I ran into an issue when importing a bunch of mp3 backing tracks into a new project in VST Live 3. For some reason, it wasn’t aligned properly to the grid. I believe I also had this issue on VST Live 2 when I tried it out a while back.
To test the issue, I created an empty Cubase project, set the tempo to 100BPM, and added an click audio sample to make a simple 4/4 click track. I then exported it twice, once as a WAV, and once as an MP3, at 44.1/32bit float and 44.1/320kbps respectively.
After creating a new VST Live 3 project, add a new song, set the tempo to 100BPM. Import both WAV and MP3 tracks separately, and this is how it shows up:
To double check it’s not an issue with the audio files themselves, I created another empty Cubase project, imported both again, and this was the result:
So clearly the tracks are identical, but for some reason, VST Live is importing MP3 files incorrectly and not aligning them properly, as if it’s adding some extra time to the beginning of the file. (Side issue - the WAV click audio also was crackling/distorted, whereas the MP3 was fine - but I haven’t experienced that with any other audio tracks yet).
I also tested playback, it is indeed slightly off the grid, not just displayed this way in the track view.
I have a ton of existing MP3 files I’m transitioning from Qlab, so re-exporting everything as WAV is not an option.
Any ideas what might be causing this?