4 ms·
I agree that unchecked latency (no matter how imperceptible) can sour or perception of an instrument's playability. That said, latency of 3ms is very attainable
by Slow_Hand 5y ago
I agree that unchecked latency (no matter how imperceptible) can sour or perception of an instrument's playability. That said, latency of 3ms is very attainable so long as your interface isn't a decade old. That's a very usable speed.
Software instruments are usually about as quick as you'd ever need them to be (no latency). So just make sure your audio buffer is set low (32 - 128 samples) and that you're not doing any heavy DSP processing that's going to add extra latency.
It takes some vigilance to do and it can be a pain in the ass to manage when you're trying to play the instrument in a CPU intensive session, but if you do it right you'll only get latency at the output stage (3ms).
- javajosh 5y agoI have Live 11 on macOS 11.2.3 on an Intel 2.3GHz MBP and Live states output latency as 13ms for a 64 sample buffer at 44.1KHz sample rate. Apparently latency is reported by the audio interface driver itself, rather then measured, because live has a parameter to override that latency, including with negative values (using time travel?) It's something I should fiddle with, for sure. It would be nice to have playable virtual instruments!
- jacquesm 5y agoNegative values typically offset for instance midi output to a point prior to the point where they normally would be output. So this only works for items that have a timestamp. But a soft-synth for instance could be driven that way to anticipate a longer delay further down the chain to end up with a more neutral delay once the whole chain has been traversed.