In article ,
JLNelson19 wrote:
Thanks for the replies. I should have stated that I'm using Pro Tools, and no
outboard processing. I found that the phasing problems were indeed caused by
latency in the plug-ins on the aux input channel. I guess the easiest thing to
do is record the subgroup, then move it forward in time until it is back in
phase. Quite a pain, especially if you decide you want to change something in
the submix.

Printing effected tracks is never the easy way!

If you're trying to do parallel compression, route the submix to a bus
and bring the bus back on two separate aux inputs. Add your
processing to one of the auxes and add a delay to the other to
compensate for the processing delay. The Waves DLA is what I usually
use, but Digi gives you a simple delay for this purpose with the
DigiRack plugins, so you do have one available. Problem solved.

Don't know how long to set the delay? Hold the command key down and
click on the fader volume level display of each of the aux input
strips. This changes the display to the peak hold level
display... click again and you get a readout of that channel's
processing delay in samples. Adjust the delay until both of the
parallel auxes read the same number of samples. (Some delays don't
count the 2 or 3 sample TDM insert delay, so don't just do subtraction
and set the delay to that number. Always check the aux input's delay
readout to make sure you got it right).

If you're getting delays of more than 40-50 samples, I'd also consider
delaying the other tracks so as not to mess up the feel of the
performance. Even something as small as a millisecond will affect the
feel of a track, so I say why mess up something that ain't messed up.
Yeah, it's a pain, but the DLA is cheap DSP wise, so it's not a
problem to put them where you need them. Also note that if you're
processing tracks that share acoustic bleed, any processing delays not
common to all the tracks might change how the bleed works, so those
might also be worth aligning, even if you have only 5-10 samples of
relative delay.

In extreme cases, such as trying to use something like an FIR EQ, I'll
slip the processed tracks forward to compensate for the delay (and put
a note on the scribble strip for those tracks, so I won't forget later
on). The Waves LinEQ has so much delay, you'd need several DLAs to
compensate and that's a waste of inserts and DSP.

Delay compensation is pretty much a pain in the rear, but you do have
the tools available to make it work without resorting to printing
effected tracks.


Best of luck,

Monte McGuire