What more features are you hoping for?

[Lunch Money]

Direct monitoring is only possible by bypassing all of your effects... is that what you're after? I didn't realize that this was offered as an option in some hosts. If so, that WOULD be handy in some cases!

If that's not what you're after, then it's time to elaborate on what's missing, because I don't get it. Many soundcards offer "direct monitoring" mode, but it's not linked to ASIO, it just means that the signal's going directly to your monitors instead of (or in addition to) your host.

Greg

[valley]

Theres a button in the settings called "use ASIO direct mode". I dont know if that activates it or what.

Nah, that's the "make Tracktion work with M-Audio stuff" control.

But I've been using direct monitoring with my Omni-Studio since I got Tracktion. Zero latency monitoring through the soundcard.

if it's true zero latency monitoring then that's cool. The M-audio stuff doesn't do zero latency, so I'cve never tested. I just vaguely recalled a thread where afew people were saying zero latency (or more accurately I guess the drivers) caused problems with T.

[Lunch Money]

Here's a zero latency monitoring solution for everyone:

Get a mixer. That's all that's needed. If you already have one, then you have your zero latency monitoring.

Greg

[valley]

Direct monitoring is only possible by bypassing all of your effects... is that what you're after? I didn't realize that this was offered as an option in some hosts. If so, that WOULD be handy in some cases!

The host can't do it. If the host has access to the audio, the delay is unfortunately already there. The only real chocie is to use cards like RME that offer reliable ultra low latencies.

Of course, it's arguable how much latency really matters when most musicians were happily using MIDI hardware with upwards of 4ms of latency, and never complaining.

[valley]

Get a mixer. That's all that's needed. If you already have one, then you have your zero latency monitoring.

Yup.

[Lunch Money]

Regarding the host thing--

I agree, now that I'm thinking about it. [edit: I said more, but realized it was dum]

Greg

[kL]

Both sides? At the same time?
(In Vegas it's an option to make it the default... or not.)

laer clips slightly overlapped and click "auto crossfade"

Not as simple as doing nothing but splitting the file... or perhaps we don't mean the same thing. But even so, without autofading edges, sliding two clips together in Vegas crossfades them automatically... without clicking "autocrossfade." Of course, it really sucks in pro tools...

Can't see everything...

32,000 posts in this forum, the odds are that someone has.

True.

Latency, even the smallest amount, causes phase problems when mixing. This was a reason why many engineers stuck with analog mixers and hated plugins for years.

But that's irrelevant with software. Tracktion compensates for the delay.

Except with racks, which was my original point.

Tape style monitoring for punchins; latency-free monitoring at any time.

i don't get the point of this. It is only latency-free until you hit record. If software is recording audio, there is latency. No ASIO soundcard on earth can get round that. Latency free monitoring is exactly that: "monitoring". If they had invented latency free recording, you can bet they would have marketed it as such.

Asio direct bypasses the software when you hit record (or an auto punch point is reached) and sends the input to the output through hardware. Bingo, no latency (beyond that of the AD convertors, that is).

Version 1? Fundamentals first?

Whose? Yours? Take twenty people and ask them to list their five most fundamental requirments from a sequencer and you'll end up with at least 20 fundamentals. Doesn't the fact that some people have been using tracktion for more than a year suggest that for them the fundamentals *are* there?

I can't see having no effect and bus sends or functional loop recording as having fundamentals covered, at least not for mixing and tracking. But that could just be me. I Don't mean to slag the program at all; as I said, I find it to be remarkable.

Hours slaving over an SSL to get tiny details right = minutes drawing vector envelopes.

You say that as though a hardware fader wired to a software control precludes the usage of vector envelopes. I don't see that. The fader doesn't take any functionaility away from the mouse, and you still have fully editable vector envelopes. You just have a nicer editing method than a mouse pointer to manipulate them with.

Individual choice, I suppose. I don't miss faders at all.

[AD80]

Are you having trouble working the quote button or something? Why do you keep doing that?

[AD80]

Theres a button in the settings called "use ASIO direct mode". I dont know if that activates it or what.

Nah, that's the "make Tracktion work with M-Audio stuff" control.

But I've been using direct monitoring with my Omni-Studio since I got Tracktion. Zero latency monitoring through the soundcard.

if it's true zero latency monitoring then that's cool. The M-audio stuff doesn't do zero latency, so I'cve never tested. I just vaguely recalled a thread where afew people were saying zero latency (or more accurately I guess the drivers) caused problems with T.

Oh so when I monitor through the Omni its not zero latency? It sure sounds like it, it must be pretty low latency. Good to know tho.

[valley]

But that's irrelevant with software. Tracktion compensates for the delay.

Except with racks, which was my original point.

In all but a few cases racks correctly compensate for the delay they introduce when rendering audio down.

Sure it'd be better if they just didn't introduce a delay at all, but they are far from unusable. Hell, I can even get decent results with SIR and racks, and SIRs latency dwarfs that of racks.

Asio direct bypasses the software when you hit record (or an auto punch point is reached) and sends the input to the output through hardware. Bingo, no latency (beyond that of the AD convertors, that is).

Yeah, but my problem with this is that as soon as you hit record there is a short slapback equal to the size of the ASIO buffer (or twice that for the purposes of anyone listening).

If things are going to be wrong I'd rather they were consistently wrong. I tend to think that offset can be accounted for, but jitter is just bad.

[valley]

Oh so when I monitor through the Omni its not zero latency? It sure sounds like it, it must be pretty low latency. Good to know tho.

I don't know. It depends on your card. Normally for zero latency monitoring you need to enable it in the soundcard drivers, so if you are unsure, the answer is probably "no".

If you are monitoring through your ASIO drivers and Tracktion, then the full latency, IE the time it takes sound to get from your hardware, thorugh your PC, and out to your speakers, is going to be your ASIO latency value times two, plus about 2 milliseconds for good measure.

[Lunch Money]

The Tascam US-122 just has a switch for direct monitoring. It splits the signal and sends your incoming signal directly to the speakers, so there's not need to adjust it in the drivers. Dunno about other cards.

Greg

[headquest]

The Tascam US-122 just has a switch for direct monitoring. It splits the signal and sends your incoming signal directly to the speakers, so there's not need to adjust it in the drivers. Dunno about other cards.

Greg

Yup, my Edirol does just that. I thought that direct monitoring was pretty standard?

[Lunch Money]

It's definitely a non-special feature. Dunno why people think it's such a biggie. A PCI card won't have it for obvious reasons (unless it's part of a breakout box...? Even then...), but since most PCI users seem to be using a mixer, there's your direct monitoring.

I dunno. It has ALWAYS seemed like a catch phrase to make it sound like more than it is, to me.

Greg

[kL]

It's definitely a non-special feature. Dunno why people think it's such a biggie. A PCI card won't have it for obvious reasons (unless it's part of a breakout box...? Even then...), but since most PCI users seem to be using a mixer, there's your direct monitoring.

I dunno. It has ALWAYS seemed like a catch phrase to make it sound like more than it is, to me.

Greg

PCI cards have asio direct; RME's do. It automatically switches from monitoring recorded signal to monitoring input when you go into record -- like a multitrack tape machine. I haven't heard the slap you're talking about, Valley... maybe that's a question of implementation (or simply latency amount).

Back to racks: how do you set up a separate headphone mix in the program without non-latency-inducing auxillary sends? And there are many bussing/sending applications in mixing that don't involve time delay effects. Just curious.