Should I expect to have to use 512 samples of latency?

Whoopysnorp

Whoopysnorp

New member
I just upgraded from an M-Audio PCI setup that I've had since 2001 to a Fireface 800, and I'm still getting acclimated. I wasn't using ASIO with the M-Audio stuff, but now I am, and I'm not sure what I should be shooting for as far as latency. When playing back a session with ~25-30 tracks in n-Track, I am getting crackles if I have the latency anywhere below 512 samples. This is on a Core 2 Duo E4300 with 1GB of RAM. Should I be shooting for less? I don't use very many virtual instruments but I do have a better selection of them than I used to and am learning more about them, so I would like to keep that option open. If I could squeak by with a lower latency I could avoid juggling different latency settings for tracking vs. mixing.
 
Hmmmm, a FF800 should do better than that, I'd expect less, but with FW you're never going to get the kind of low-latency performance you can get with PCI and PCIe -- even when you can get the settings low there are saftey buffers that add more.

On my old P4 POS I can get my Multiface set to 32 samples with no problem at all....round trip around 1.5 ms latency...it is quite excellent with about 16 tracks + plugs

You might, just for the sake of curiosity, download REAPER and see if you can get better performance...or cubase...maybe it is ntracks
 
I was thinking the same thing. I have Reaper installed as well as Ableton Live 6, but I don't have any sessions available in those programs to test. It'd probably still be worth importing a bunch of tracks into one program or the other to see if I get better results though.
 
Im getting 128 with 24 I/O going tracking live with an RME ff800 on a core2duo 1.6ghz laptop on the onboard POS fw combo card

see if turning the dvd drive helps

What happens with zero fx
 
Tune the DVD drive? How and why?

Turning off FX didn't seem to make any difference. However it looks like Reaper might behave a little better...I took latency down to 256 samples and loaded up 9 tracks of an old session and started overdubbing new tracks on top of that to see how far I could get. I only got up to about 13 tracks before I decided to call it a night, but no problems so far. I was using the output of Guitar Rig, and the 6-7 ms of latency wasn't bothering me at all, so I think I'd be happy with 256. Of course the more the better.
 
Using REAPER seems to help. I took it down to 96 samples and was able to play a session with 19 tracks and a handful of plugs with no problems.

Actually here is what I wound up making with the overdub project I mentioned earlier...it turned into a recreation of what it sounds like to be inside a Guitar Center. It's dumb and silly but I thought it was funny.
 
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