UNCOVERING LOGIC PRO 8 LATENCY
I’ve been frustrated for a couple years by Logic’s incomprehensible delay compensation when using busses. This has made using outboard verbs a pain, and using outboard EQ and compressors on busses almost impossible. There have been valiant attempts made by Expert Sleepers with
Latency Fixer, and Artificial Audio’s
Latency Bundle, however they did not entirely fix the problem. These techniques have fixed the problem for me, I hope they help you.
BUS LATENCY:
THE SCENARIO AND THE SYMPTOM:
• My drums are bussed to BUS 10 (with the output to 1-2). All other instruments are going to OUTPUT 1-2.
• Using the I/O plugin, I patch in a Smart C2 compressor. I use Artificial Audio’s
Latency Bundle to measure 86 samples. I use the
Latency Compensator plugin and set it to 86 samples.
• When the I/O plugin is inserted onto the OVERHEAD track. The timing is spot on. Everything lines up perfectly (refer to
clip 01 - Raw Latency Test)
• When the I/O plugin is applied to the DRUM BUS all of my drums fall behind badly. (refer to
clip 02 - C2 on Drum Bus with Late Co). Now the drums are behind by about 3,000 samples, but it’s not even consistent. Some times it’s more, sometimes less. It seems random at each playback. And it drifts!!!... So When I get it tight, it’ll lag latter in the song, then come back together again. Totally unusable.(refer to picture -
Rock Latency Pic)
THE FIX:
If you put another I/O plugin on any track that is being bussed to the latent bus, and bypass the I/O plugin. The I/O plugin must be set to something, but it doesn't matter which. Logic then compensates the bus’s latency perfectly. Why? Who the
F knows! But it works. (refer to
clip 03- C2 with ghost I/O plug)
I even built up some serious latency with 2 I/O plugins, a UAD Fairchild, and 2 UAD 33609’s and the ghost I/O plugin caused Logic to repair the latency. (refer to pic Rock Lots of Latency Fixed).
REVERB LATENCY:
THE SCENARIO AND THE SYMPTOM:
Logic has a similar problem with latency when dealing with outboard reverb, but I always had problems with latency causing the hardware reverb to have huge pre-delays.
• I would set an AUX to BUS 1. This would send out to the reverb.
• Then would set a different AUX to receive the reverb return. (refer to pic
Reverb send return) ... pretty standard stuff.
• Now check out the ridiculous amount of pre-delay that can build up in a big mix. (refer to
clip 04 - Reverb In and Out AUX)
THE FIX:
Send to your reverb using an AUX with an I/O plugin! (refer to pic
Reverb with I/O plug)It’s a more streamlined approach, and handles the delay compensation properly. (refer to
clip 05 - Reverb IO plugin)
For reference, my system is:
Mac 2x2.66 Dual-Core Intel Zeon
12GB RAM
Mac OS 10.5.6
Logic 8.0.2
Apogee Symphony w/ AD-16x & DA-16x
These tests were done at 128 I/O buffer, but changing this did not effect results for me
My reverb is currently patched analog...I haven’t tried the reverb test with a digital connection. 