Thread: Huge latency
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Old 05-19-2017, 08:36 AM   #18
serr
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Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 12,561
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Sounds like you are starting to discover the controls!

1st choice:
Control both system sample rate and system latency from the DAW control panel.
Only defer to other apps or control panel apps if a device demands it. Reaper gives you all possible choices.

Look up "loop back test" for determining your system latency.
In short, you play a sample (with an easy to see waveform peak when you zoom in) and record it in a new track. Zoom in and note the delay between the original and the recording of it playing through the system.

If you are doing live sound work (which includes live performance), your goal is to have a stable system with all the processing (plugins) you wish to use. You'll find a minimum block size that you are still stable at. The caveat is that the total round trip latency of a live system needs to be less than 11ms.

Extreme good example: You discover that with all the plugins you want to use, that you get < 11ms at a 128 sample block size and further still have stable operation down to a 64 sample block size. Lots of headroom.

Not so good: You discover that you need a 128 sample block size just to have stable operation but the latency at that block size is > 11ms. This scenario calls for a hardware upgrade somewhere! Either the interface has too high a minimum latency or the computer is lower performing (like a machine with an older 5400rpm HDD for one example).

Determine the latency/performance at different sample rates. 48k is usually the sweet spot for live use. Lowest latency with the lowest processing power needs. There may be exceptions for the odd interface so test it.

Finally, if live sound is the job, get the right accessories. Put a SSD in the computer. Get an interface with lower latency right out of the box. Look at firewire or thunderbolt models (lots of older stuff out there if you're on a budget too). Don't struggle with a budget USB unit that barely makes latency needs with the computer compromised with a too low to really use latency setting.

Hope that helps!

That computer with a SSD and the right audio interface should be able to run 20-40 channel live systems or run 200+ track studio mixes.

Read up on all this in the manual and the mysteries will clear up and you will find you have a very powerful machine. Reaper is more like a standard transmission vs. an auto. You have to learn to drive stick as it were. But then you get to do more. But if you don't, you'll be stuck in first gear!
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