I’m considering adding the WAVES system to my SQ6…
I would like to know how the overall latency behaves if I add a plug-in on only one channel.
Thank you
@Poli84
You will add latency to that channel only. There is no delay compensation for insert points, though of course you can manually add latency (by the sample if required) per input channel.
You may find the following article and live stream useful -
This is one of the reasons we developed DEEP processing, to provide per channel modelled processing without adding latency.
Thanks,
Keith.
There are different ways to do this.
You can use the USB-B port on the SQ and use the SQ as soundcard for the WAVES plugin host, but this adds quite a bit of latency, how much depends on the processing power of your computer and the set buffer settings and sample rates. This option is not suitable if the same signal is also used for in-ear monitor and I doubt it will be suitable for use with monitor wedges as well.
Second option is to use a Dante or WAVES card in the SQ and use DVS (Dante) or QRec (WAVES) as a sound driver on the computer you run the plugins on. Same goes for this option, not suitable for IEM and I think also not suitable for monitor wedges because of the latency. And it still uses the processing power of the computer.
Third option is to use a Dante card in the SQ and use a Dante USB interface, like the RME Digiface Dante. This will bring the latency down pretty well, but you are also still relying on the processing power of your computer and the latency some WAVES plugins might introduce.
Fourth and best option is to use a WAVES card in the SQ, add a WAVES server (can be a DIY if you know how to do it) and have a computer to host the plugins on with for example WAVES Superrack. This will offload the processing power to the server instead of the computer, which gives you very low latency and will also be suitable for IEM.
Like Keith already said, using an insert on a channel (hardware or software), will introduce latency and the SQ can not compensate for it by itself and this applies to all four options. You can do three things in that case: 1. Ignore it and hope for the best about phase issues, 2. manually compensate for the latency by adjusting the channel delay per channel (that is not going thru the WAVES system). 3. Send all channels thru WAVES, at least of the instrument group, like all drum channels if you want to have at least one or more drums channels thru WAVES and have them in a group in the WAVES host, so that they keep phase and latency aligned the best as possible.
Hope this info helps a but.
htevents is absolutely correct: I have a waves card in my SQ5 and a complete Digigrid/Waves LV1 recording system that includes a heavy duty server. I use my SQ5 and DX32 prime I/Os for all of my front end studio Pre-only capture and have a boat load of Waves CPU hungry plug-ins available for post production two mixing. (Pleade remember adjusting buffer settings to offset heavy CPU drain is never a latency problem with post production like it is with live SR work) However there is no way I will ever need to deploy the Waves plugins for any of my live SR duties. The internal SQ processing is designed to provide industry leading reduction of latency and it is more than adequate to meet the processing needs for the Americana genre work where I have been involved for more than 50 years.
Hugh