The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
  1. #1

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    In a seperate thread a bit of the discussion was regarding latency, and it got me thinking about my history with computer recording - digital audio workstations (DAWs).

    I believe I first got into DAWs around 2000, and have used Cakewalk Home Studio, Sonar, Protools, and lastly Reaper. I've used both Apple Macs, and PCs. So maybe 20 years, surpising to me thinking it's been that long.

    I remember a lot of discussions and hand-wringing regarding latency back in the day. And then at some point, can't remember when, I started to no longer think much about it. Participating in the recent Split-Screen video thread on this forum got me wondering about when and why these concerns went away.

    I looked under the hood in Reaper and found in the Audio Recording Preferences there is a button selected (must be the default) that reads "Use audio driver reported latency". So, when recording latency is automaticaly being corrected for by Reaper. Probably all the DAWs are doing this. I learn something every day.

    Also, I use direct monitoring when I record so I have zero latency monitoring while performing/recording a track.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    I don’t think Ableton and Cubase have a latency correction tool but I’ve not had an occasion to really look for one. It’s a cool idea. I just set the buffer down as low as I can in my RME interface and once the take is recorded, I zoom in on the wav and snap to the beginning before dragging it to the bar where I want it to start. It’s a fast, almost automatic process, for me, and it cleans up those few milliseconds if lag.

  4. #3

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    I just got my new Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 yesterday, today I downloaded Reaper and got them talking to each other. Following the tutorials, I set the reaper preferences to ASIO and the Focusrite as the input and output device.

    After a bit of head-scratching as to how I could hear all the reaper output on my computer speakers (since it is being sent to the Focusrite), I realised that the monitoring on the Focusrite was now receiving all the reaper output, i.e. both my first track playback and the monitoring of my second (overdubbing) track. So rather than use the ‘direct monitor’ option on the focusrite, I switched direct monitor off and just let it take all the outputs from reaper. That way I could hear everything I had recorded plus whatever I was now overdubbing.

    I just fed the Focusrite monitor headphone output to my powered computer speakers ‘music’ input and that gave me full monitoring over my speakers. (I tend to record my guitar direct so I haven’t got any amp sound in the room to listen to.)

    There was a bit of latency on my overdub, so I reduced the sample size from 256 to 64 (in the reaper audio Asio configuration, this appears to directly control the Focusrite).

    Latency is now showing as only 3 ms and I have overdubbed a couple of tracks perfectly ok. So I am very pleased so far with the combination of the Focusrite and Reaper.

  5. #4

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    Latency is still a problem. Playing piano samples from a controller keyboard via USB MIDI to my iPad Pro is still a problem. I can't bear the latency I get with Korg Module running Ivory Grand Piano or my favorite sound, the Scarbee Rhodes. It's okay for solo piano, but go into time with a bass player and I can't focus due to that extra added >10 milliseconds of delay. I run at the lowest (fastest) sample size and in Airplane Mode to no avail. The onboard sounds in my Kawai ES110 are much better in terms of latency and response.
    Last edited by rintincop; 05-06-2020 at 12:06 PM.

  6. #5

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    A few years ago I used Ableton. Latency was awful. There was a way to eliminate it, but it was one of those things I stumbled on and couldn't remember how I did it. I know I could have figured it out with some time down the rabbithole, but I gave up.

    Recently, with Reaper, I connected the same Focusrite box. I heard no significant difference between direct monitoring and not-direct.

    I overdub by hitting record and playing. It works. I haven't had to give a moment's thought to latency. There must be some, and I don't understand exactly why I can't hear any. I'm curious, but there are so many things to learn about Reaper, even for the simple project I'm working on, that I'll worry about latency -- well, the lack thereof -- later.

  7. #6

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    My initial latency with reaper and focusrite was (I think) 11 ms which is not bad. As someone said, that is like having your amp 11 feet away, something guitarists are used to. But I just felt like getting it lower.

    With Ableton on my old pc, I got the latency down by getting the ASIO4ALL drivers and getting it to use them.

  8. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by rintincop
    Latency is still a problem. Playing piano samples from a controller keyboard via USB MIDI to my iPad Pro is still a problem. I can't bear the latency I get with Korg Module running Ivory Grand Piano or my favorite sound, the Scarbee Rhodes. It's okay for solo piano, but go into time with a bass player and I can't focus due to that extra added >10 milliseconds of delay. I run at the lowest (fastest) sample size and in Airplane Mode to no avail. The onboard sounds in my Kawai ES110 are much better in terms of latency and response.
    If your keyboard has its own built-in sounds you could direct monitor those sounds while recording midi to Reaper.

    Just to note, we've been talking about two different things on this thread, 1) recording latency and 2) monitoring latency. For me monitoring latency is zero as I direct monitor. Recording latency seems to be corrected for by Reaper.

    Also, if you don't direct monitor, monitoring latency can be greatly affected by how much resources the plug-in effects use. Experiment with turning off the track effects to find which ones are the problem... impulse response reverbs for example are a big hog and I turn that off when recording.

  9. #8

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    i posted this does anyone know about this low latency linux os

    Elk Audio OS for everyone

  10. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by fep
    In a seperate thread a bit of the discussion was regarding latency, and it got me thinking about my history with computer recording - digital audio workstations (DAWs).

    I believe I first got into DAWs around 2000, and have used Cakewalk Home Studio, Sonar, Protools, and lastly Reaper. I've used both Apple Macs, and PCs. So maybe 20 years, surpising to me thinking it's been that long.

    I remember a lot of discussions and hand-wringing regarding latency back in the day. And then at some point, can't remember when, I started to no longer think much about it. Participating in the recent Split-Screen video thread on this forum got me wondering about when and why these concerns went away.

    I looked under the hood in Reaper and found in the Audio Recording Preferences there is a button selected (must be the default) that reads "Use audio driver reported latency". So, when recording latency is automaticaly being corrected for by Reaper. Probably all the DAWs are doing this. I learn something every day.

    Also, I use direct monitoring when I record so I have zero latency monitoring while performing/recording a track.
    Exactly this is the case (only in recording setting, not live setting). I was surprised to learn this too. I would like to add, the the latency is painfully there, but the tracks will be corrected automatically either by the audio interface reported value, either your custom set value, but in my case the reported is correct. Of course you must listen your audio interface direct monitor when recording over existng tracks, as you wrote.

    When I first discovered this feature, I had doubts. So I recorded a test track playing some loud notes, the recorder a 2nd one, using a mike which recorded nothing else than my headphone sound playing the first track. Listening the two track mix, there is no audible out of sync between them..., so it works, confirmed, I was very happy. Even 15 msec permanent out of sync in any direction can make the recording weird.


    btw In many setting Wes was sitting 15m far from the amp which is 44 msec, even 10m is approx 30msec. I can not explain this.