Possible delay compensation issue when using analog loop (Soundcraft Ghost)

Cubase
1

Hi,

I’m running into what seems like a delay compensation issue and I’m trying to understand if this is expected behavior or not.

Setup:

  • Routing audio out of Cubase to an analog mixer (Soundcraft Ghost) and back in again

  • Fully serial signal path (no parallel routing)

  • No External FX plugin used, just standard I/O routing

Test:
I compared two identical setups:

  1. Direct in-the-box routing

  2. Routing through the analog mixer (ghost setup)

What I observe:

  • Without high-latency plugins → both setups are perfectly in sync

  • When I insert high-latency plugins on the final stage (after the return):

    • Direct routing → still perfectly in sync

    • Through analog loop → tracks become audibly misaligned

Important:

  • Same plugins and signal chain in both cases

  • No parallel paths

  • The only difference is the analog roundtrip

What confuses me is:
:backhand_index_pointing_right: Why does delay compensation work fine in the direct path, but not when the signal goes through the analog loop — even though the signal flow is otherwise identical?

Is this expected behavior when combining analog roundtrip latency with plugin latency after the return, or could this be a PDC issue?

Any insight would be appreciated :+1:

2

I’m trying to understand your use-case. Do you want to align audio passed through the Ghost with audio that stays in the box? If so, you need to treat the Ghost as an external FX plugin, which means sending it a round-trip ping and calculating the delay, otherwise Cubase has no ability to factor that delay in PDC.

3

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

To clarify: I am not trying to align audio that stays in the box with audio passing through the Ghost.

In my setup, all signals follow the same serial path — either fully in-the-box, or fully through the Ghost and back. There are no parallel paths.

What I am observing is:

  • Without the analog loop → everything is in sync, even with high-latency plugins
  • With the analog loop (fully serial) → everything is in sync as long as no high-latency plugins are inserted after the return
  • When inserting high-latency plugins after the return → tracks become misaligned

So Cubase appears to handle the analog roundtrip correctly on its own, but not when combined with plugin latency placed after the return.

This is not a parallel alignment issue, but rather a PDC inconsistency in a fully serial signal chain.

Could you clarify if this behavior is expected?

Best regards,

4

I have a 32ch Ghost here at home. I send the various audio tracks in my DAW project to channels on the Ghost, do my mixing on the desk and send the 2 bus back to Nuendo.

Is that what you’re doing?

5

Yes, similar setup — but with one key difference.

Instead of only returning the stereo mix, I return stems / tracks from the Ghost back into Cubase and continue processing them in the DAW.

So the workflow is:
Tracks → Ghost (analog) → back into Cubase → further processing (plugins)

What I observe is:

  • Everything is perfectly in sync as long as I do not use high-latency plugins after the return

  • As soon as I insert high-latency plugins post Ghost → the tracks become misaligned

This does not happen if I stay fully in-the-box with the exact same plugins.

So the issue seems to occur specifically when combining:
analog roundtrip + post-return plugin latency

That is where I experience the problem.