I see that the latest version of Auto-Align is v1.4.4. What´s new, and why is it not announced? Thank you for a great plugin!

Hi Noooway,
Auto-Align 1.4.4 is a maintenance update. We didn't want to spam our users unnecessarily as we're prepping to release maintenance and compatibility updates for SurferEQ and Auto-Align in the coming days.

Cheers,

-Nir

Auto-Align AAX Native public beta for Mac is here!
This free update also bring retina display support and overall compatibility improvements. The public beta is open for everyone and it includes a 30-day fully functional trial.
Follow us on Facebook for updates and please keep us posted on your experience via support at soundradix dot com.

Cheers,

-Nir

I tried the demo last month on some raw drum tracks and fell in love.

So if it has to be the last plug-in in the chain in Logic, does that mean you would have to "re-detect" the alignment anytime you made changes to whatever plug-ins that were in the chain before Auto-Align?

Wouldn't that make time based modulation effects a no-no on a channel strip? How would you go about dealing with things like the phase shift from EQing the tracks etc if they had to be upstream from Auto-Align?

@ Delusion,

Thanks for checking out Auto-Align, glad you like it.

Since introducing Auto-Align's own sample accurate routing bus, we recommend using Auto-Align in the very first insert and running the detection analysis while all other plug-ins in the chain are disabled. If Auto-Align is used in the last insert, as long the detection analyses was performed while other plug-ins were disabled, the alignment would remain the same.

I'd use Pi Phase Interaction Mixer for that

Cheers,

-Nir

Yeah I thought it would be obvious to have it first in the chain, but reading that quote above had me confused. Thanks for straightening things out. I'm going to buy it this weekend. I can see it saving me a boat load of time and probably be much more accurate to boot.

Thanks for the response.

hello there

what a great idea. i always missed the possibility to quickly fix the phase problems in the mix!

first question - is the PI plugin a "big brother" of AUTO-ALIGN? i mean, do i need to buy both plugins, or PI does what A-A does (and more)?

second - did you think about a postproduction workflow? aligning the boom vs lav mic is a constant quest in postproduction. your plugin would probably be really helpful there. however, some sort of automation would have to be used, because the delay between boom and lav is never constant, it changes from take to take (sometimes even more often) - many, many, many times in one reel, so there's no "set and forget" here.

take care

Thanks for the warm words, cebolao!

Not really. Although both Auto-Align and Pi fix and improve phase correlation, the phase issues they resolve is an outcome of different situations and the technique used to fix those problems is different as well.

Auto-Align is designed to fix the comb filter effect created by summing multi-mic recording of a single instrument.
When mics placed at different positions to the source, you get the same sound (plus room reflections etc.) in both mics, but with a small amount of delay between them because the speed of sound. If the source sound was a simple sine wave, you could say that the delay is equal to a certain degree of phase shift, where the amount of the shift is frequency dependent. Now, if you think of an instrument as a combination of multiple sine-waves at different frequencies, the same delay amount will be equal to a different phase shift for every frequency! Therefore, the best way to fix it would be to analyze and measure the distance/delay between the mic and compensate for it , which is what Auto-Align does.

Pi is designed to minimize overlapping frequency cancellation between instruments in the mix.
Lets say the fundamental frequency of your kick is 65Hz and the song you're mixing is in the key of C (C2's fundamental frequency is about 65Hz), when the bass player will hit that C2 note along with the kick, there's a good chance that they'll cancel each-other's fundamental frequency if their phase at a given moment is not, well, in phase... a fixed phase rotator is not going to help in this case due to the dynamic nature of the situation. Sometimes, the bass/kick will be in phase, some other times they may be partially out of phase. Because Pi is a dynamic phase rotator, it'll "listen" to the kick and bass and constantly rotate their phase to minimize those cancellations.

Yes, we did We're planning on developing a dynamic Auto-Align. Right now, folks have been successfully using Auto-Align and bouncing sections as they go.

Happy Holidays!

-Nir

cool.

thanx for explanations!

This plugin is amazing. It has saved me a lot of time since I started to use it.
Easy to setup and use with automation for a different scenes.

good news!! that's what i expected. bouncing sucks...

i'll check it out for sure!

Nir, How might this software improve a vocal/acgtr performance with 2 mics? Is it applicable here?

please, erase this thread and don't tell anybody about this plugin. it has to remain a SECRET.

Hi Nir,

I have been a long time user of Auto align and absolutely love it! It's an indispensable tool that speeds up my work flow and has changed the way I record guitars in particular.

I have a few tips for alternate uses of Auto align as well if anyone is interested as I have really put it through its paces and have spent a lot of time experimenting with different applications for Auto Align.

