Solved Latency Compensation / Dropout protection & External instruments

[demanmetdeneus]

Hello everyone,

Studio One's dropout protection system (with the green'Z'...) is very smart and useful. It works great with microphones and software instruments. However: I cannot get it to work with External Instruments.

I have an external synth connected via USB (Midi), the audio is routed into Studio One via the AUX channel I assigned to it in the 'external instrument' control panel. When I switch on the 'Z' on the masterbus and in the Instrumentlist in the mixer the latency doesn't get compensated. Also I cannot mute the AUX channel (in order to use direct monitoring) without muting the instrument alltogether.

I went back to the old way of doing things: disabling the AUX channel and using direct monitoring and recording the finished part to an audio track.

This works of course, but it's such a pity because the functionality is to well thought out. Am I missing something?

 

[SwitchBack]

When fighting latency don't use external instruments. Every time audio is sent from or returned to your computer latency takes a hit. Green Z does low latency by bypassing plugins that add a significant delay to the monitor signal. An external instrument definitely qualifies for that.

 

[demanmetdeneus]

Thanks...

But I don't get what you're saying. When I use a mic or a guitar the same latency occurs when the signal enters the computer as with external instruments. Yet with those signal it is possible to work the compensation magic.

I'm using a synth here, not an external channel strip or something.

Midi goes to the synth, no latency there to speak of. Audio comes back through the AUX input, just like a guitar or mic would enter the mixing console. So why can the external instrument signal not be compensated where the guitar/mic can?

 

[SwitchBack]

OK, here's a link to a (rather old but to the point) video by Gregor, explaining record offset compensation for audio and for midi. These are basic preparation steps to make sure that everything lines up correctly when recording. It has to do with latency, but not the latency you may hear from your monitors when recording but rather the misalignment of tracks you may hear when you play back your recorded song.

Green Z has to do with the latency you may hear from your monitors when recording. To get something (audio, midi) into your computer/DAW and then out again to your monitors takes time, and there is no way you can get that time back or compensate for it. The only way to improve the situation is to reduce the latency, and the green Z option does that (amongst other things) by skipping processes/plugins that add considerably to the minimum latency possible with the equipment used. It may result in a less fancy monitor mix but that's a small sacrifice considering the alternative.

When your recording setup includes an external instrument played by an existing Studio One instrument track via midi then Gregor's loopback instructions will make it fall in step with the rest, as Studio One will simply send the midi data a little early. But if the external instrument is part of a live loop (you playing a midi keyboard into Studio One, Studio one sending that midi to the external instrument, the audio output from the instrument going back into Studio One, and Studio One sending that in a mix to your monitors) then Studio One can't somehow make all that round trip latency disappear. So green Z will simply disable the external instrument in the mix as it would hold up everything else.