I/O plugin setup for reamping guitar through an amp without latency

[stormy]

It's been a while since I've done this. What's your workflow for reamping guitar tracks, without causing latency issues?

Here's mine, but I'm not 100% sure the tracks are lining up. It was a busy session today so I might have missed something.

1. Send DI guitar signal via Aux send to a Bus, because I know using outputs directly will not compensate latency.

2. On that Bus, I set up the I/O plugin. Output to my reamp setup. Input from my mic preamp. This is the same setup I would have if it was an external processor and not an amp. QUESTION: I need to PING, right? This will compensate all the I/O trips and the actual sound travel from the speaker to the mic.

3. Now I send that Bus to a second Bus, again via Aux send.

4. Create a track, set the input to that second Bus I just created, and record the signal.

If all the bus sends are pre-fader, I can turn down the faders for all those tracks (DI, both buses) so I only hear the reamped signal.

This should work, and it should line up, right? Any way to triple-check the delay compensation works? I'm thinking of recording some quick click transient on tue guitar track to see if it lines up.

[Elazmo Hiftenfifter]

A word of caution: I've seen two audio interfaces damaged by being plugged directly into healthy tube amps. It's wise to use a Reamp isolator in this case.

[stormy]

Oh, absolutely. I’m using Palmer and Little Labs reamp boxes. 

[stormy]

By the way, I think @RedBaron's posts in this thread are still the definite answer for all this:

And I think this answers my own question. And yes, I need to ping.

There is one possible alternate setup, which would be to ping and then turn the input off and record from the input. But it's equally cumbersome, so why bother?

TL,DR: yes, you really need to use two auxes to get the delay compensation right. No, there's no alternate workflow until Logic Pro implements some kind of "realtime bounce in place", which would be a reason for me to upgrade to ANYTHING that supported it, including buying a new computer.

[stormy]

I know I'm just talking to myself here, but after rereading the thread and my own notes from way back, I believe it can be done with one bus only. I'm going to figure it all out and post a final answer myself, both for reamping and for printing external hardware.

[stormy]

Here's my final conclusions for future reference.

1. You can output via Aux send to an interface output and record via a normal input track with no latency. But this is not guaranteed to work across all interfaces and situations.

2. For a guitar reamp, you don't need 2 buses. You setup the I/O plugin in the DI track, ping it to compensate for all latency (including mic distance!), and then send the track to a bus, which can be set to no Output. Record that bus.

I'll be happy to reply to any questions, after all the work triple-checking the setup 🙂

[JBberg]

On 2/1/2023 at 9:33 PM, stormy said:

Here's my final conclusions for future reference.

1. You can output via Aux send to an interface output and record via a normal input track with no latency. But this is not guaranteed to work across all interfaces and situations.

2. For a guitar reamp, you don't need 2 buses. You setup the I/O plugin in the DI track, ping it to compensate for all latency (including mic distance!), and then send the track to a bus, which can be set to no Output. Record that bus.

I'll be happy to reply to any questions, after all the work triple-checking the setup 🙂

This is how I've been doing it. I use a send from the DI track to an I/O bus I always have on my template. Then record that bus to a new track. Same thing as bouncing outboard gear. 

The problem is when you wan't to use more than one mic. I haven't found a way to use the I/O plugin for that. Then I record normally, measure the difference and insert a Sample Delay, then bounce in place.

[stormy]

On 2/12/2023 at 2:12 AM, JBberg said:

This is how I've been doing it. I use a send from the DI track to an I/O bus I always have on my template. Then record that bus to a new track. Same thing as bouncing outboard gear. 

The problem is when you wan't to use more than one mic. I haven't found a way to use the I/O plugin for that. Then I record normally, measure the difference and insert a Sample Delay, then bounce in place.

I've done it with two sends and two inputs, using a stereo I/O plugin. There are other possible variations, like using the I/O plugin on a second track without output (just the input for the second mic), and using the same ping figure, but I haven't tested if it syncs.

[JBberg]

On 2/13/2023 at 11:05 AM, stormy said:

I've done it with two sends and two inputs, using a stereo I/O plugin. There are other possible variations, like using the I/O plugin on a second track without output (just the input for the second mic), and using the same ping figure, but I haven't tested if it syncs.

I'll try more sends sometime. I usually try to find the simplest way so I can replicate it easily. An analog mixer would be the smoothest way to combine mics into one return.