I sent this message to SeamlessR since he knows a lot about FL but he never replied (he's a busy guy I know), maybe you guys could help.

Hi there,

I'm struggling with latency when sending audio to a hardware compressor, the return comes back with the same delay as what my interface is set to eg: 256smp which is fine but when adding additional software plugins the latency gets bigger and the sync drifts. Is there a method to smooth this task out in FL?

I tried using different DAWS and noticed that Studio 1 seemed to auto compensate for the delay in the track (with tons of software plugins in other tracks) I had sent to the compressor.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I notice Reaper and Logic have some kind of plugin that can be used to find the delay each send/return would create, is there a VST out there that can do this?

EDIT 2: The free Voxengo Latency delay plugin seems to work but it adds an extra 1000ms of latency.

 

Last edited: May 18, 2016

In mixer options, disk recording>latency compensation, compensates for the ASIO latency introduced by recording an external source, once the recorded audio file is created.

This is seperate from PDC, which is latency compensation for internal software effects.

 

Thanks for clarifying that, but even with that setting enabled i'm still getting a delay on the input signal. JI'll just have to jump DAWS when needed.

 

Send the hardware comp's bus to another bus for further processing with soft plugs.

 

hmm strange, it worked for me out off the box, granted I only do 100% wet effects (reverb/comb/tube) so I won't hear phasing isseus.

pure out of curiosity, does your daw come supplied with dedicated asio drivers or are u using the asio4all?
if you are using the universal driver, have u calibrated the latency compensation?

I do not know if these settings are mandetory, but they could be

 

I have not calibrated it, I've never known about that until now (how would one do that), The interface is the M-Audio 8-Track and it came bundled with the driver i'm using. I've tried with ASIO4ALL as well and the same result. The FL Studio ASIO only seems to recognise the 1-2 Main out so it's pointless.

If i record the processed signal back in, the waveform is in sync at least but I enjoy tweaking while working.
I messed around with the ' Playback Tracking ' and it seems to be in sync when the manual compensation is set up correctly.

 

You'll have to manually adjust the latency of other channels. FL Studio is shitty when it comes to hardware processing... In Studio One, Sonar, Pro Tools, Cubase, etc you have a plugin usually named "hardware insert" that automatically calculate the latency and sync all the tracks to the one send in your hardware gear. However, FL Studio does not have this, and you have to use multiple tracks for send and return.

 

Unfortunately this is one the biggest reasons why I left FL after a decade.
FL's PDC just can't handle complex routings.

I took one of my tracks in FL, replicated every single detail of it in Studio One and it sounded like a phaser was removed from my master channel.

 

Were you using any outboard gear for parallel compression?