Ableton Forum

"Live 5 now automatically compensates for delays caused by Live effects and plug-ins, including those on the return tracks. ... In addition, both audio and MIDI tracks have a manual delay setting, adjustable in milliseconds, that can be used to compensate for human, acoustic, hardware and other real-world delays."
So does this mean manually entering the delay amount for non-Ableton FX and instruments?
If so, how do we find out this information?
It would be super handy to have a forum sticky of PDC values for all the various FX and instruments out there.

I'm so excited!

I too am quite curious if they are refering to thier own effects or any effects running within Live (VST, AU)

yea its kind of non-descript.

"Live effects and plug-ins"

so do plug-ins = third party plugs?
certainly they wouldn't = live effects, as those are already mentioned.

I thought there was no delay anyway with the built in Ableton FX???

ct43 wrote:I thought there was no delay anyway with the built in Ableton FX???

depends on the FX. some produce more than others. some don't produce any at all.
just using my ears, and having 2 of the same clips playing back and adding ableton FX this is what i've found (dry settings, and multiple instances used of course to hear any kind of phasing/flanging that signifies delay)

no delay, requires no delay compensation -
AutoFilter, EQ4, Chrous, CompressorII (at 0ms lookahead of course), Filter Delay, Grain Delay, Ping Pong Delay, Redux, Resonators, Reverb, Simple Delay, Utility

a little noticable delay (can probably get away with it without compensation, most of the time)
Gate, EQ3, CompressorI, Erosion

healthy amount of noticable delay (requires manual compensation, or PDC in live 5)
Vinyl Distortion


stuff like the Gate, EQ3, and Compressor may be used on drums alot and in combination. and alot of times if you want a good locked quantized drum sound, the slight delays of these FX can compound and make manual compensation a must for the attacks of your drum sounds to be locked in. Unless your Jeff Mills and just don't give a shit how bad your stuff sounds.

ok, thanks for clearing that one up...

I hope they do mean full PDC for VST, else its still mixing with SX for me.. the other features look really cool, but I NEED PDC!

Hmmm, says 'Live effects', so it sounds like Live's effects, if you will. Would love to be proved wrong tho

muthafunka wrote:Hmmm, says 'Live effects', so it sounds like Live's effects, if you will. Would love to be proved wrong tho

it says 'Live effects' "AND PLUG-INS"

this presumes Live Effects and plug-ins are 2 seperate things.

by plug-ins do they mean third party software that is plugged into the Live host
or something else? that is the question.

Touché! Hmmmmm...guess we'll have to wait and see, waking up and finding all this has really made my day though hehehe. OT but gotta say mp3 was pretty far down the list but with all the rest of it who's complaining??

The Abletons are pretty smart. I remember this sort of question when LIVE4 came out, and people were wondering if it would support third-party VSTis. I think that they probably will have made PDC for third-party plugs, too.

I hope that I am not wrong in my supposition.

Looks as if PDC is for all plugs ... also very interesting is that UAD-1/Powercore type devices will be able to be used at 100% ...

My opinion is that Ableton would not have done a half-arsed job at adding PDC.

Most people complaining about PDC have been using 3rd party plugins, they would not have rendered a wish which this group of people have brought up unfulfilled. It would be in poor form.

Everything else they've done, they have done comprehensively enough to not draw any serious criticism.

you would have thought with such a much requested feature they would spell it out and not have us guessing!

Couldnt Ableton just say rather playing these games. Its a very important feature for many.

I have a bad feeling its not in there. If it were Im certain they would have said so on the Live 5 announcement. I sure hope so or im also resigned to mixing on another app

Great update never the less.

hey guys,

don't panic, pdc is for live effects and for third party plugins (vst/au).
You can switch to party mode again ;-)

dom
ableton hq