Using computer solely for guitar effects? Latency?

C

Chelonian

Member
I want to get into recording music and own an electric guitar but have no effects pedals. I was thinking I would buy an audio interface and then use my computer to put any effects on the guitar parts. I've held off on buying effects pedals for this reason.

I'm wondering how good this could be. One thing that concerns me is noticeable latency. Meaning if I put a chorus + octavizer, say, on the guitar via the computer, will I hear this played back to me in real time with some discernible delay? If so, will that throw off my playing? I know I could play all parts clean into the computer and put the effects on afterward, but that is much worse than knowing generally how it will sound as I'm playing the part.

How much would speed/quality of the computer matter for this? I haven't bought a music recording computer and want to buy something used for as cheap as possible for now ($300?) and am hoping that will be fast enough to provide effects with no noticeable delay.

Thoughts?
 
I often just play my guitar through the computer with effects and processing - never even pressing record. the latency is 9ms, and while I can hear this it's hardly noticeable.
 
rob aylestone said:
I often just play my guitar through the computer with effects and processing - never even pressing record. the latency is 9ms, and while I can hear this it's hardly noticeable.
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May I ask what the specs for your computer and interface are? I'm trying to figure out what kind of those to buy. Thanks.
 
My set up is pretty low latency. Apollo with Reaper at 1.6/2.6 ms.

ASUS Zenbook 14 UX434​


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I'm actually using a presonus multichannel firewire interface at the moment instead of the Tascam 16/4 I normally use and the computer spec is an i7 4790 3.6Ghz with 16Gb if that helps - although I'm not sure it does?
 
rob aylestone said:
I'm actually using a presonus multichannel firewire interface at the moment instead of the Tascam 16/4 I normally use and the computer spec is an i7 4790 3.6Ghz with 16Gb if that helps - although I'm not sure it does?
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It helps sure. I can price those on Ebay and get a sense. How would you describe the noise from that machine in terms of fans and other sounds? I'm looking for an extremely quiet or silent computer situation.
 
Dreadfully loud. Hence why both the studio computers are elsewhere and not in the room I work in. When you add more processor power the need for cooling goes up and worse, because I leave the computers on 24/7, one of them is suffering from noisy bearings too. The one in the video editing system is noisier because it has another fan in the video card. The box is important too of course - this untidy mess is the rear of the computer rack that I'm using and the cables vanish into the floor and come up in the room next door.car1.jpgcar2.jpg
This is the two old computers, now waiting for when they need to take the place of the others in the rack - they were too noisy - despite being in a rack, as the ventilation let the noise into the room. I've been recycling these 19" housings for years now. I bought an original carillon and the case has outlived the innards many times over now. I actually have 6 identical housing in my two locations - When I bough them, they were really expensive but have toured and done loads of miles and kept the computers totally safe. Not a bit of plastic! All metal and mega heavy - but one overheated with what was inside, and I had to remove the front 3.5" covers to get more airflow - and of course that made it noisy. They have two fan ducts on the rear panel, but with big video cards inside, moving air around means bigger processor fans and two axial fans - noise is a pain.
 
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rob aylestone said:
I'm actually using a presonus multichannel firewire interface at the moment instead of the Tascam 16/4 I normally use and the computer spec is an i7 4790 3.6Ghz with 16Gb if that helps - although I'm not sure it does?
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FP10 = win

I am still using the Firepod, FP10's predecessor, going strong since about 2005. I also have an FP10, but I did something bad and fried it's output circuit. It still records ok, but.
 
I run Reaper and JS Convolution Amp at ~2ms.
i5 @ 3,3GHz.
ESI 1010 interface
Nofan CPU cooler, fanless PSU and SSD. Completely silent.

Edit: Actually, the latency is 3ms with no amp, with JS Convolution Amp it's 13ms.
 
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Chris Drums said:
I run Reaper and JS Convolution Amp at ~2ms.
i5 @ 3,3GHz.
ESI 1010 interface
Nofan CPU cooler, fanless PSU and SSD. Completely silent.

Edit: Actually, the latency is 3ms with no amp, with JS Convolution Amp it's 13ms.
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How many tracks, with effects, can you handle on that computer comfortably? Also did the computer come like this prepackaged or did you have to build it? And cost?
 
Chelonian said:
How many tracks, with effects, can you handle on that computer comfortably? Also did the computer come like this prepackaged or did you have to build it? And cost?
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A quick testproject with 32 tracks, a bunch of VST's: CPU under 4%, buffersize still at the lowest 48 samples. Could probably handle 100 tracks, but I never have these kind of track counts.
The PC is my build, spent very little cash on it.
 
I’m not sure you can now have a track count vs plug ins because they all vary so much. You can in Cubase have templates where you have common tracks and associated vstis and plug ins ready, but empty or a blank screen. It seems to make little difference to maximums. a colleague often works with hundreds of tracks. Over fifty for maybe a guitar. Little two or four bar chunks, each treated differently with zillions of plugins. His fifty would be just one, maybe two on my way of working. The only thing to watch is the performance monitor. With his projects, sliding two bars of guitar so two overlap can wreck things. I find his way very risky, he hates my way. I don’t think even Steinberg could quantify this in terms of tracks and plugins.
 
Chelonian said:
I want to get into recording music and own an electric guitar but have no effects pedals.
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Yeah, dont buy pedals. Like, you want a CC pedal/Wah. That will work with midi rack equipment and interfaces. Don't put anything in the way. I like ADA preamps because they are wide open on the input side. Nothing in the way. Only an output level.

Rack FX through a clean Loop only.

If you want distortion sounds, there are mod kits that change the shelves. At least in ADA-Land.

I am extremely sensitive to latency. So You want that number at ZERO.
 
I am running Amplitube 5 Max with the Axe I/O interface on an M1 Mac Mini. It was a bit of a dilemma deciding which package to get. I wanted the Fender collection but Amplitube 5 with one additional collection pack was almost the same as the Max bundle and then for $50 more you could get the bundle with the interface. Pricey but I figure buy once, cry once. Also it was probably about half the cost of a single decent amp on Craigslist and now have hundreds of modeling options.

The Mac Mini is completely silent and Amplitube 5 can run standalone. No issues with latency for me. I've got all my favorite set ups as presets ready to go. I've built a bunch of practice tracks in Cubase and have a few Spotify minus guitar track playlists. It all works perfectly together.
 
You can always go on Ebay and get an old Line 6 Pod or something like that. I picked one up for $60.00 no problem. They can be updated from Line 6's website at no cost. No latency ever of course. I use them everyday, and almost every recording I do has electrics on it that use the Pod. I only use computer-based guitar effects post-recording. Certain pedals are indispensible to me, like delays, along with more esoteric ones like the Meris Polymoon.
 
The UX2 is an interface, so it will have some latency, just like all other interfaces. My old hardware PodXT doesnt have any detectable delay, at least no more than any other pedal on my board.
 
TimOD said:
You can always go on Ebay and get an old Line 6 Pod or something like that. I picked one up for $60.00 no problem. They can be updated from Line 6's website at no cost. No latency ever of course. I use them everyday, and almost every recording I do has electrics on it that use the Pod. I only use computer-based guitar effects post-recording. Certain pedals are indispensible to me, like delays, along with more esoteric ones like the Meris Polymoon.
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I think this is a good option, but if there's a conversion to/from digital, there's some latency. Since it's designed specifically for one purpose, the latency is probably lower than standing an extra couple of feet from a speaker.
 
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