Reference Guide

279
Input monitoring
Recording
Live Input PDC override
While working with virtual instruments and live input monitored tracks, it is important for audio to be
streamed at low latency in order to minimize delay.
Although SONAR supports streaming audio at very low latency, there are cases where internal
buffering can cause additional latency. The most common scenario is when using plug-ins that
require Automatic Plug-in Delay Compensation (PDC). PDC is the process of delay compensating
other normal tracks so they are synchronized with the delayed audio produced by the plug-ins.
Whenever delay compensation takes place on a track that has a live input (an input monitored track
or synth track), it is delayed by the required amount to synchronize it with other tracks. In some
cases, the delay can be noticeable and make live tracking difficult.
The Live Input PDC Override toggle lets you disable delay compensation on live tracks, thereby
removing the latency during playback and recording of such tracks. Since it's a toggle, you can
quickly turn it on to complete your tracking at low latency, and turn it off when finished to hear the
track compensated as normal.
Regardless of whether Live Input PDC Override is enabled or disabled, recorded audio is placed
on the timeline at the correct position as recorded.
Live Input PDC Override is ignored during a bounce/export or freeze operations.
To enable/disable live input PDC override
• Do one of the following:
• Click the Live Input PDC Override button in the Control Bar’s Mix module.
• Press SHIFT+E.
Figure 66. The Mix module.
Delay compensation is enabled/disabled on all live input tracks in the project. All other tracks have
normal delay compensation applied.
Tip: You can control which tracks are delay overridden by enabling input monitoring only for those
tracks. For more information, see
“Input monitoring” on page 275 .
Note: If the live track being monitored also contains track data (or MIDI data in the case of a
synth track), the streamed track data will not be delay compensated. As a result the recorded
track data will not be in sync with other tracks. You should either mute any clips on the live tracks,
work with an empty region of the track, or use an entirely new track while recording.