Recording not where it's supposed to be!

Jenny73

New member
Hi all,

Ok, I have just had the strangest surreal recording experience with Logic!

I've been using it (Express 8) for a few years now and I've never had it before.

I was recording my bass player and listened with him whilst recording.
When we came to hear it back, the bass line was a fraction of a second behind the rest of the recording...
I tried about 6 different songs and we had the same result every time!

I also tried different inputs on my preamp, made sure there were no effects on etc. etc.

Is this a problem with Logic or something I should be checking in my settings on the Mac itself?

Thanks folks :)
 
Have you tried using low latency mode?

View attachment 79506

Hmm, never used that, no, but I will certainly try next time.

I've recorded thousands of takes and last week this was the first time this happened to me...
It's really odd!

Trying to play Tetris at the moment and move it to the right bit but as it's the vocal track, can't help feeling there's something missing
 
Many DAWs have a record offset or record latency setting (not the same as input monitoring latency). Usually you can let the software automatically detect the offset or choose to manually set the offset. Perhaps that setting got changed somehow. Have you changed your interface hardware recently?
 
Many DAWs have a record offset or record latency setting (not the same as input monitoring latency). Usually you can let the software automatically detect the offset or choose to manually set the offset. Perhaps that setting got changed somehow. Have you changed your interface hardware recently?

Haven't changed a thing - at least not knowingly.

Thanks for the info in any case!
 
Are you using any plugins during the tracking process (e.g. compressor, eq, etc.)? If so, you will want to go to Preferences --> Audio --> General and ensure that the Plugins are tracking in low-latency mode and that their offset is 5ms or less (see photo).

Inserting a plugin during the tracking process forces the audio data to be processed by the plugin prior to being printed to the track. Depending on the plugin and how much CPU power it requires, this can introduce the delays that you are describing.
 

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Are you using any plugins during the tracking process (e.g. compressor, eq, etc.)? If so, you will want to go to Preferences --> Audio --> General and ensure that the Plugins are tracking in low-latency mode and that their offset is 5ms or less (see photo).

Inserting a plugin during the tracking process forces the audio data to be processed by the plugin prior to being printed to the track. Depending on the plugin and how much CPU power it requires, this can introduce the delays that you are describing.

Better yet, don't use plugins on tracks you're recording. Use them later.
 
Hi all,

Thanks for the replies.

No, I don't touch any of the tracks with plug-ins, EQs or anything until all the actual recording has been done as I've noticed in the past that it can't really cope with it.

Going to do some more recording tomorrow night, I'll see how it goes!

Thanks again :)
 
Hi Everyone,

Soooo, tried with the latency mode both on and then again with it off - both times I got the same result with the recording slightly out of place...
I honestly don't know what to do now...

Someone mentioned the buffering, changed that and tried with different buffering levels. Didn't work either.
 
Weird. Aside from plugin-related latency, I've never heard of that before.

I assume that you are tracking the bass D/I through the same interface that you used the track the rest of the song? (Different interfaces could have different latency issues)

Have you changed any settings in the interface's control panel?

You could always nudge the bass track so that it's in time with the others, but it sounds as though unless you are able to address whatever hardware/software setting that is causing the issue, it will likely persist on future projects...
 
Hi Jenny

Remove any plugins you have on the master buss as well (ie, main outs) if you have any.
They can contribute to latency even though they are not 'in line' with the recording input chain.

Dags
 
Ok, quick update!

We found the problem, hurrah!

It was something to do with the external hardware (Motu preamp) which was not lined up correctly.
I have no idea what happened or why.
I've been using the Motu preamp + Logic Express setup for about 4 years now and this has never happened before.
I will have a look this evening at exactly where the problem was just in case anyone else has this issue in the future!

Thanks everyone for your help and advise on this!
 
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