Hello- I've done some manual reading and searching, but don't have a great grasp of how one deals with the delay that occurs when using outboard effects in PT. I've been using a hardware compressor that causes some delay, and have seen delay readings in the mixer for plugs. Is this compensated for by PT during a bounce? Thanks- PC

No, it's not compensated for. As far as I've been able to tell, the delay readings in the mixer only work in TDM, not LE. However, it's pretty easy to compensate for your delay when using an outboard unit: 1. Put the unit in bypass. 2. Play something like a snare hit or something with a very fast attack through the unit, recording it on another track. [note-you can also make a transient by using the pencil tool to draw one on a region of silence] 3. Zoom in and use the I-beam tool to select from the beginning of the original hit to the beginning of the recorded hit. 4. Look in the display at the top of the edit window where it says "Length", and make a note of the amount. It would probably be best to change your time display to Samples instead of Min:Sec to get a more precise reading. 5. Anything you want to send through the unit needs to be shifted earlier by the number of samples you measured. (Shift is Option-H) Make yourself a note in that track's comments field saying that you shifted it that many samples. 6. If you are using the outboard as an insert in PT, this will work fine. You won't be able to use an aux send this way, like for a reverb. To do this, you probably will need to either print the Aux to an audio track first and shift and send that, or record the output of the outboard back into ProTools and shift that. The second makes more sense, because it would be useful to have the outboard printed if you need to bring the mix back up later (and you sold that reverb!). However, the latency delay won't make as big of a difference with a reverb anyway. It will just sound like a predelay. For that matter, if your reverb unit has a predelay already programmed, just subtract your latency from the predelay on your unit.

Thanks for the reply. I've seen readings in the mixer for delay for a certain plug, I think the Waves Compressor. I've been bouncing the tracks back into the session, which works. I just wonder if I did a mixdown with outboard effects, would the delay be compensated for there? I don't really worry about delay on a verb, since I will just consider that pre delay! Thanks- PC