What is your typical latency?

DAW & Software
1

I’m curious what other folks are getting for instrument performance latency - the time it takes between striking a key and hearing a sound. Mine varies depending on when in the project I am, how big the project is and thus how big the template is, and so on. A little is added when using VEPro. In the new arrangement of things, sometimes I can use a very small buffer size (64) which is great for doing drums, but sometimes with a template loaded, even with 120kb preloads in Kontakt and running off of a 1500 MB/s nvme drive in a PCIe card, I need 1024 samples of buffer to do six legato lines from Spitfire’s Performance Legato string sections with one mic position. (That’s in PT HDX with an HD IO. Sometimes faster with Cubase using an Apollo Twin Duo - sometimes not. I’d like to hear other people’s experiences.

I’m running this on a 2013 Mac Pro 12 Core with 128 GB of RAM. Networked to a cheese grater Mac Pro that’s hot rodded with a faster 12-core than the newer one has.

2

Wow… Serious setup…

I know its always the most obvious , when it comes to determing issues, it always comes down to a step by step approach.

And what makes that herder, is to find the problem, elements need to be removed, however, that element may be required to diagnose…

I worked selling, supporting and comissioning systems for High end studios , acts and Film post, though its been a while, i was good at fixing issues.

I believe generally, Buffer Size issues relate mainly to one of two things…

The Obvious, CPU and multithread handling… Thus upping the buffer size reduces calculations per clock required by the CPU

The other, Audio Drivers.
You be surprised how simple it can be to determine if it is an issue…Simply Switch all Audio to use the Macs inbuilt audio…. It is bullet proof and rock solid.
Though, as I pointed out before, in a very elaborate , technical session, it can be a chore….

But, you have to approach it step by step… And as you are obviouly a professional by trade, it may not be feasible…
But, if possible, take the Audio drivers, and Network Audio drivers your using out of the equation, and use Built in…
It really is the best way to find a benchmark, with any software. Rock Solid with some of the lowest latency you can achieve.

Of course , the worst of all is Software … Revisions of Vi’s , with different hosts ect…

The steps above at least remove things from the equation…. Hardware audio and driver capabilities.

Hope this helps.

3

All true things - though I have often found the built-in audio performance to have more latency. Thanks for your post. I guess my post is also meant to ask the question, “what do you put up with on a daily basis? What is tolerable?” Though I do a bit of step and note entry, I do a lot of playing too. Especially with preliminary sketches and with the AudioModeling and SampleModeling instruments and drums. This has made me move things around between systems so I can optimize for quickest playback.

4

I generally start off writing with my buffer set to 256 or 512, this on an RME UFX+. I also use ASIO guard in Cubase which gives latency priority to the track in record.

Most of my projects I tend to produce and mix as I go so they can get heavy quite quickly and I have projects with easily 150+ tracks. I use a seperate instance of Kontakt for every track as well.

Nearer the end of a project I’ll have the buffer right up at 1024 or 2048 but at this point I’m usually not playing anything in. I monitor direct from the interface for all recording.

5

Thanks for your answer. Am I to understand that ASIO-Guard only affects tracks that are not in record, and as such you could set it pretty high and leave your main buffers smaller for longer? And does it work with remote VEPro instances because the bridging plugin is internal?

6

Correct, the way I understand it is that with ASIO guard enabled Cubase has two buffer settings, one for all tracks not in monitor/record and one for all tracks that are. The first buffer size is set by ASIO guard and is very high (up to 4000+ samples), the second (for tracks in monitor/record) is set by your own soundcard, so you could choose something much lower.

I don’t use VEPro so I’m not sure if that would work or not. I have a template that loads purged in Kontakt and disabled in Cubase. I just enable tracks as I need them and start playing.

7

It seems that ASIO Guard would turn off for all tracks pointed at a particular VEPro instance if one of them is in record. Not a dealbreaker, though.

8

Hi @rfwd,

when I record I used to have around 7-10ms (128 Buffersize) on my older MacBook and now 64 with a newer iMac. It’s around 3-4ms. I do believe it all depends how much you already have in your session, so how much CPU is taking away. If the buffersize is too high, it’s like playing with that much delay, that I am shouting to NewYork and get the answer 2 days later back :smiley: It shouldn’t be more then 15ms in my opinion, it’s ok, but you start to hear it definitely because of the “Haas FX”. When I mix, I always go back to 1024. 2048 doesn’t give me more power on the CPU anymore, but the delay is of course much higher…