Pro Tools Tip – Don’t trust the timing accuracy of Audiosuite processing
Today I was mixing a song in Pro Tools and came across a big problem with the Pitch Shift and Time Shift Audiosuite plugins.
Here’s what happened:
I had a horn part that just didn’t sound as thick as I wanted.
I duplicated the track and processed the duplicate with Audiosuite Pitch Shift down one octave.
I played it back the notes were all way off in timing!
I tried it again with the TimeShift plugin and had similar results.
I had to manually pocket every phrase because it was just so badly off and inconsistently too. In the picture above that one note is 79ms later than the original.
Obviously this is annoying! It might have gone unnoticed had I been just replacing the part and not layering it.
PAY ATTENTION! DON’T TRUST AVID TO GET IT RIGHT!!!!
Of course if you think this is operator error let me know what I did wrong.
5 Responses to “Pro Tools Tip – Don’t trust the timing accuracy of Audiosuite processing”
By David Paquin on Feb 5, 2010 | Reply
Somme audiosuite plugs have some sort of latency, like rtas… HHRRAA!!! How long will it take for a simple and essential ADC?
By cheakypawl on Feb 6, 2010 | Reply
the problems you are experiencing are specifically to do the audiosuite TIME SHIFT (which has pitch shift built into it)
regarding PITCH SHIFT – if the plug-in is used correctly It is perfect.
there is a slider on the plug in, sound / rhythm, all you need to do is slide it over to rhythm and it’s perfectly in sync. apparently, this will slightly compromise the sound quality, but only on massive pitch changes or complex sounds.
it’s a good plug in. try the above and re-post.
the plug-in that combines pitch and time shifting (timeshift) has the problems you refer to.
By Other Jon on Feb 9, 2010 | Reply
Useed to have the same issue with the sound quality of severely pitched FX sounding great in preview and lousy (robotized) in the processed file. Dubbing the preview to a DAT or portable recorder and reimporting fixed that though. Way cheaper than purchasing Serato and worrying if it work just as well.
PS – you gotta put boxes around your fields for “Name” and “email”…my first comment got deleted when I missed the polar bears in the snow storm up there. ;^)
By Jon on Feb 9, 2010 | Reply
@other Jon
I’ll dig into the css to see if I can get that working. I’ve done it too.
By Other Jon on Feb 9, 2010 | Reply
Thanks, man! Love the blog, btw.