Recording with Plug-in

[Dre2580]

I was in my studio with a friend this past weekend recording vocals when I got a error message. I don't recall the specific error, but that's not really important to my question. Can you record on a track with plug-ins active on the track? This was my first time trying this. When the plug-in was on..."error", off..."no error".

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Dre2580

I was in my studio with a friend this past weekend recording vocals when I got a error message. I don't recall the specific error, but that's not really important to my question. Can you record on a track with plug-ins active on the track? This was my first time trying this. When the plug-in was on..."error", off..."no error".

Actually the exact error IS important as it could help point to a possible problem with the system. But yes - you can track with plugins active on a track but it depends on the plugins involved. If anything is doing look-ahead processing then you'll have issues. The biggest problem when tracking with plugins is latency - if you're system is underpowered and you're running some heavy duty plugins then you'll have issues and have to run with buffers set to max and the latency will be horrible. So getting back to it - the exact error message IS IMPORTANT!

[Bender]

Compression is a plugin that really does not work tracking/ Sure it will compress the sound but if it clipped the convertors it is before the plugin. So you can not effectively use an in the box compressor to tame transients when tracking

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Bender

Compression is a plugin that really does not work tracking/ Sure it will compress the sound but if it clipped the convertors it is before the plugin. So you can not effectively use an in the box compressor to tame transients when tracking

Actually you still can compress on the way in to tame transients if you don't clip the convertors on the way in. To prevent that you need a limiter on the way in to the convertors.

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by Bender

Compression is a plugin that really does not work tracking/ Sure it will compress the sound but if it clipped the convertors it is before the plugin. So you can not effectively use an in the box compressor to tame transients when tracking

Actually, you can, if you have your meters set to pre-fader(which you should for tracking), and you pay attention to proper levels. I always track with compression on vocals, but I also always record at 24 bit and keep the levels just into the yellow. I also will listen(before recording) with the compressor bypassed to compare the overall level(a nod to Bender's point, which certainly matters)

Re Musicman's comment on latency, its a good reason to show latency in the MIX window and learn which plugins have latency, and how much. For instance, BF76 has no latency(no problem there). SMACK! has 1 sample of latency(not really a problem there either), but Autotune or Maxim have over 1000 samples of latency(so that's a HUGE problem for timing and monitoring).

[Emcha_audio]

I personally track with the Avid Pro Compressor in the mix sent to my artists on their vocals, and also I use the air moddelay 3 to do a touch spaciousness they prefer it to reverb. Input gain is barely touching the yellow on peaks it's around -18 dbfs when not peaking. Latency is at it's bare minimum since I'm using PT 11 and it has it's own independent input buffer for tracking.

[Dre2580]

Thanks for all the responses.

Musicman you answered my question all the same....it can be done. That's all I wanted to know. The reason why I said the error was not important is because I was asking a general question. I just wanted to know if it could be done.

[Dre2580]

Also I know what plug-in caused my problem.....I normally don't record with plug-ins on the track. I use them after. I was just trying something different.

[Bender]

Different rules for different plugins, insert or Aux sends ect, but you can do things so many different ways

Dave, I miss riding the faders and two inch tape but I love editing in PT. I can clean up while I am tracking someone. The editing makes all the hassles worth it.

I still use my outboard gear for 8 channels. It took me forever to accumulate all my gear.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Dre2580

Thanks for all the responses.

Musicman you answered my question all the same....it can be done. That's all I wanted to know. The reason why I said the error was not important is because I was asking a general question. I just wanted to know if it could be done.

Originally Posted by Dre2580

Also I know what plug-in caused my problem.....I normally don't record with plug-ins on the track. I use them after. I was just trying something different.

It might not be important to you but it is to others that may be having the same problem. If you give the info it would help others in the same boat - what's so hard about that? PT throws up lots of errors and some have common fixes and other errors that come up on a regular basis are being investigated for the cause. General question or not - it doesn't matter.

Remember you can never give too much info when a problem arises. Like we say - we're not mind readers here.