I seem to get the same issues when it's a new blank project with, for example, a Sampler piano—I'm consistently and evenly ahead of the beat unless I consciously react late. So I am not so sure it is a particular instrument that causes it.I have had my doubts about sample accuracy when using environment instruments. I haven’t tested it though.
if the latency is consistent then you can use latency fixer. It basically just sits in a mixer strip and reporte latency without adding any. So if the environment is adding latency then you just report that amount with latency fixer and the pdc engine will do the rest.
I doubt though that the environment is adding significant latency, it’s the instrument you are using thst is doing it. It’s possible that using the environment is blocking pdc from doing what it needs to do, in which case latency fixer would be blocked also.
why do you feel you need to use the environment approach?
The 'Environment approach' allows me to:
1. add MIDI transformers between the track and the instance so that I can control each instrument the exact same way on the front end
2. have a clear separation between MIDI out and Audio in, which makes compartmentalizing creative tasks more easy
3. take advantage of the default MIDI Volume option on the MIDI track inspector (don't need this for instruments I have articulation sets for, but it's useful for "simple" instruments like drum patches)
4. align in visual/functional style with the way I access my external synths
5. send more MIDI channels to the same VEP instance (if there is a way to do this in the "LPX Approach," I don't think I know about it)
6. avoid the kludgy feel of the "LPX Approach" (i.e., either add stuff through the New Track Wizard, which makes weird and confusing things happen in the Auxes, or make Auxes into track 'instruments,' which AFAIK don't operate too independently from each other). I'm honestly not sure whether those methods are full of bugs or just odd design choices, but I try to stay away from them if I can...