Latency/Timing issue?

eseryan

New member
I'm sure this has been covered, but I wasn't sure what to search for... I think I'm having latency issues...

Basically when I record, all of my hits show up early which makes it a nightmare for timing drums. Here's a pic for reference h ttp://s13.postimage.org/r8qubcitj/protools.png (the fine grey bar is the beat and the wave are the tracked guitars not even close to being in sync) Now before you all tell me I'm not playing in time... trust me I am.

Running PT10.2 on Windows 7 with a computer that can more than handle things through a Digi003. I have tried messing with the playback engine, etc.

Guitars are being run through the mic/line input through a marshall JMP-1 or sometimes as a Mesa Recto head through a Palmer Speaker sim into the line. When I record with a XLR input (vocals/act. gtr), the timing seems fine. I've been running PT for quite some time now, but have never encountered this problem!

Please help. This is a catastrophe!
 
On the Output page of the same menu there's a "Compensate for Output Delays After Record" option. Maybe you need both.

I tried that option before I knew about the actual I/O menu you told me about. The "Compensate for Output Delays After Record" did absolutely nothing to fix my problem in the begininng at all, and it still doesn't "compensate" now that I've fiddled with the I/O delay settings :S
 
Michael Mason's right. Set your buffer size to around 64. Even if it pops, the pops aren't recorded... It's preferable to not have to hear them, but you know. It'll drop your latency plenty.
 
Sorry. I've been out of town, but now that I'm back, I tried a whole heap of things tonight.

1. When I dropped my buffer size, unfortunately, pops were recorded.
2. I tried the delay compensation setting short/medium/long which did absolutely NOTHING (and never has).
3. Originally I tweeked my I/O delay settings to 0.04ms which seemed to work, tonight, it didn't do a thing (even to the point where I set a 20ms I/O delay as it still did nothing)... what is going wrong here? Am I in need of doing a fresh install? I'm running the latest update of PT 10, I have all the current drivers for the 003. I'm at a loss now.
Michael Mason's right. Set your buffer size to around 64. Even if it pops, the pops aren't recorded... It's preferable to not have to hear them, but you know. It'll drop your latency plenty.
 
This isn't directly helpful, but I just thought I'd tell you what the delay compensation does.
It would appear to do nothing, but it does something very useful.


If you record a vocal track, duplicate that track, then put a waves compressor on one copy, it'll all go phasey and messed up because the waves compressor introduces 64ms of delay, or whatever it is.

That means your compressed copy is 64ms later than your dry one, which of course is no good.

Delay compensation takes note of this. In this instance, it'd delay everything by 64ms, except the track with the plug delay; See?

Either that or it flat out delays everything by 1024 (or whatever its set to), then subtracts plugin delay from specific tracks whenever it is introduced.
I can't remember, but the result is the same.
 
By the way, I looked at your pic.

See how the waveforms are staggered? Are you saying you hit record at the same point each time, but the waverform (and region) are created late?

If so, that's not a latency issue. Sounds more like a preroll or something.

I notice there's a P on your record button which I think means punch in is enabled. Any change that has a preroll setting?
Turn 'punch in' off and try again.
 
Thanks for the clarification on the delay compensation settings... totally makes sense!

As for my pic... if you look @ tracks 'audio 2' and 'audio 2 dup' ... the waveform starts before the fine grey bar (which is the beat). Protools is somehow recording everything early... it's like I'm timetravelling! So things are recorded and printed (or whatever you want to call it) BEFORE the actual beat. Although it seems to sound in time when like tracking is occuring, it is definately out of time when playing the track back and it is totally noticeable when trying to double a track (such as guitars). Can't get palm mutes tight cuz one track is always out of time (and printed before the beat!)

I use the quick punch record setting for the obvious reasons. No pre/post rolls enabled.

I've never had this issue with ProTools before :(

By the way, I looked at your pic.

See how the waveforms are staggered? Are you saying you hit record at the same point each time, but the waverform (and region) are created late?

If so, that's not a latency issue. Sounds more like a preroll or something.

I notice there's a P on your record button which I think means punch in is enabled. Any change that has a preroll setting?
Turn 'punch in' off and try again.
 
Are you having a latency problem because it sounds off time while you're recording? Make sure whatever you're recording is muted ..

It sounds off time when recording AND when playing back... Pro Tools is tracking everything early. Why would I mute everything when recording? Does that not defeat the purpose of recording? Why would I want to mute a guitar track that I am doubling? Why would I mute the vocals? That makes no sense and that is not an option... have you ever recorded in a professional setting? I would shoot the producer if I were payign $200/hr to record and he turned my live tracks off.
 
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It sounds off time when recording AND when playing back... Pro Tools is tracking everything early. Why would I mute everything when recording? Does that not defeat the purpose of recording? Why would I want to mute a guitar track that I am doubling? Why would I mute the vocals? That makes no sense and that is not an option...

He said make sure what you're recording is muted, not what you're recording against, or to.

Admittedly, it's not an ideal solution, but if you can only hear the backing track, then latency, or whatever this is shouldn't put you off.

Other than that, I don't know.
All I can recommend is a full uninstall/reinstall or drivers and protools.
Then ditch your current session and start a new one from scratch to test.

The protools preference trashing tool is very useful for PT anomalies too.



Could you post an audio clip of the events in your picture?

It's hard to know how much of a discrepancy we're talking about without a tempo reference, or sample view.

I would shoot the producer if I were payign $200/hr to record and he turned my live tracks off.

For that money, I'd like to think they'd have HD.
 
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Man, I saw your name, assumed you were being helpful, and weighed in to playfully scare you off..........


I'm not gonna sink to it now. ;)
 
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