Apple Logic Pro /LogicExpress Discussion

There is an easy way to test what you are fearing about the audio. Just 
play back your song through the monitors, and then record with a mic so 
it picks up the speaker output. Then play the tracks - the old and new 
together later. Are they spot on? Is there some flanging or comb 
filtering? You should be able to hear the latency. You can also look at 
the wave forms. It would be best to start with a "four on the floor" 
kick drum intro - then look at the bounced audio and the newly recorded 
room mic audio. You can see where the transients hit and see if the 
latency is uniform or now, and how much it is. Once computed, hopefully 
you can just nudge the audio on future recordings by that same amount 
without looking.


Regarding MIDI, I am using an m-audio kb, plugged directly into the 
back of a mac pro. I do have a bunch of other USB devices going through 
a 1:4 box - the computer keyboard, dongles, etc. But I hear terrible 
latency each and every time. I have my latency set in Logic to 512 
samples which should be pretty small. But I hear it and it messes me 
up. But if I play something that produces its own sounds then I can get 
into it. I can deal with a delay but not terrible performances with no 
feel.

Greg

-----Original Message-----
From: Andy Brook <bbgrove@...>
To: Logic_Cafe@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, Mar 29, 2010 1:37 pm
Subject: Re: [Logic_Cafe] Re: A Question


On 29 Mar 2010, at 16:59, GAmoore@... wrote:

> . I have not
> noticed huge latency issues in recording audio in logic directly but
> midi through a USB Keyboard - directly plugged into the Mac Pro has
> too
> much latency. I usually go in and move everything to the left about 30
> ticks or whatever.
>
Am I just imagining that the speed of the recorded audio seems to vary
compared to the track the singer is singing along to? When I try to
record a vocal, the rest of the tracks seem to be playing perfectly in
time, as they always do. Unless latency somehow varies in amount
during the course of the recording, all I have to do is to nudge the
vocal to the correct starting position and it should all fit in
perfectly, shouldn't it?

And yet, when I play the audio back with just a click track the audio
seems to be slightly off the beat throughout.


> To get a good feel to record midi, I found its
> better to use a real keyboard which makes sounds immediately, then you
> can hear yourself playing along fine - and then go and adjust all the
> notes to the left the latency factor. However, I was reading somewhere
> that these "highly accurate" midi systems are more marketing than
> true,
> and actually there is a fair amount of jitter - so I dont know.
>
I have an M Audio keyboard with a USB adapter into my MacPro and I am
not aware of any latency issues, as such. In fact I don't possess a
real instrument so most of my input is done with this keyboard. Every
so often during the course of recording a song I stick a mastering
channel strip at the end of the Mixer, to get an idea of how the song
is going. If I forget to take that off again before recording another
track, then you do definitely find that the resulting recording is all
over the place. But other than that, you shouldn't really have the
problem you are describing (well, unless I am totally missing the
point, which as a novice I might be).

It is very easy to blame the recording when the input is at fault. I'm
a pretty good keyboard player but, like many of us, counting isn't my
strongest point and without a click track or rhythm behind me no
amount of counting aloud is going to stop me wavering off the beat.

But if you have the piano roll showing when you record midi, and chose
a level of magnification so that the roll moves in a way that you can
see each new note and the bars, then you will soon see whether or not
you are playing on the beat, behind it, or in front of it.

PLEASE - if I have got the wrong end of the stick here (since I seem
to be finding exactly the opposite of someone I look upon as an
expert) then do correct me. I wouldn't want to mislead anyone.

Andy

>
>



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