Latency while playing (Analog player)

[Nicklaus]

I checked around this forum, I did'nt find any thread about this problem. Sorry if I just missed it.

Anyway there's a bit of time between the moment I press the key and when the note is played. Whether it be with the keyboard or directly clicking on the software's keys. So it should not be USB related.

I checked the CPU activity, and even the 5 graded presets barely reach 15% of the capacity of one core. This computer is quite recent and powerful anyway so I don't think this might be it.

I'm quite a beginner in computer music, so there migth just be a simple solution I do not know, anyway I'm just looking for a piece of advice on that.

Thanks !

[YESMAN]

Nicklaus,

  The latency you are experiencing is probably due to the settings for your soundcard's driver. You should look into the buffer size, smaller buffers equal shorter latency times, but bear in mind that you will also put more load on your PC, which can lead to poor sound reproduction-crackling,drop-outs. If you need more on this let us know what your system specs are-PC, Memory, Op Sys, Soundcard. Also is this the only VSTi that is a problem?

[Nicklaus]

Thank you for your answer. I found a compromise for a 20 ms buffer size, below I lose sound quality and/or get cracking noises.
At 20 ms I still feel a little bit of lag. I tried playing during a song, I just beat the quarter on one key and it feels totally of tempo even if the lag is not very long.

The PC is with Win 7, with 4Gb of memory. I don't think that would cause any problem, I check the performance stats during play and it doesn't take a lot of the resources.

About the sound card I can't really tell. All I could find is this :
(in French, I hope you can understand)



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I haven't used VST's yet, only the Arturia app. I use open-source softwares on a ubuntu laptop for Midi sequencing...for the moment.

[YESMAN]

Nicklaus,
 From what I see it looks like you are using the soundcard that is built in to your PC. I'm not sure that you can get good performance from this card. I use a M-Audio Delta 1010LT and it's associated ASIO driver. 20 ms. is high you can definitely hear that when playing live into the system, I try to stay around 6 ms, when I'm recording. During playback only, such as mix-down you can run with larger buffers-more latency and have more headroom for a greater number of simultaneous tracks playing without crackling. There is a driver ASIO4ALL that I've heard mention of, try searching that. It may give you better results.

[Nicklaus]

I have thought about about it, and I consider buying an external soundcard for my computer to solve this problem.
I would also like to use it to record instruments (guitar, keyboards, mic) so that I can use my PC to do the recording and the mixing, instead of using my bulky multi-track recorder (that can only record 2 tracks at a time).

I was wondering if someone on this forum had a good recommandation, since I don't know a lot about soundcards.

[YESMAN]

Nicklaus,
  As to a soundcard for your PC. Well, there are alot of multi I/O cards to choose from. If your running win7, I'm guessing you have a new PC. It may not have PCI card slots, newer PCs have PCIe slots. Cards like the M-Audio Delta series need PCI bus slots. You should determine what bus slots you have. There are not that many PCIe cards that I know of. Alternatives are USB or Firewire interfaces. I am looking to update my system soon and will be looking more into the best card config. Short version USB port must be 2.0, firewire can be tricky to set-up. But, once config'd either will give far better performance than what you are currently getting. Also bear in mind that if you are looking to record guitars, or voice from a mic you will need, either a card with pre-amps in some of the input channels or external pre-amps to feed the channel input.Check on-line, talk to someone at a shop that sells audio gear. let us know what you find.

[Nicklaus]

Yep, my PC is recent and it's a laptop. It does'nt look like it has a PCI bus, or even PCIe.
I think I'll go for USB, since I have 2.0 ports.
As for the pre-amp, I have a Line6 Pocket POD, that I already use directly plugged in my multi-track recorder. It's basically for guitar, but it works fine with the mic too. So I think this should do the trick.

I guess it would be a good idea indeed, to go to a shop and see there what they have to propose.

[Nicklaus]

I finally got myself a soundcard. It's a M-Audio MobilePre. It should suit my needs for composition and recording, I'm learning to use it and the software that comes with (ProTools). And it solved my latency problem. At least at a point where I can't notice it anymore while playing. And as for the recording I should have tools now to put it all in place.

[YESMAN]

Ok, sounds good Nicklaus. Have fun.

[bernybutterfly]

Hi,

to have a good latency also with the standard-onboard soundcard you can use the freeware universa-driver asio4all. Google should help... .

berny

[Nicklaus]

Thanks again for the advice.

I'm very happy with this sound card. Not so much with Pro Tools I must say, I have error messages that I can't understand and in the end can't do anything worth. I don't recommand it.
So Audacity does the trick for now, and so far I'm having good results.

As for Asio4All I already have it (with a demo of FruityLoop) but I fail to understand how it works ><. But it may be good solution like if I'm travelling, I take the little ketboard and my PC and can play anywhere, without to have to take the sound card as well.