User`s guide

Pro Tools Reference Guide380
Compensating for Delays
If you wish to compensate for offsets in-
curred by these delays, there are two differ-
ent methods you can use: apply sample-
level delay to tracks with the TimeAdjuster
Plug-In, or physically adjust tracks in the
Edit window by the appropriate number of
samples.
Using the TimeAdjuster Plug-In
You can use the TimeAdjuster TDM Plug-In
provided with your Pro Tools system to ap-
ply an exact number of samples of delay to
the signal path of the tracks you are work-
ing with. Up to 2048 samples of delay are
available.
Digidesign TDM Plug-Ins display their de-
lay values in the channel delay indicators
in the Mix window. TimeAdjuster can be
used to match these delay values for tracks
that need to remain in phase (such as in-
struments recorded with multiple micro-
phones or stereo pairs).
In the Mix window, Command-click (Mac-
intosh) or Control-click (Windows) the
Track Level Indicator to toggle between
Level (which appears on the display as
“vol”), Peak (“pk”) and Channel Delay
(“dly”) indications. Delay values are shown
in samples.
To use TimeAdjuster to compensate for a
time delay:
1 Apply the TimeAdjuster Plug-In to the
track whose delay you want to increase,
and Command-click (Macintosh) or Con-
trol-click (Windows) its Track Level indica-
tor until the Channel Delay value is
displayed for that track.
2 Change the delay time in TimeAdjuster
by moving the Delay slider or entering a
value in the Delay field, until the channel
delay value matches that of the first track.
You can test the delay values by duplicat-
ing an audio track and reversing its phase
while compensating for delay.
If you are using a Plug-In whose delay fac-
tor are you not familiar with, you can set
the delay by ear using one of two methods:
◆ If you are working with phase-coherent
track pairs, or tracks that had been multi-
miked, you can “null out” the delay. Invert
the phase of the target track using the
TimeAdjuster Phase Invert button, and ad-
just the Plug-In delay time until the signal
disappears. (When they are perfectly syn-
chronized, duplicate signals of opposite po-
larity cancel each other out.) When you are
finished, disengage the Phase Invert but-
ton.
◆ You can also change the delay while lis-
tening to the signal in phase, adjusting un-
til any comb-filter effects cancel out.