Direct-x vs VST plug-ins and audio shift

smhontz wrote on 6/16/2005, 4:03 PM
I took a public-domain video (an old instructional video), chopped it up and added new voiceover stuff. I used Izotope Vinyl to make the new audio sound old.

My problem is that using the Vinyl plug-in throws off the sync of the audio to the picture. Originally I used Vinyl 1.6, and the audio slowly got further and further behind - lagging 1/2 second at the 3 minute mark. I downloaded and installed Vinyl 1.7, and now my audio starts to lead the video, again, getting more and more out-of-sync as time goes by.

I can turn off the Vinyl plug-in, render, and the audio is dead-on, so I know it's the vinyl plug-in. I am using the Direct-X version with Vegas 5.0d.

I also tried the Direct-X version with Vegas 6.0b and the problem is there, too.

I tried the VST version with Vegas 6.0b, and that seems to work just fine - it stays in sync. So, problem solved - but, I'm wondering, is that a typical thing? Is a VST plug-in more "accurate" in general, or is this just something strange I ran into with this plug-in?

Incidentally, the plug-in has a cute "easter egg". Click on each of the bolts that holds the corners of the faceplate on, and they fall out, and you get to see the "insides" of the plugin.

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 6/16/2005, 4:19 PM
Steve,
What happens if you render the audio to a new track with the Vinyl?
I've not seen this, but I do know it can be a little weird in the DX version vs VST version. As far as which is better, VST or DX, it depends entirely on the author.
smhontz wrote on 6/16/2005, 4:27 PM
Spot,

What I did was render the project out to an avi file, and then bring it back into the project on a new track so I could see how they lined up - essentially, rendering the audio to a new track, as you suggested. I tried it with V5 with Direct X Vinyl on & off, with V6 Direct X Vinyl on & off, and finally, VST Vinyl. I lined them all up together with the original project and that's how I could see (and hear) that, with the Vinyl enabled, it was going out-of-sync with the original audio in the project. All except the VST one.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 6/16/2005, 7:55 PM
I have the EXACT same experience with Sound Soap 2. I was going crazy because using the DirectX version in either Vegas or Sound Forge would make the audio out of sync. So bad that it was unusable for my purpose.

Then I used the VST version of Sound Soap 2 and the audio was dead on. In sync the whole way. So it’s either the plug-in technology itself, or the way Sony products use them, but I have found delay in the DirectX versions of products that is not present in the VST version of the same plug-in.

~jr