[ardour-users] Exporting with Hardware Inserts/Sends

[Mark Knecht]

On 1/22/06, Andrew Johnston <andyandtaya at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On 1/23/06, Steve Fosdick <lists at pelvoux.nildram.co.uk> wrote:
> > On Sun, 22 Jan 2006 11:52:15 +1030
> > Andrew Johnston <andyandtaya at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > While I'm on the subject, how on earth to pro-tools mix and hd systems
> > > achieve zero latency on the hardware inserts?  I have used the system
> > > before, and I can understand zero latency monitoring as the signal
> passes
> > > through a patchbay to the hardware on the way to the speakers, but with
> > > inserts it goes out and comes back...hmmm
> >
> > If the whole of the signal from a particular track goes through the
> insert, could you not fix the problem by nudging the track?
> >
> > As an example, say you have a track that is fed through an insert that has
> 100ms latency and the return from the insert goes into the final mix.  If
> you nudge the track left by 100ms so the signal gets sent to the insert
> 100ms early compared to everything else the return from the insert will now
> be at the correct time rather than 100ms late so it will all line up.
> >
> > If some of the track goes via the insert and some goes direct you could
> still nudge the track left by 100ms and then add 100ms delay to the direct
> path.  Again everything should line up.
>
>  This was indeed going to be my next post...asking if that is the  only way
> around the latency problem.  I guess my issue is that I'm not sure exactly
> how long the latency is, JACK is set to 64 frames or 2.3 milliseconds, but
> ardour gives me a latency reading of half that...this is the same for all
> settings on JACK, ardour gives half.  Maybe someone could explain the reason
> for this...so then assuming I go with JACK and it is 2.3ms, is that a real
> world figure, or do i just have to use my ears and trial and error to figure
> that one out?....cause there are other external factors such as the time
> taken to get to the mixer, be routed around the mixer and then back into the
> card.  This can all be avoided by using plugins i know, however my mixer
> seems to do some FX quite a lot better than the ladspa plugins....and at the
> moment I haven't the time or enthusiasm to get vsti working, even though i
> know i will find them very useful.
>
>  Thanks for the replies, I'm really enjoying being part of the ardour
> community, keep up the good work everyone.
>  Andy J =)
>

Hi Andy,
   I don't think you're going to have many problems at that latency,
and using your ears is a good thing, but you do not have to if you
don't want to. A simple solution to get things dead on is to first get
everything sounding good. Get your plugins set, automation set, etc.,
and then do one extra thing. Get yourself a small wave file with
nothing but a bit of a square wave in it and place this file at the
end of the track going outside. At this point bounce the track in
question to a new audio track and then compare the positions of the
two square waves. Bingo, you know how far off everything is. If you
decide you really want things dead on, and sometimes you will, then
bounce those as above, mute the old ones, and use the new ones but
shift them by the amount you measured above.

Hope this helps,
Mark