Specifications

Appendix A: DSP-Induced Delays in Mixing (TDM Only) 589
Appendix A: DSP-Induced Delays in
Mixing (TDM Only)
This appendix provides an overview of DSP-in-
duced delays, and explains how you can com-
pensate for these delays to improve time and
phase alignment of audio in complex or critical
mixing situations.
•To learn about DSP-induced delays and when
you should compensate, see “Introduction to
DSP-Induced Delay” on page 589.
•To learn how to use Delay Compensation on
supported systems for automatic delay com-
pensation, see “Delay Compensation” on
page 590.
•To learn about manual delay compensation,
see “Manually Compensating for Delays” on
page 591.
• For details on the sources of DSP-induced de-
lay, see “Delay Factors” on page 592.
Introduction to DSP-Induced
Delay
In all digital systems, signal processing incurs
signal delays of varying amounts. These DSP-in-
duced delays can vary from as short as several
microseconds to as long as several milliseconds,
depending on the type of processing or routing
being performed.
Each plug-in, hardware insert, and mixer assign-
ment on a track delays that track by an amount
equal to the total of all DSP-delay factors. (For
details on these delays, see “Delay Factors” on
page 592.)
In some cases, signal processing delays matter
only if you use a real-time TDM plug-in on one
channel of a stereo or multichannel signal but
not the others. This imparts an unequal amount
of delay to the signals, which causes cancella-
tion of certain frequencies.
Do not confuse signal processing-induced
delays with time domain effects processing
(such as delay, echo, reverb, and other desir-
able delay effects).
Audible symptoms of phase issues include
comb-filtering and loss of high frequencies.