Surprisngly low latency? USB audio interfaces

[chrishurley]

So I've been fiddling with various software amp sims and Tracktion 1.x. I'm really surprised at the low latency I'm getting with either my M-Audio Transit or Omnistudio USB. I can set either of them to "very low" and tracktion is reporting a round-trip latency of 1.65ms.

This seems low to me (what an odd thing to talk about- low latency). It seems like I tried this a year or so ago on the same laptop, same OS, though a different installation and I couldn't run with "very low" without glitching. The laptop is a Compaq Evo N600c (P3 1.2) with 768MB of RAM.

Is there a list someone that details what other people get?

Using the Gsuite JCM900 plugin, the tracktion hi/lopass, tracktion reverb, tracktion compressor, and green gate, this setup is entirely playable from a guitarist standpoint. I detect virtually no delay whatsoever.

The omnistudio seems to work great, and is considerably less noisy than the transit, but its bulky and requires an AC adapter.

I've got a TASCAM us-122 on the way (bus powered), but I'm expecting its not going to be able to touch this latency. Anyone got any US-122 experience to relay?

I almost bought a Mackie Spike last night, but it sounds like those things have lots of problems, and maybe T2 has some problems as well.

blather, blather.

[rutmusic]

US 122 drivers cause error messages with my fruity loops. but it works fine with t2. so far. but bad latency with us 122

[chrishurley]

darn- it looks like its not capable of going as low as the m-audio stuff I already have. Guess I'll be re-baying it.

[AndrewSimon]

If you turn on "Real Time Priority" in T2 Settings page you can push latency even lower.

[lharless]

i've been battling with this us0122 for a while now.


but it's great for overdubs and stereo field recording with the realtime monitoring enabled.

you'll never be able to get low enough with it to be able to overdub with an effect or amp sim. way too much latency.

i wish i knew a way to fix this. any other drivers? or something? im fine with it the way it is, but i'd like to be able to do some overdubs with an amp sim other than my line everynow and then.

for now it's real amps and a mic. but that's how it's supposed to be done, so i really can't beeatch.

[Lunch Money]

I've had the US-122 down as low as 8ms round-trip, which is the bare minimum I'd play guitar in realtime at. It wasn't super-responsive, but it was usable.

Greg

[guitar junkie]

all this is why i use firewire.

[Mr. Tingle]

I opted for the Edirol UA25 rather than the US-122, it does a better job all round and I can get a latency of 3ms easily on a 1.6 Centrino laptop.

[FoxV]

i've been battling with this us0122 for a while now.


but it's great for overdubs and stereo field recording with the realtime monitoring enabled.

you'll never be able to get low enough with it to be able to overdub with an effect or amp sim. way too much latency.

i wish i knew a way to fix this. any other drivers? or something? im fine with it the way it is, but i'd like to be able to do some overdubs with an amp sim other than my line everynow and then.

for now it's real amps and a mic. but that's how it's supposed to be done, so i really can't beeatch.

I think the best fix (barring the feasibility of a real amp) would really be an analog amp modeler like v-stack or sansamp GT2. Admittedly, I don't have either, but I've heard that both simulate the "feel" of a guitar amp much better than the plugs, and they also sound better and are much easier to place in a mix. Of course, YMMV.

[chrishurley]

I think the best fix (barring the feasibility of a real amp) would really be an analog amp modeler like v-stack or sansamp GT2. Admittedly, I don't have either, but I've heard that both simulate the "feel" of a guitar amp much better than the plugs, and they also sound better and are much easier to place in a mix. Of course, YMMV.

Neither of those devices allow re-amping.

I had a Digitech Rpx400 which was tremendously flexible in terms of what you could route to the computer. Blows away everything else I've tried in terms of mixing try and effected tracks. The problem is that it sounded like a** when you were playing it.

The Omnistudio USB that I have works real well now. I really can't detect any latency if I have headphones on. The trouble is that its almost 19" long and needs a power brick. Doesn't fit the laptop bag very well.

I really wish there was something like the Zoom PS-02 that allowed for quickie recording into its own memory, built-in effects while also allowing you to record dry tracks via USB. I guess the Digitech GNX-4 can do all of this, with a mic pre, but its rather expensive and quite large.

[chrishurley]

I think the best fix (barring the feasibility of a real amp) would really be an analog amp modeler like v-stack or sansamp GT2.

I've owned just about every kind of non-amp effect device in the last 5 years and none of them "feel" like a real amp. The GT2 and other sansamp devices sound pretty good if you run them through some sort of speaker simulator, but they don't "feel" much like a tube amp.

I've built a few dozen tube amps over the last few years too. Getting a recorded sound that passes isn't really as hard as making it feel like you're playing an amp.

Of course, recording direct is all about the compromise. You can't crank even a 1 watt amp with a sleeping baby, or tv-watching spouse in the house.

[Lunch Money]

Neither of those devices allow re-amping.

All you have to do is be a teeny bit creative. Not even all THAT creative, since it's a widely-used technique:

Using a proper signal-splitting box (ie. not just a Y-cable, though when I gave the Y-cable a whirl [had one lying around] it seemed good 'nuff) you just record the dry and wet signals to 2 separate tracks. Throw the dry one into a folder (or just leave it in the main project directory-- whatever!) and Bob's your father's brother.

Greg

[FoxV]

I think the best fix (barring the feasibility of a real amp) would really be an analog amp modeler like v-stack or sansamp GT2. Admittedly, I don't have either, but I've heard that both simulate the "feel" of a guitar amp much better than the plugs, and they also sound better and are much easier to place in a mix. Of course, YMMV.

Neither of those devices allow re-amping.

I had a Digitech Rpx400 which was tremendously flexible in terms of what you could route to the computer. Blows away everything else I've tried in terms of mixing try and effected tracks. The problem is that it sounded like a** when you were playing it.

The Omnistudio USB that I have works real well now. I really can't detect any latency if I have headphones on. The trouble is that its almost 19" long and needs a power brick. Doesn't fit the laptop bag very well.

I really wish there was something like the Zoom PS-02 that allowed for quickie recording into its own memory, built-in effects while also allowing you to record dry tracks via USB. I guess the Digitech GNX-4 can do all of this, with a mic pre, but its rather expensive and quite large.

Have you tried the V-stack (in terms of it "feeling" like a tube amp)?

Just curious.

I was reporting 2nd hand info from people I trust. But, it's all talk coming from me...as I haven't tried the V-STack or Sansamp myself.

I have tried a few guitar plugins, and I couldn't take it, but I didn't really give them a good work out. Got too frustrated too quick!

[chrishurley]

Neither of those devices allow re-amping.

All you have to do is be a teeny bit creative. Not even all THAT creative, since it's a widely-used technique:

Using a proper signal-splitting box (ie. not just a Y-cable, though when I gave the Y-cable a whirl [had one lying around] it seemed good 'nuff) you just record the dry and wet signals to 2 separate tracks. Throw the dry one into a folder (or just leave it in the main project directory-- whatever!) and Bob's your father's brother.

Greg

yeah- been there, done that. It works. Seems like cheating for some reason. :)

[chrishurley]

Have you tried the V-stack (in terms of it "feeling" like a tube amp)?

Haven't tried that one. $199 for a pedal is a bit steep to me. I should just build a preamp- built plenty of them before, they just had power amps attached to them. :)