Latency with Plug-Ins

[subterFUSE]

I recently downloaded the PSP Vintage Warmer plug-in to add some light compression on my Master Out.

However, I have noticed that the plug-in adds a slight amount of delay to the audio sound coming from the master channel.

I noticed this when I was listening to a Cue in my headphones while playing another track on the Master. Since I've been a DJ for a while, I instantly noticed the slight mis-alignment of the 2 music tracks.

This misalignment was driving me absolutely nuts, so I've been trying to find a way to fix it.

So far, the only way I found was a bit strange. I have inserted a Return Track and routed the output to my Headphone Cue. Then I put a Simple Delay effect on that Return Track. According to PSP, the Vintage Warmer adds about 11.6 ms latency. So I sent my Return Track's delay to 11.6 ms.

Then I use the Send knobs to select my Cue source, rather than the Cue buttons. This routes my Cue signal through the delay and then to my headphones, curing the misalignment.

This process has fixed the problem, but I was not sure if there is a better way or not.

Is there a better way to fix this problem?

[feyshay]

You got it right with your use of a simple delay on what is not put through Vintage Warmer. You'll find that delay on some compressors and equalizers--especially those that look ahead.
Maybe we can get something from the Beta testers on whether or not there will be automatic plug-in latency compensation in Live 5.

[AdamJay]

there is plug-in delay compensation in Live 5. and it works well.

i've used a vintage warmer on an individual track and it does indeed sync everything up.
so long as the plug-in broadcasts its latency #'s to the host (and most plugins do), it will sync it all up.

[subterFUSE]

Well... I'm not using the Vinage Warmer on an individual track, but rather on the Master Out.

This may be a diference, depending on how the Cue system routes signal.

Here's the deal:


On my setup, I'm just running Vintage Warmer on the Master Out. But the Cue system runs off each channel. So, the signal goes from a track and gets split.... one goes to the Cue in the headphones, the other goes to the Master... where it gets processed by Vintage Warmer, which adds some latency.

If I listen to the Cue vs. the Master, I hear a slight delay. So, I added delay to a Return Track, and now listen to my headphones through that instead of the Cue button.



But for you....

If you run Vintage Warmer on a track, then it may be that the signal is processed before the Cue sends it to your headphones. This would mean the delay occurs before the signal gets to the Cue or to the Master... which nullifies the problem.

However, I would prefer to run only 1 instance of Vintage Warmer to reduce CPU load.... so I feel like my solution is more streamlined.

Of course, I'm only guessing. I don't know for sure if the Cue plays audio Pre or Post FX for a track. My guess is it Post. Maybe someone here knows for sure?

[groovenagl]

hi all,

to not spam the forum with a new thread, i put my questions here:

did anyone of you actually try plug in plug in latency compensatin for compressor II in "look ahead" mode (using 0,1 and 10ms)?. i did build a setup described as "parallel compression" and just tested whether the tracks would still play synced by putting an audiofile on track1 and set track 2 to have audio from track1 (prefx) while having same gain and then switching polarity on track1 FX.

i heard nothing - fine! phase cancellation was perfect. now the strange behaviour. i inserted compII on track 2 (the one fed from track 1) with threshold 0, ratio 1:1 etc. basically it was doing nothing. both tracks were only in sync, when the look ahead was set to 10ms. for 1 and 0 still i could hear the audio (1ms sound like a HPF and 0ms as usual). then i tried to manually compensate that with trackdelay - no luck.

finally my question: can someone confirm, that the automatic plug in compensation for compII is a fixed value, which is perfect when running at 10ms look ahead? (not a bad thing, though...)?

thanks,
tim

PS: live 6.0.3 running on 10.4.8 on PB 1.5GHz and 1.25 gig ram, for those who might ask...

[groovenagl]

did i ask an outstanding stupid question? also links to existing threads would be highly appreciated.... sorry for pushing my question, but this really concerns me...

thanks,
tim