Comments on: How to Manage & Minimize Latency in Your Audio Projects – Basix

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:08:56 +0000

Using Logics Vocal Transformer on an output bus causes large latency. Even if that output bus is unused it still makes playing a midi keyboard a nightmare.Bypassing doesn’t work. The Vocal Transformer must be unloaded.

By: Wout

Wout — Thu, 28 May 2009 07:47:32 +0000

Some comments: On windows, most standard sound cards feature the DirectSound driver and those users may find that they can’t reach low-latency without having their sound seriously mashed-up. This is just DirectSound’s fault, it’s no good for reaching low-latency.

Some standard sound cards are offering ASIO low-latency drivers but for those that don’t, there’s a driver you can install that’s called “ASIO4ALL” and it works on alot of sound cards out there.

Also, I’ve read somewhere that in order for the latency to be almost unnoticeable it’d have to be under 10ms. In ableton live, I’m keeping my input latency to 4ms and my output to 5ms (141 samples) so as to minimize latency from real-life instruments.

So I’m keeping the latency under 10ms as a standard rule.

PS: Mac users don’t need to worry about low-latency drivers, Core Audio is good enough.

By: Algy Strutt

Algy Strutt — Wed, 13 May 2009 11:52:17 +0000

Hi Mo,
Thanks for writing this very useful article. I have been experiencing what i thought was a glitch, but could possibly be a latency issue…

I’m writing a track in Logic 8, and i’ve bounced most of it to audio already, and haven’t put in any automation yet, however when i play back, any effects i have used work for about 2 seconds then stop, then after a 3 second period of silence in which the CPU spikes, they kick back in again while the rest of the track plays back as normal…

Is this a software glitch, or something that i can maybe sort out by adjusting my latency issues?

Thanks,
Algy

By: pg-13

pg-13 — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:07:32 +0000

get an apogee or a motu. low latency mode is the shizzle!!!

By: Chris Arndt

Chris Arndt — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 11:15:30 +0000

It does seem like a decent interface according to the specs, but I hadn’t heard about it before. It only has two analog ins and outs, though. You have to know if this is sufficient for your needs. Also no phase and sensitivity attenuation switches for the mic ins. On the plus side: SPDIF/AES/EBU ins/outs, good monitoring section with mono switch and hi-z ins for instruments.

As I said, try to search the internet for reviews and reports from users. And yes, you’ll get better sound quality and latency with this than with your onboard interface BUT the “power and clearance” of your tracks does mainly depend on your recording skills and mixing experience. Read Mo’s other tutorials for lots of good tips on these topics.

By: Luca Brasi

Luca Brasi — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 08:14:57 +0000

hey! I am thinking about getting myself this one: http://www.emu.com/products/product.asp?product=15185
do you think it would be a nice choice? because so far I have been working with sh´tty integrated card and I even didnt realize the importance of having a decent soundcard/interface … does it improve the noise and the power and the clearance of my tracks?

By: Chris Arndt

Chris Arndt — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:54:13 +0000

“Also try to make sure you are using either USB2.0, Firewire or PCI based interfaces as opposed to the older USB1 models. These tend not to feature enough bandwidth for multiple streams of high resolution audio.”

I think this is overly simplified. Yes, USB 1.1 has only limited bandwidth, but if you are recording only, say, two audio sources at a time and use appropriate sample rate and size settings, then these limits are of no concern.

Look at your requirements and choose the best audio interface which meets them and which you can afford. Different models have different minimal latencies and cheaper firwire interfaces can give you higher latencies in practice than better USB 1.1 interfaces. Also, some interfaces work better with some mainboards resp. USB or firewire controllers. So always check gear reviews and internet forums before you buy an interface to see what experiences others have had with it.

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:42:13 +0000

Yeah, I shy away from plugins on the main bus only until after I’m done tracking everything. Sometimes I put on a limiter just to boost mixes if the artists complain that they’re ‘too quiet’ to listen to. But when I go back and forget to turn it off, and start to track something, there’s terrible latency. But other than that, after about 6 months of use, running compression, verb, eq, delay, echo all in some combination on individual tracks hasn’t caused any latency in Logic. Logic 8, MBP 2.53 and Echo Audiofire 8 here.

Interesting that you’ve seen it happen with certain effects on project tracks though! I must be getting lucky so far with the plugins I’m using

By: Luca Brasi

Luca Brasi — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 15:49:26 +0000

I think it would be also good to point out these things wich werent included in the article, this is considering the use of VSTs and MIDI information… after you have your midi tracks played in to the sequencer and you are sure you do not want to make any more changes (this is the downside of this, because you simply cant) then you render your VST generated MIDI data simply to audio waveform (preferably wav so you remain the quality). It will be easier for the computer to simply deliver audio data instead of a plugin reading midi notes, then generating signals and sending them through FX, than just sending direct audio through FX =)

By: Elad Gariany

Elad Gariany — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:56:43 +0000

Hi Mo… Thanks for your response!
The comment I posted earlier was a just an addition to the article regarding a specific plug-in latency issue (which was not addressed on the article) that I had and wanted to share with the other readers.

Although I’m well experienced with latency issues, I found it hard to explain the problem when Logic is stopped and a Plug-in which is not on the processing chain cause a huge delay to other instruments. This should not happened, but I guess it’s related to Logic’s plug-ins management and the logic AU core.

Elad.