Audio Interface???

[Sweaty Ear]

Hi all.

Would like to start using my usb midi controller with my laptop and daw but the latency is almost at 1sec which makes it difficult to play live into the daw whether using plugins or pc sound as there are no local sounds on the controller. Tried switching to asio drivers but it didn't help. Wanted to know how audio interfaces work and if this would solve the problem. Can you help please?

[THE INTRANCER]

If you have a controller keyboard, go to the manufacturers' website to download any drivers it requires. If you have not already, buy a low latency audio interface. This will provide you with low buffers and thus near zero latency from when you press a key and hear a sound being produced from a VST instrument when using the appropriate settings.

Alternate asio drivers you can try until you get a proper audio interface is the ASIO4All one.

https://www.asio4all.org/

[thecontrolcentre]

Tried switching to asio drivers but it didn't help.

Which ASIO driver? Did you set it up for low latency?

[BertKoor]

Here's roughly how it works:

1. You press a key on the midi keyboard. This is transmitted in about 1ms on 5-pole DIN or far less with a USB connection to the DAW. I don't think (absence of) a driver for the keyboard can make this much better or worse.
2. The DAW records the midi notes and/or forwards them to the plugins assigned to the channel. This takes hardly any time at all.
3. Plugins on the DAW channel make sound from the note, that audio can be processed by a chain of effect plugins. There are plugins that are notorious for adding latency. Chose them wisely while live recording, you can change them later.
4. The DAW mixes all the channels, and if you have plugins on the master bus then they process it as well. There are plugins that are notorious for adding latency. Chose them wisely while live recording, you can change them later.
5. The DAW sends the mixed audio to the builtin PC sound chip (often called "sound card" even when integrated on the motherboard) or audio interface, either by ASIO driver protocol or Windows Media. The protocol matters. If the DAW sends audio via ASIO, then it has virtually direct access to the hardware. Otherwise Windows adds a layer that ensures sampling rates of all apps are the same before it goes into a mixer, and possibly there's a SoundGoodizer™. All these layers can and will add latency. Something like 50 ms, well worth to skip! And that's exactly what Asio4All does.
6. The sound card or audio interface converts digital audio to analog. There's a buffer and thus latency here as well. Usually on an audio interface with ASIO you can select the buffer size, which is not really possible on a builtin sound chip. A buffer of 64 samples and sampling frequency of 48kHz results in a theoretical minimal latency of 1.3 ms. There is no buffer size that works for all people and all projects, this is a balancing act. Most keyboard players do fine with a buffer size of 256 samples, roughly adding 5ms latency.
7. Connected monitors or headphones let you actually hear it. Because of the speed of sound it adds 3ms for each meter between and your monitors.

I take your reported full second with a grain of salt. If it really is a full second, review your plugins. Select a bog standard no frills synth, remove everything you have on the effects chain, and then report the true latency not caused by your plugins.

In short: an audio interface with proper ASIO drivers is highly recommended and regarded as must-have for near-real-time playing of keyboards through a computer.

[AdvancedFollower]

ASIO4All does tend to work pretty well if you're just working ITB. Make sure you adjust the buffer size, at 256 samples or less you should start getting decent latency.

[chk071]

Yes, ASIO4ALL works pretty well, if it doesn't crash your DAW. (It happens sometimes)

[Sweaty Ear]

thanks for your answers. i was using the generic asio driver that came installed because the realtek driver muted all other sound applications for some reason. didn't actually time out the latency but both were very slow and essentially unusable. installed asio4all and that driver was also slow and added noise but increased the speed of both the generic and realtek by a landslide. will have to now try reducing the buffer because atm there is still a slightly noticeable delay even though it's in a workable range.

If you think an audio interface would be even better are there certain features to look for? Cheapest is a good one for me but it needs to work well also.

[kritikon]

Reduce the buffer. Don't dick around buying anything else until you try doing what you need to do. Bert already spelled it out. Even if you buy an audio interface with its own driver you still have to alter its buffer to suit the latency you're happy with.

It may be that you can't get your Realtek thingy down low enough with Asio4all, in which case you will have to consider a separate audio unit. Having said that, if you want quality sound in and out of your computer, you'll need to get one eventually anyway, but it's surprising what you can do on the cheap.

[Sweaty Ear]

there's three ASIO drivers on this computer now. ASIO4All, generic ASIO, and Realtek ASIO. the ASIO4All is the only one with adjustable buffer settings. but this is of no consequence because suddenly the daw stopped receiving incoming midi data all together. no idea how it happened so quite frustrating.