Be careful with resource-heavy plugins while tracking

[paperhatrecords]

I have a standard preset vocal chain I like to use and right at the top is Soothe (the De-Shadow preset cleans up the bottom of my voice nicely). I like to track with what has been done before relatively mixed and both Soothe and Spiff were used multiple times throughout the mix, on drums, bass, etc. I like to be able to mix down as soon as I am done tracking, with minor tweaks.

But when I started using the preset vocal chain while tracking, I started noticing audible timing issues. There was latency and I was singing in ways to compensate for it. I thought it was just my computer being slow or laggy.

It wasn't until I spent a long time trying to fix drum and percussion not synching up even though they looked basically perfect on the grid that I figured the problem out: I had a version of Soothe on the conga/percussion/drum machine bus and more Soothe and Spiff on the drums. When I removed them, voila, no more audible latency.

Then I realized it was likely Soothe in my vocal chain and elsewhere in the mix causing the tracking timing problems.

High CPU plugins should never be used while tracking. Stick with stock if you must use them at all. Lesson learned.

 

[Steenamaroo]

Good info to share!
What DAW were you using, though? Most I'm aware of automatically compensate for this.

ProTools, for example, has ADC - Automatic Delay Compensation, where if a plugin introduces X ms of latency it applies the same latency to all other tracks to keep playback sounding correct
then anything that you record under those circumstances is automatically offset on the timeline to compensate.

Maybe you've got that option but it's disabled?

 

[Papanate]

I have a standard preset vocal chain I like to use and right at the top is Soothe (the De-Shadow preset cleans up the bottom of my voice nicely). I like to track with what has been done before relatively mixed and both Soothe and Spiff were used multiple times throughout the mix, on drums, bass, etc. I like to be able to mix down as soon as I am done tracking, with minor tweaks.

But when I started using the preset vocal chain while tracking, I started noticing audible timing issues. There was latency and I was singing in ways to compensate for it. I thought it was just my computer being slow or laggy.

It wasn't until I spent a long time trying to fix drum and percussion not synching up even though they looked basically perfect on the grid that I figured the problem out: I had a version of Soothe on the conga/percussion/drum machine bus and more Soothe and Spiff on the drums. When I removed them, voila, no more audible latency.

Then I realized it was likely Soothe in my vocal chain and elsewhere in the mix causing the tracking timing problems.

High CPU plugins should never be used while tracking. Stick with stock if you must use them at all. Lesson learned.

Or you could Freeze the tracks if your computer couldn’t handle it.

 

[TalismanRich]

The problem is when you're working in real time. If you are monitoring with a significant delay, then your timing can be off. A few ms can be easily ignored. When you start getting into 50-100ms delay, then you definitely hear it. It's a situation where hardware would definitely have an advantage. Or a system like UA uses where things run inside the interface rather than in the computer. My Tascam interface has compression and EQ built in, so it doesn't introduce any latency that I can detect.

DAWs can't compensate for real time, unless it can read the future. DAW compensation merely adjusts the alignment of recorded tracks. It can't apply an effect before you sing the note. Likewise, you can't freeze a track that hasn't been recorded yet. My solution is to not use the plugin, although I know that things like adding reverb can make a singer feel more comfortable.

I have had a few plugins that you hear the delay when you hit stop and the sound continues for a 10th of a second or so. Remove the plugin and when you hit stop, the sound stops. One guitar amp sim that I tried was terrible. My Strymon eliminates any issue.

 

[Steenamaroo]

Of course, if you have something introducing substantial delay on the real time monitoring of what you're singing or performing that's not going to work,
but with regard to the choice between manually moving things around the timeline to correct or disabling latency introducing plugins,
those shouldn't be the options.
20 years ago, sure, but any DAW worth using should have compensation for that built in.