Syncing external synths in LX

hey guys, been dealing w this for a while and actually gave up on it. what I was running into was this: I would program external synths through usb directly to the synth (minilogue), run the 1/4" back into the Apollo and record the audio on playback. everything sounded great when recording but would always be behind once it was audio. I could work around w hard transient sounds by cutting the region on the first attack and move it to the grid and it would feel fairly in time most of the time. softer sounds like pads or atmosphere etc was a shot in the dark.

if it were the same delay amount from session to session, I could just figure it out and move every file around by the latency, but every session was different.

MAIN QUESTION: is there a fool proof way to get this stuff recorded back in IN time, or it this just not gonna happen? how do you guys produce w external synths and get good results?

im really hoping I was just missing something simple, cause im jonesing to get the new minilogue ha.

thanks for any help!

c

There’s a recording delay option in Logics preferences, you need to adjust this.

You can find out the value required by using the I/O plugin and routing an output back to an input (don’t monitor it though or feedback!). You can also measure the difference on the timeline, or just adjust it by trial and error and using your ear.

There’s many articles/videos out there which explain it better.

As the delay you are having will be in fixed samples, the delay will appear to differ depending on sample rates, tempo or the buffer size, but generally when you have the right value it won’t need to be changed too often unless you change any of the before mentioned parameters.

There’s many articles/videos out there which explain it better.

Thanks so much for he reply! Not asking you to give me a link, but so I’m searching correctly, what would this be called exactly? Searching for ‘logic x recording latency’ really hasn’t turned up much of anything.

Also, would this be considered something different than sending audio out to hardware and back in? I can send AUDIO out to hardware and record back in and not have this issue, only when I’m sending midi out to ext synths. That weird?

Thx again! C

This is an example

How are you sending audio out for hardware processing? I imagine the method you’re using is latency compensated perhaps? Whereas sending MIDI direct to your synth may not be. However, if it sounds ok when you’re recording but not on playback it may be you have a value in the recording delay setting already and it needs to be removed?

Are you using external instrument plugin or just a plain midi track?

I’ll look more into the settings you’re referring to.

Well, I’ve tried both external midi TRACKS as well as using the external midi plug and they both seems to have the same results.

And to answer your question, I’ll send a vocal out to an 1176 or LA2A and re-record it. I also reamp guitar tracks through my pedal/amp setup and re-record as well s no issues.