Effects on a submix track?

[Starship Krupa]

The way I have been handling my drum tracks is to put the overheads into their own submix, then apply compression, EQ, and reverb to the submix track.

I match the level between the two of them, pan them, etc.

Then, when mixing, I can just drag the "overheads" slider.

My question is whether I'm possibly going to run into problems with the issue with plug-in latency not be applied to submix tracks. If so, what would I be looking out for? The tracks being shifted slightly behind the other tracks, or just the effects or what?

Also, what's another good way to accomplish this if I am not doing it correctly within the current constraints of Mixcraft 7?

[aquataur]

I never noticed that submix tracks do not compensate the insertion delay. Its only milliseconds. You probably never notice.

Be aware that when you are doing stuff like parallel compression, you might get comb filtering effects.
By doing so, you mix two almost equal signals with a shift, which leads to comb filtering.

A fix would be using voxengo´s sounddelay in one channel - does exactly compensate that.
With overheads you may have spill from other drums - similar problem if you send them through different effects.

This would fix the problem momentarily, however folks, this fact is a shame. The DAW should compensate all that.
This is bare bones stuff. It has already been mentioned in the wish list.

-helmut

[7915983]

Just apply the effects on individual tracks instead of the submix, and they will automatically be compensated.

[aj113]

...My question is whether I'm possibly going to run into problems with the issue with plug-in latency not be applied to submix tracks.

In a word, yes. The solution is for Acoustica to fix this issue.

If so, what would I be looking out for? The tracks being shifted slightly behind the other tracks, or just the effects or what?

It manifests itself as flamming. If you solo the snare with the overheads and adjust the levels so that you can hear both the overheads and snare equally you will hear the snare flamming with the overheads. (If you don't hear any flamming you got lucky this time and you're good to go. ) The solution is to micro-nudge the overhead clips until the flamming disappears or - as has been stated already - insert the effects on the individual tracks.

Also, what's another good way to accomplish this if I am not doing it correctly within the current constraints of Mixcraft 7?

There isn't one. Regrettably you are experiencing MC's shortcomings, hopefully it will be addressed in MC8.

[Acoustica Greg]

Hi,

One thing to keep in mind is that some plugins have much more latency than others. You might not notice any latency at all with certain plugins, where others might introduce quite noticeable latency. Give it a try and see if you can hear anything.

Greg

[Starship Krupa]

So what I'm doing now, after reading these replies, is applying my compression to the individual overhead tracks, then creating a send track with reverb, and sending the individual tracks to the reverb track.

Is this a better way to do it, latency-wise? Or do send tracks have the same lack of latency compensation as submix tracks?

(If so, using it just for reverb is probably just fine)

I do notice a difference; it's not as obvious as a flam, but more "blurred," if that makes sense. It's more subtle, but it's there.

Yes, put me on the list of users who think this latency compensation thing should be fixed no later than Mixcraft 8.

[aj113]

So what I'm doing now, after reading these replies, is applying my compression to the individual overhead tracks, then creating a send track with reverb, and sending the individual tracks to the reverb track.

Is this a better way to do it, latency-wise? Or do send tracks have the same lack of latency compensation as submix tracks?

By latency I assume you mean plugin delay. Latency refers to the time it takes your sound card to convert.

I don't use send tracks, I only use inserts. Normally I will risk reverb on the submix because it doesn't usually cause a noticeable delay. The effects to watch out for are compression and limiting in my experience.

[Starship Krupa]

By latency I assume you mean plugin delay. Latency refers to the time it takes your sound card to convert.

I don't use send tracks, I only use inserts. Normally I will risk reverb on the submix because it doesn't usually cause a noticeable delay. The effects to watch out for are compression and limiting in my experience.

Yes, if that's the term for it, plugin delay.

At one point I found a bug related to that, where muting and unmuting a track or clip messed with its plugin delay compensation. Promptly fixed by the Mixcraft devs, of course.

I shall keep my compression and limiting on the inserts or master bus in the future.