What latency are you happy working with?

[sQeetz]

above 128 I can feel the difference. Anything below I don't care, but for when recording vocals... then I go as low as underruns allow

[Scotty]

3ms tracking drums and vocals ( some plugins add latency) as long as actual is 6ms less it is fine. Synths about 12 ms is fine, For mixing, as high as needed to get the CPU power needed.

[Patrice Brousseau]

Around 6-7ms is the max for me (voice, drum monitoring, keys).

On my Quantum 2626, I can stay under 4ms but with my Scarlett’s, it’s 6-7…

[zerocrossing]

People who complain about sample buffers of 128 or lower, when running at 48 kHz, either have a cognitive disability or are imaging it. Humans literally repair small delays in real time, or else no band could ever play together on a decent sized stage, or march in a parade while playing.

[Scotty]

The actual latency can be higher than the buffer settings when tracking through plugins. Also programs like Cubase with ASIO Guard engaged add additional latency. DSP like Universal Audio cards can double the latency. If you are overdubbing into a mix that is using look head plugins your latency can be very high.

Your points stands, it just the actual verses the reported latency of your audio card don’t always match up . I’ll often track at 64 buffers or 32 with drums and vocals to minimize this issue. Or temporally turn off plugins that add additional latency using the delay compensation features of my daw.

People who complain about sample buffers of 128 or lower, when running at 48 kHz, either have a cognitive disability or are imaging it. Humans literally repair small delays in real time, or else no band could ever play together on a decent sized stage, or march in a parade while playing.

[Patrice Brousseau]

People who complain about sample buffers of 128 or lower, when running at 48 kHz, either have a cognitive disability or are imaging it. Humans literally repair small delays in real time, or else no band could ever play together on a decent sized stage, or march in a parade while playing.

When you sing and want a bit of fx (reverb), you have to monitor through the DAW. It happened to me and I noticed immediately the annoying delay and asked the person in control: « could you reduce the buffer please ». I don’t know what was the latency but I wasn’t imagining it!

You also know that some interfaces set at 128 are doing around 9-10ms?

Not all interfaces are created equal (driver efficiency, hidden buffers, etc…).

[EnGee]

If you use Cubase, then those 4 parts are very good videos to learn from. Start with this one:

[Fannon]

People who complain about sample buffers of 128 or lower, when running at 48 kHz, either have a cognitive disability or are imaging it. Humans literally repair small delays in real time, or else no band could ever play together on a decent sized stage, or march in a parade while playing.

Buffer size in itself is not really useful as a metric here. It's not only different per soundcard / driver - there's even more factors involved. If you really want to know, measure the end-to-end latency overall, e.g. by taking a microphone and recording how long a click takes from output to input again. You might be surprised.

For example I noticed that some Studio Monitors I tried out were adding 3-5ms latency on their own. That may be not enough to notice, but if you now put another 5ms on top from the audio interface and 2-3 for the sound to reach you from the monitors. Then it gets into the area where you can feel it. Some consumer grade speakers add latency to an amount where you can't really use them anymore for live-monitoring.

For me, there's also a range where I can *feel* the latency before I actively notice it. Some instrument / sounds feel more responsive with lower latency - some are less affected (e.g. sound with long attack time ). Of course, you can get used to latency and compensate it - but you'll have to work mentally more and you can feel that if you're sensitive to it.

[zerocrossing]

The actual latency can be higher than the buffer settings when tracking through plugins. Also programs like Cubase with ASIO Guard engaged add additional latency. DSP like Universal Audio cards can double the latency. If you are overdubbing into a mix that is using look head plugins your latency can be very high.

Your points stands, it just the actual verses the reported latency of your audio card don’t always match up . I’ll often track at 64 buffers or 32 with drums and vocals to minimize this issue. Or temporally turn off plugins that add additional latency using the delay compensation features of my daw.

People who complain about sample buffers of 128 or lower, when running at 48 kHz, either have a cognitive disability or are imaging it. Humans literally repair small delays in real time, or else no band could ever play together on a decent sized stage, or march in a parade while playing.

Sure, things that pile on latency are a problem, but that’s a different story. You can monitor directly through UAD interfaces, so that can be a benefit when tracking.

[Synthman2000]

12ms for MIDI input from keyboard seems fine. For most things it stays there unless the CPU is getting a hammering for anything else I do.

[CrispDisc]

Thanks for this recommendation, helping me out with my cubase work.

If you use Cubase, then those 4 parts are very good videos to learn from. Start with this one:

[EnGee]

Thanks for this recommendation, helping me out with my cubase work.

If you use Cubase, then those 4 parts are very good videos to learn from. Start with this one:

Welcome
I found this channel when I was searching for Asio Guard explanation as I had set it off before watching these videos. Now, in short, it's on high settings and I'm happy with the performance and latency