Ableton Forum

Hi. I apologize in advance if these two questions about latency have been asked before:

If I have a plugin with, say, 5ms latency -- and use one instance on a track, another instance on a return track, and a third instance on the Master track (with Master Out set to 1/2), what is the total latency present at Master Out 1/2? Seems clear that it would be at least the sum of the track latency and the master latency, or 10ms in this example, but what is the effect of the additional 5ms latency on the return track? Would that bring the total latency at Master Out 1/2 to 15ms?

An additional twist present in my particular situation is that the return track doesn't output to the Master track, but instead outputs to Audio 3/4. Does that mean that it wouldn't add additional latency to the Master Out 1/2, and it therefore remains at 10ms in this example? (in other words, the return track with Out to 3/4 operates in parallel with the Master track Out to 1/2, keeping the total latency present at either 1/2 or 3/4 at 10ms?)

Thanks so much

The highest plugin latency in a signal path is calculated, then latency is added to all signal paths (except the ones that already have the highest) so they all match the highest, so they are all in sync.

Even the signal paths that go to Ext Out and skip Master will get synced.

In your situation ("return track doesn't output to the Master track") the highest total would be 10 ms, Track>Return and Track>Master are parallel and have the same total latency. A track with no latency going to Ext Out 3/4 skipping Master would get that 10 ms added.

In the Track>Return>Master case it would be 15 ms, they are in series. A track with no latency going to Ext Out 3/4 skipping Master would get that 15 ms added.

Type of track doesn't really matter, what matters is the signal path.

In practice, all Track outputs play in sync.