I also frequently use a phase rotator in conjunction with Auto Align which helps a lot when recording acoustic guitar. I was hoping that you might be inclined to add a phase rotator into Auto Align so that people can experiment with Phase as well as aligning in one tool. (This is my dream so feel free to shoot me down)

This concept for me is not like PI because it is about experimenting with phase from within auto align rather than fixing it. I usually do this with Little Labs IPB so it's not a big deal for me but for people on pro tools in particular there are very few manual phase tools available, I was hoping that this idea might inspire you guys to consider adding phase rotation to Auto Align to make it another level of awesome!

Hi Danbonefinger,

Thanks so much for the warm words, It totally makes our day!
I'd love to hear about the alternate uses you've found for Auto-Align.

That's a great idea! And since we're in a "making dreams come true" business (my dreams at least...), we'll be happy to comply. I've now added your request to our feature requests list and we'll look into it for the next major update of Auto-Align.

Btw, it's currently possible to manually alter the delay compensation amount by click+drag up or down the delay value. Working with Auto-Align's spectral phase correlation meter, you can alter the way some frequencies correlate to the source material which can lead to interesting sounds.

Cheers,

-Nir

Actually it is awesome for that. However you have to stay REALLY still, I also recommend that you have the mics vertically in line with each other and facing on the same angle. Than when you are auto aligning it is advisable to rotate the phase on one of the mics as well to get things sounding really natural.

I did this a little while ago while singing a Neil Young cover as a fun b side for my band. I used a U87 about two feet away facing my guitar 12th fret and a U67 (clone) directly above it facing the same way to capture my vocal. The hard part was not moving my head when I changed chords…

Anyway, here is the result.

Old Man (Neil Young Cover) | Drawn from Bees

Alternate idea number 1. Using Auto align as a measuring tool. (Guitars)

Mic up a guitar cab with 2 contrasting mics, My favourite combos are a royer ribbon and PR30 for a modern sound or a U87 and a 57 for a vintage sound.

Get em both sounding good then record them and auto align them.

Listen to both mics and choose the one you like best and do not move that mic.

Use the Auto align measurement to judge how far you need to move the mic that sounds second best. (I like the cm measurement as inches are too vague for me)

Move the second mic and record the result. When you align that result you'll see how close you got.

Now repeat until you hit 0.00 on auto align. (I make it a game with my assistants and they get really competitive while I relax with a coffee)

Now your transients will pop like you wouldn't believe but the two mics are different enough that their natural phase cancellation will create a lovely space around your guitar recordings that keeps them away from the vocals.

This sounds WAY better than just auto aligning the mics as they are now in the best possible phase relationship when you record them so it sounds very natural with a big space around it.

Extra notes: If I use a smaller combo amp I put either a ribbon or U87 on the front and a 421 on the rear of the cab with the phase flipped, usually I get the front mic sounding great and move the rear mic around until it's aligned. On a 4x12 I put both mics on the front pointing at diagonally opposite cones to get them as far away from each other as possible. (That seems to work best to my ears)

Next week I'll mention my trick for multi micing and clamping acoustic guitars which is unorthodox and inspired by auto align. After that I'll talk about the drum maze and how to use auto align as a drum mixing tool if anyone is interested.

Peace out

has anyone saved the installer to demo version 1.2.1 or 1.4.1? seems my PT 8HD system is too old to run the newest software...

Hi, this looks like a great product and I will try it for sure! Can I ask: What is the workflow when also quantizing drums? Do you quantize then apply auto align or do you apply auto align, then render those tracks, then quantize? Thanks!

Late to the party. But I feel compelled to say...this is a great plugin. Might be a must have. It is most obvious in matching kick to OH, but the cumulative effect of going through all ones drum tracks was enough to convince me!
Guess I'm spending some $ tomorrow...

I downloaded the demo and love what it does however, has anyone had lagging issues? I have to wait like 15-20 sec every time I load any receive instance.

Gets pretty annoying with 15+ drum tracks

WOW!!, Thats thinking out of the box!!!

I'm interested but why don't you do it all in one post?

Aligning two mics on a guitar cab running pink noise thru the amp and monitoring on headphones, moving the mics as you listen, is quite easy and very precise.
With the Sound Radix autoalignment tool, I just now checked a couple of 2-mic recordings I did on guitars some time ago, using the my manual pink noise method. Radix reported 0 samples between the two tracks. As in 0 cm.

Has anyone experienced clicking noises?

I mic'd a classical guitar in stereo and I'm messing around with Auto-Align, sending the signal from the bassy mic to the more trebly mic, then time-aligning the trebly mic, but both signals now make weird clicking noises. I bypassed the plugin and the problem is gone. Any ideas what may be causing this?

Hey OrphicTrench,

We're not familiar with Auto-Align producing clicking noises and it sounds like your setup is correct.

What buffer size are you using? Can you try increasing it and see if that solves the problem?

If you still have any issues, please contact us at [email protected] and we'd be more than happy to help you solve this.

Old thread but since auto align is on sale, what’s the timeline for Apple silicon version?

VERSION 2!!