Pro Tools Hardware Inserts

Gannon posted this at UA forum a few years ago:


delay comp PT

Hi all,

There are actually two things to be aware of when using hardware inserts with Pro Tools and third party interfaces such as Apollo.

First - you do need to make sure your inserts are lined up. With Apollo, you need to go to I/O Setups in Pro Tools, select the inserts tab and drag the entire set over one pair so that Insert 1-2 is using I/O 3-4, Insert 3-4 is using I/O 5-6 etc. Apollo's MON out uses output pair 1-2, so you have to make this adjustment to line up your hardware inserts. (PT mode only aligns the Inputs and Outputs list, not Inserts.)

Second - you have to manage Delay Compensation in Pro Tools on a track by track basis - not just turn it on and off globally. It's easiest to describe it with an example, so try this:

1) Create three stereo audio tracks.
2) Set the output of Audio 1 to Bus 1-2
3) Set the Input of Audio 2 to Bus 1-2 and Input enable it
4) Create a Stereo Send on Audio 1, send it to Bus 3-4 and set it to unity gain
5) Set the Input of Audio 3 to Bus 3-4 and Input enable it
6) Insert a hardware pair on Audio 3 (you can use a patch cable between outputs and inputs to pass audio)

Now, look at the Delay Compensation numbers in the Mix Window. You'll see Audio 1 and Audio 2 are all 0 and Audio 3 shows 2351 in the top slot (Delay Indicator).

Drop a piece of audio onto Audio 1 and play it. You'll hear a delay between the two tracks. This is because Audio 2 is not being delayed to match the hardware insert on Audio 3.

Now, Control + Command Click on the bottom number of Audio 2 (Track Compensation Indicator). You'll notice it turns blue and goes to 2351 (the same number as Audio 3).

What you've done is isolated Audio 2 from the delay comp scheme so that Audio 2, which has no hardware inserts on it, has the same amount of delay compensation as Audio 3, which does.

This is a bare bones example, but you can use the same principles as your routing schemes become more complex with busses and other audio tracks.

Just keep in mind where your delays are and which elements need to be delayed and go from there.

I hope that helps!“

I’ve done all that. The Gannon example works but what does that have to do with how I want to use it?

hmm That might be a recording and latency setting. Like low latency can't be on or something.

in the mixer window, delay compensation . . . can that fix it?

This sounds like you don't have the apollo setup right if you're not seeing a return on the aux track.

Things I've done a couple times when I had a similar problem:

1. I was monitoring the inputs in Console and didn't have input monitoring on in the DAW.
2. Monitoring my insert outputs rather than my master bus on the way back in.
3. Had the wrong inputs armed.

I'm sure you've checked those but that's all the info my experience can lend at this moment.

Good luck! Let us know if you figure it out (and how you fixed it)!

You should definitely be able to see signal after the HW insert, and put any further processing you want there, as long as you've got the complete loop in your analog gear and signal is getting back to the DAW.  

Also, it's worth noting that I haven't been manually entering HW insert delay for quite awhile.  I don't know when but PT started automatically doing it.  I haven't checked it with a transient loop/calculation because it seems to work correctly (nothing getting unsynced).  But like, right now on my new machine, I never entered any HW insert delay in the I/O settings but when put a HW insert on, it comes up with delay on its own and shows it in the delay comp window at the bottom of the track.  

Especially since the new hybrid engine is coming to HDX users too. That's going to be game changing. 






But yeah. Fellow HDX user here. Once I went to it, never looking back. Bulletproof. 

You could easily solve this by patching into a summing box instead

It’s also easy to solve by using a plug in.

Let me ask - say I'm sending every drum channel to a drum bus and want to put a HW comp on the drum bus. Should I click the input monitoring on for each individual drum track? The AUX doesn't have an input monitoring clicky thing. (This is how technical I am)...I can hear the effected drums, they're just out of time with the rest of the track...I guess I AM monitoring inputs in console because if I mute that, I get nothing. Oh - does Low Latency mode have to be off? I bet that's it - it's the reason I'm not hearing anything when I mute console...

Gonna go try.

Would you like to elaborate? You mean a $2000 D Box that has inserts and/or Time Adjuster?