposed to what they say now.. it's definitely behaving differently upon punching in.. i never had to choose between no signal and latency signal.
** - update - I've even routed the output to Apollo Virtual Track in Console... but still.. the problem remains.. if low latency is on, the track mutes soon as the pre-roll starts before I'm punching in... green I button enable/disabled.. and routing to Apollo for sure.

[Darryl Ramm]

I'm not sure what "previous setup" you are referring to. Was that the same hardware and Pro Tools version and something is different now (then sorry I'm misunderstanding something)? Or are you referring to a TDM system... thats totally different and not comparable here.

What IO buffer size are you running at? Make sure "ignore errors" is stays *off*.

If you are using low-latency monitoring with Pro Tools (standard or native) you get *no* software monitoring though Pro Tools and need to do it all thought the UAD console. That's what "low latency monitoring" is, it disables software monitoring so you can use the monitoring capabilities in your hardware, in this case the Apollo Console. This stuff is covered in the Pro Tools Reference Guide, its well written and worth a read.

If you want low-latency monitoring you need to use the Apollo Console internal capabilities and what it can do, and of course it has no idea you are punching in and cannot say mute existing content. But you can edit that out of a track by hand. etc. It's your choice what monitoring you pick and you may have to be prepared to change your workflow to suit. lots of folks will use software monitoring if wanting to do punch ins. If needed doing extra work to freeze or commit tracks to help reduce plugin load to get the load low so they can use a suitable small IO buffer (but for many folks that does not need extremely low settings and is quite doable).

[awritersparadise]

no worries.. just found the solution. everything was set up correct. it was just a bug in the setup... trashing PT prefs and workspace did the trick... !!

by previous setup, I just meant I've used this exact system and setup for years every day.. (never having to tweak much since initial setup) but just reinstalling PT and Apollo on a new computer.. and was running into these issues.. so was trying to convey that I felt it "should" work and how it "should" be acting since I use it every day, but for some reason it wasn't performing the same as I was used to even though I'd setup everything the same as it was before.

Thanks so much for the assistance in any case!! It is very much appreciated.

[Darryl Ramm]

Great you got it working. I was clearly not understanding what was going on.