Pro Tools and Logic: Delay Compensation and Heat

Introduction

Okay, before we get to the vocal, I just want to show one more thing that we have in Pro Tools and also in Logic. Actually, two things.

Delay Compensation

Pro Tools

• Down here in Pro Tools, we have something called delay compensation.
• It's quite boring and geeky, but it basically shows what happens when you put plugins on each channel.

Key Points:

• Each plugin causes a little delay, a processing delay.
• This delay is the time taken to crunch the numbers, apply the processing, and put the signal back out.

Importance of Monitoring

• If you put different plugins on every channel, you end up with everything going out of time.
• To compensate, Pro Tools at the bottom shows you how much processing happens on each channel.
• It works out the processing delay for each channel and adds a little compensation.

Remember:

• It's really important that all the numbers here are always green.
• If they go red, it means there's too much processing going on, and Pro Tools can't keep up.

Logic

• Logic has a similar feature, but you can't actually see the numbers.
• It's worth looking at your system occasionally to ensure it doesn't run out of compensation headroom.

Note:

• If it does, you're going to get timing problems, and the audio will start to sound pretty bad.
• There is a page in Logic as well where you can investigate these issues.

Visual Check

• Every now and then, just look down here to make sure all your numbers are green.
• There's one number here that is always orange, indicating the channel with the most processing and the biggest delay.
• Don't worry about that; it just shows which channel has the longest delay and helps determine the other figures.

Heat in Pro Tools

• One more thing I want to mention quickly is Heat in Pro Tools.
• Heat emulates an analog tape machine.

Activation:

1. Go down here on Options.
2. Activate Heat.

Functionality

• When activated, you can adjust a knob:
  • Turning it to the left adds a bit of harmonic distortion on each channel, which mimics the effect of a tape machine.
  • Each sound becomes a bit more defined and may add a tiny bit of distortion, which can be quite nice sometimes.

Demonstration

• Let's just play and I'll kick it in more and more.
• You can hear when it really starts distorting, and at that point, you know it's probably too much.

Tip:

• I usually like to have it on one or maybe sometimes two if it's a rock record.
• Don't be scared to put a bit of distortion on it; it can be quite nice.

Final Note:

• Always check the difference before and after adding Heat to enhance your sound.