Recorded tracks delayed

[Xoria]

Hello everyboby,

please to meet you, i'm just using pro tools for recording, and i've got an issue, let me explain

when i'm recording everything is fine,

when listening the recorded files are delayed "X"ms

i read a old article of 2009 that suggest that a compressor could be in cause, i did some test without compressor, not better
https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/ar...oting/en333123

Anybody Knows Where i can set recording delay in Pro tools ?

Any other idear to fix it ?

best regards,

Xavier

[Darryl Ramm]

Delayed relative to what exactly? What exactly are you recording and exactly are you measuring?

What *exact* delay… in samples and what sample rate. Often the exact delay in samples gives a good clue what is happening. Easily all measured in Pro Tools.

How were you monitoring audio while recording? Through Pro Tools/software monitoring? Was LLM enabled?—it will disable plugins in the recording path while tracking. Or through a hardware mixer in the interface?

Do you have delay compensation turned on? That will correct for plugin latency and H/W insert latency. But even better while getting started get this working fine with a trivial simple test session and no plugins at all in the session, and no sends, and no H/W inserts.

That bizzarely unhelpful KB Article you linked to should be pointing out that plugins on the outputs/master fader cannot/do not get compensated for… no DAW can cause time travel and just remove absolute latency, all it can do is slow down fastest signal paths to match the slowest. And some limiters/compressors plugins intended for mastering can have huge large latency because of their look-ahead algorithms. You should not be tracking with those style plugins at all. And you should probably not be tracking with any other plugins on the master fader either….

[Xoria]

Thank you for your request,
the audio tracks recorded are delayed from tempo/drum track about 100/150 ms
i use protools monitoring,

i read that subjet to,
https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/ar...e-Insert-Delay

[Xoria]

i forget to mention,
i record guitar and voice on drum, tempo, etc...

[Darryl Ramm]

100-150ms... no come on you need to measure this exactly in Pro Tools, measuring the difference between waveforms in number of samples as accurately as you can, and tell us the sample rate. I already explained why.

what interface are you using?

And all the other questions... esp. do you have latency compensation enabled?

Why are you looking at a KB article about HW Insert latency? Are you using H/W inserts? If so what outboard device and what H/W delay value did you measure and enter for that H/W insert latency? If you are not using a H/W insert then this is all totally irrelevant.

You need to describe what you are doing in enough detail somebody here has any chance of following. Like what plugins are used on the track with delay problems.

If you are trying to bypass plugins to test for sources of delay... you need to make them inactive not bypass them.

What happens when you do the simplest test with a session with just a click track and one audio track you record to. And no plugins. Get that working first. almost all these issues are user mistakes so work through this stuff starting with a trivial session so you can learn about latency/delay comp etc.

[Xoria]

to be precise i mesure delay of 1/10 a time in music,

i got a focusrite clarett 8pre usbc

the delay compensation is enable

i got a new information, i did some test on buffler size which is 256 by default on PT

When i move them to 64, the recorded tracks are no longer shift recorded, but the quality of the sound is degraded like lowpassed, not a solution.

Night is on here, thank you see you soon

[Darryl Ramm]

Nothing here is making sense. Changing the buffer size should not just make any latency problem totally go away, it might reduce latency. Maybe if you have some whacky signal routing, but otherwise any recoding latency should be automatically handled by Pro Tools and any plugin latency should be corrected if you have latency compensation enabled.

And again questions asked like latency in samples, what plugins are on the track, do you have plugins on the laster fader? (what ones), or if you are using H/W inserts are not answered. Try to answer every question asked and if you don't understand the question say so.

Make sure "ignore errors" is NOT checked in the playback engine dialog.

Make sure you are really monitoring through software monitoring while tracking. Turn up the interface hardware monitor level if needed until you hear that as well to be sure you are using software monitoring. One easy trap to be in is to monitor through hardware monitoring and then you only hear a delay when played back, but the delay is there all the time.

You have a powerful DAW right in front of you. Use it to measure the waveform delays in samples, set the timeline display to samples and measure the length as you drag out the cursor along the timeline between the two waveforms. And tell us the session sample rate. See the screenshot.

[Xoria]

The session rate is 44100htz and the measure is 250.

[albee1952]

Here are several reasons that latency exists, and some solutions:
1-Converter latency. This happens with all DAW's and is caused by the time it takes for A>D and D>A conversion. This ranges from just over 1ms at 44.1K and usually gets shorter with higher sample rates.
2-Playback buffer setting. This happens in all DAW's and is the amount of time(in samples) you allow for the computer to take in audio, process it and send it back out to analog. Lower settings give lower latency, but require more computer power. If your computer can't handle tracking at a 64 buffer setting, then you should try to find ways of getting more power(a better computer), or free up power by using fewer plugins, or different plugins that require less power. An example of this might be the KeyScape pianos. Their C7 grand piano drags my computer down so I cannot record with that plugin. My solution is to use MiniGrand while recording and editing midi. Once recording and midi editing are done, I remove MiniGrand, load up KeyScape and use Track Commit to print the piano as audio. Then I can make the instrument track inactive, which gives me back all the power that KeyScape was using.
3-Plugin latency(which can range from 0 samples, all the way up to several thousand samples, depending on which plugin). Plugin latency* is compensated for by the DAW(any DAW) making everything later to match the track with the most accumulated latency(*, remember that plugins on the Master Track are NOT compensated for). Best solution is to not use high-latency plugins while recording(setting the MIX window view to show Delay Compensation is the only way to know what is happening here). An example: I love using Waves JJP signature plugins, but they all have around 630 samples of latency. The solution is to keep those plugins inactive while recording, then activate them for mixing. Remember, Bypass is not the same as inactive(Bypass will still have the same latency as non-bypassed).
4-a send (on a record-enabled track) that has no destination will cause almost 2000 samples of erroneous delay compensation. Solution: delete the send(with no destination, it is not affecting the sound in any way).

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Xoria

The session rate is 44100htz and the measure is 250.

So if your H/W buffer is 256 samples you are likely just seeing that. What is not making sense is you say that the offset/latency happens on playback but not while tracking and that you are using software monitoring through Pro Tools.

Again, are you sure you are using software monitoring?