Latency with Logic 9.

[haymedic]

hello.

i recently have had a lot of latency issues with using logic. when i first start a recording, i don't have any latency issues. i am now up to 15 tracks (5 wave tracks and 10 or so midi tracks and for each midi track sample tank is running) there are also only two busses running that use plug ins. (one reverb/one delay)... there is a lot of automation as well.

now: when the performance goes in, it is synced fine and doesn't lag or stall or anything else. however, once the take is complete, the performance is ahead of the overall recording by about half a beat so i have to slide the performance to the right so that the transients line up with the other tracks.

now, obviously i could just be overloading the memory/processor but there doesn't seem to be that much running in my opinion. i am wondering if there is a preference setting or something that i might have turned off or on which is causing this or if it is simply the issue of my computer not being fast enough and now i'll have to bounce tracks and eliminate plug ins to get things back on track.

system as follows:

logic 9.
macbook 2.4GHz -- 2GB Memory
presonus firestudio interface

one last thing: the 'cpu meter' is only at 30% when all of this is going on.

so yea... any simple answers?

s

 

[dgatwood]

That's not latency per se. That's either:

A. a device or driver lying about its latency, or
B. a plug-in lying about its latency.

See, the software should be compensating for latency in the signal chain and adjusting the position of the recorded track to compensate. If that's not happening, somebody somewhere is lying.

Read these:

http://documentation.apple.com/en/logicpro/usermanual/index.html#chapter=41&section=3&tasks=true

http://documentation.apple.com/en/logicpro/usermanual/index.html#chapter=41&section=2&tasks=true

http://documentation.apple.com/en/soundtrackpro/usermanual/index.html#chapter=E&section=2&tasks=true

 

[haymedic]

hey... thanks a lot for the response and the links.

i have solved the problem...

it seemed that at some point i must have changed the device I/O settings to -5000 samples on the recording delay option. i set it to +5000 samples and guess what? it was about a half beat ahead of everything. so yea... i set it to as close to zero (-28 samples) as you can and it all lines up.

pretty frustrating though. i went through everything and bounced to zero plug ins and all... even opened a new project and still found the recordings were ahead of the metronome... so yea... i guess the problem was not delay compensation after all but me and my erratic mouse behavior and changing settings.

thanks for you time looking up the links for me... but it was my own stupidity in the end... as it ALWAYS is.

can you tell me this much though... why oh why, is there a setting like this? i'm just curious to know why it would be used?

s

 

[dgatwood]

can you tell me this much though... why oh why, is there a setting like this? i'm just curious to know why it would be used?

Because some badly written audio drivers lie about their latency.

AFAIK, it should typically be zero, because the audio driver should be reporting the real latency and Logic should be adjusting for that. However, if the driver lied and claimed, for example, zero latency and actually had 300 msec round trip latency, a newly recorded track would end up delayed by a third of a second relative to the existing tracks. This allows you to compensate for that.

 

[haymedic]

thanks for the help!

s