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Routing or Embedding a Click

  • 5 replies
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Topic Routing or Embedding a Click
To deal with some Logic latency I wish to accomplish the following.

On Track 1 I have an audio click. I would like to send that to an Output on Saffire 40 via Total Mix.
On Inputs 1 & 2 I wish to record a stereo guitar from my preamp.

Is there anyway to route the click so that it would record on the same track my guitar is going to record on.

Thereby embedding the click on the guitar track so I can more easily align to the original click in the event of latency.
2
Good afternoon,

If you are playing your guitar with external effects (pedals etc) and a preamp, then you can simply select the Ultra Low Latency routing Preset in Saffire Mix Control to negate any latency and record straight into your DAW.
If you're using DAW based effects etc, then you will have to try and balance your recording with the latency that will be inherent with using such plugins.
Your plan to record a click onto the your guitar track could only work if you were recording your guitar in Mono, you could record the click onto input 2 of a stereo track. However you would then of course have a click track combined with your guitar track, unable to get rid of it. Depending on your DAW, you could then bounce the stereo track as two mono files, however you would then have to realign the guitar track to your original click.

Essentially, I think it would be better to resolve the original problem of not being able to record as you'd like, as opposed to concentrating on the proposed solution of re-recording a click onto your guitar track (which would then be difficult to get rid of).

Input Latency should not effect how the audio is placed onto the track (i.e. it should be in time with the rest of your recording regardless of input latency). A good way around input latency whilst wanting to use plugin based guitar sounds, is to split your guitar signal (a Boss TU-2 is a cheap way of doing that. Have one side going straight to your interface clean, and another going to your interface via a drive pedal to give you an approximation of your sound (so you can play the way you want). This helps you give the performance on guitar that you need, but also a clean stem with which to effect after recording.

Simon // Focusrite Technical Support
3
Thank you for the reply Simon.

The latency is (most likely) being caused by Logic 9 compatibility with Yosemite and not the Saffire interface or plug-ins in Logic. Not knowing when this anomaly will occur is terribly inconvenient. I might have a great guitar track take only to be badly aligned. Apple offers no solution other than upgrade to Logic X. Which I have and hate.

I can visually align it pretty well but I would like to get more accurate.

I always have 4 clicks at the beginning of the song on Track 1. I was hoping to direct that out of Mix Control and somehow blend it back into what I was about to record on, for ex., track 2 & 3. Such as a mixer board might do blending channels 1,2,3 into a stereo output.

Then it would be a simple matter to align the click to click transients on all the tracks and since it is the count only at the beginning of the song getting rid of it would be very easy.

Not sure if Yosemite and Logic are taxing the drive so hard that it stumbles or lags or what the exact issue is but I have dealt with every normal latency solution available but none will take care of problem at hand. It just isn't the normal latency or recording delay problem.

I need some way to 'align' tracks after they have been recorded that is more accurate than just visual.
4
Is there a particular reason why you're recording the guitar in Stereo from your preamp? Are you using some stereo effects such as delay or chorus?
If not, then taking a Mono signal from your preamp into Input 1 of your interface, then taking the click out from the interface to input 2, and setting those up as a stereo channel would work.
Alternatively, if you must record the guitar in Stereo, then setting up a Mono channel with the click into it, and recording that at the same time as the guitar will mean that you get two separate channels, however in-sync, as long as you move both the channels together, this should allow to align the guitar, then delete the click channel when necessary.

To route a signal out from your Saffire, choose the output number within your DAW, lets say we output the click on channel 3. Within Mix Control, route Line Output 3 to DAW3 from it's drop down menu. Also ensure that the output squares on the far left of Mix Control has output 3 marked as grey. To change from blue to grey hold 'Alt' on your keyboard and click it. a Blue output represents that output is controlled by the volume control of the unit, grey denotes it always outputting full scale (0db), regardless of what the volume control is doing. Please ensure that you do not full scale any outputs connected to speakers (usually outputs 1 & 2), as this may damage your speakers.

Hope this makes sense.

Simon // Focusrite Technical Support

[ Post last edited on 05/29/2015 at 03:14:56 ]

5
Thank you very much. I am going to try the separate 3rd track process you mention. The pre-amp is a stereo pre-amp and does have some pristine reverb, chorus, spatial effects that I want to capture (most times).
6
Please do let us know how you get on.

Simon // Focusrite Technical Support