Ableton Forum

Could I ask someone who successfully uses hardware synths to break down how they are doing it?
I have some plugins which induce enormous latency., which can not be compensated by Ableton's delay compensation function.

I could work around it in some ways, but really, I can't find consistency. If I quantize notes to the grid with my hardware synths and delay compensation active, the timing is horrible, because actually, live is recording my input slightly later than "1" and calling it "1"

The way to fix this is to record with both delay compensation AND reduced latency when monitoring. Unfortunately, that only allows for one synth at a time to be tracked in, because the moment I am not monitoring one hardware track but it has not been frozen or printed yet, its timing goes off. Mean I can only have one hardware synth at a time looping... not fun!

Can anyone help me get a better overall idea of what the hell is happening, how they deal with it, or what they recommend?

Do you mean software synths? Otherwise how would you quantize a hardware synth?

If its after the fact, you should be ableton to use track delay to get the quantized notes to fit with other "non-delayed" tracks.

Can you phrase the question another way?

well in my experience MIDI output devices vary in quality..
and have different latencies..
so it's important to adjust the midi latency in the output prefs. (for each port !)

the game is to have less stress both on cpu and on Midi output data/ports
and I think a difference in mentality.. and a lot of nerves/patince..

in the quest for good timing with computers..
you should have the following different mindsets imo :
jamming/sketch mode(loose timing mode)...
tracking mode(as tight timing as possible..record to audio)...
arrangement mode (correct timing problems visually).....
mixing mode(technically listening for and correct timing problems)

.. if you have other midi devices/controllers connected which are not necessary.. can be truned temporarily off maybe?..

generally try to use less midi output ports (chain outboard synths to each other and use midi channels)

...the outboard midi port should be separated/dedicated and not shared with 'control surfaces'

as far as audio plugin timing.. changing track delays is necessary..
if heavy processing is going on timing will start to suffer.. (and it's stressed more at low latencies..)
add to that lives plugin compensation (unfixed) problems.. and timing goes out the window easy...
so stay on your toes.. sometimes it's needed to manually compensate using lives'/plugin mistakes...
and generally try to use the minimum stuff when in "tracking mode"..

you can..freeze EVERYTHING BUT the hardware synths...
jam out on your outboards and record to audio asap..
then unfreeze.. (might not be ideal for heavily sidechained tracks)

as far as timing of the recording..
if you set monitoring to 'off' it's supposed to be spot on..
(provided that audio interface latency report errors have been manually corrected in the prefs)
in this mode you're supposed to monitor with "0 latency" ( directly from the soundcard/mixer)
and listen to the audio clip/add fx after it's already in there
this is the most straight forward approach imo
the downside is you're not gonna be using fx/vsts when recording

all the other monitoring modes TRY TO compensate so it's supposedly aligned the way it was played/heard..

I'm still confused by this as well..

oh ... and keep in mind it's never going to be perfect
but you can increase precision by easing the load
concentrating on this stuff makes you lose your inspiration..
manually adjusting timing of recordings is one of lives' strong point after all
sometimes it's the easiest route..

I monitor the hardware synths directly, their signal is not passing through the computer and there is no latency incurred - even with all delay compensation off and monitoring off, it is still not possible to sequence these hardware synths while these plug ins are enabled (Nebula, UAD)

UGH

thanks for trying to help, guys