So, I’ve searched…I’ve seen some folks bring up issues before…but, I am getting ready to invest in a big bank of converters to connect all my external gear to integrate with Cubase, and I ran a simple test (below) and has cause me alarm.
So, I takes a mono track…send it prefader to a mono aux channel. I insert an external unit (for testing purposes, this is a bass, and a SansAmpRBI unit)…the unit is bypassed (for now)-so it’s a straight loop. I flip the phase on the aux channel–almost NO phase cancelation. Some, mind you, but not much. And then as I click the “ping” test button on the external instrument, it changes the reported need for compensation…it starts with .11ms, which is absurd, because the converters them selves take longer, without even considering the buffer size and active PDC…when I calculate it based on reported IO latency…still nada cancellation.
Tell me what I’m doing wrong.
Side note that’s hilarious now–I recently sent back a Little Labs IBP, because I felt like I was getting better phase correction in the DAW…of course, I just assumed the actual compensation was working correctly. Otherwise, all you’re doing is throwing the track MORE out of phase with the other mics on the kit and then aligning pieces of it with the IBP.
So, I guess I’m wondering aloud if there’s anyone actually using the external effects as INSERTS…for reverb/time FX, a few MS isn’t really significant…but, if I got this bank of converters only to find that when I insert my graphicEQ and La3a on the kick, Speck EQ on the snare, and say my ProVLA on the overheads, and wound up with a phasey mess…I’ll be out thousands of dollars without a system that’s useable as advertised.
I REALLY hadn’t budgeted for a Mac and HDX/HDio system for this project, you know? If this is a fail, I need to rethink how I’m morphing my studio. I know ProTools SOFTWARE doesn’t work. I’ve read that Reaper’s insert compensation doesn’t work at all. But, Cubase’s has been solid for me in the past…I will go download the lastest 6.05 or whatever now and see if that was a glitch reported and fixed…