What Is Your Audio Interface's Roundtrip Latency?

engine joe

engine joe

New member
Latency: Where's the manufacturer's specs on latency for your audio interface?

Latency is still a big issue for some of us that mix itb and perform through software instruments and plugins. This thread is a place to gather real world test results for various recording interfaces. Some interfaces really suffer in this department and newcomers to the recording world won't find out until they have a dud. The underly-discussed-truth is that pci is the fastest, followed by firewire, with usb trailing behind. Maybe someone can prove otherwise?

This is how it works. Download CEntrance ASIO Latency Test Utility from here: http://www.centrance.com/products/ltu/. Instructions are on the right hand side of that page. All it amounts to is connecting one of your interfaces inputs to one of its outputs with a patch cable and running the program. Centrance will give measurement results in both milliseconds and time. Post the results here along with basic system specs and the settings detected by Centrance (buffer size/latency and sample rate).

This thread could be very helpful to anyone shopping for a new interface and who is concerned with audio latency. It won't be useful without participation. I'm currently shopping for a new interface and I will post the results when I get it in my hands.

Thanks for the thread idea pipe and thanks to everyone that participates.
 
For extra credit do multiple tests under different cpu loads to see if the latency varies. Maybe when you set your interface to a specific latency, it actually swings up, down, or both when the system is under load. It would be nice to know which interfaces do and which don't. This information is not provided by manufacturers so it is up to us to reveal the truth.
 
BushmasterM4 said:
Whats latency :) I dont experience it at all. Sorry. Well a long time ago when I palyed quake on dial up I did
Click to expand...
Well then this thread is of no use to you.

In the future, don't feel compelled to post in threads you have no use for. 10-4?
 
You can easily do a latency test without that software. You would loop the out to the in on the soundcard, play back a sound from your DAW, and then record it coming back in to another track. You'd then count how many milliseconds it is off from the original track to get your latency number.
 
guitarboi89 said:
3.06ms
Maudio delta44, with no significant cpu load.

how do i simulate load?
Click to expand...

that's fast (3 ms). what was your buffer setting and sample rate during the test? are those your typical settings?

thanks for doing the test and posting your results.
 
Last edited:
I could write a quick program to simulate high CPU load if anyone thinks it would be useful.
 
hmm, it might help to agree on a form such as

Type of interface: (fw/PCI/USB)
Sample rate:
ASIO Control Panel Buffer size:
Reported round trip latency:
Drift after ten testruns?: (yes/no)
 
pipelineaudio said:
hmm, it might help to agree on a form such as

Type of interface: (fw/PCI/USB)
Sample rate:
ASIO Control Panel Buffer size:
Reported round trip latency:
Drift after ten testruns?: (yes/no)
Click to expand...

good idea. if enough people participate, a table could be made for easy comparison.
 
pipelineaudio, have you manually tested the latency of any interfaces? i have but i haven't compared with centrance. i will when i get the chance. i'm curious to know if the results come out the same using centrance compared to manual testing.
 
Last edited:
Cubase has it's "external plugin" feature which does the exact same test to set the delay compensator. I usually get about .3 ms round trip. That's on a PCI/ADAT Ligfhtpipe connection. (and yes, that's a point three millisecond response)
 
Type of interface: Presonus Firepod (firewire)
Sample rate: 44100
ASIO Control Panel Buffer size: 352 samples (7.98ms)
Reported round trip latency: 1112 samples / 25.22 ms
Drift after ten testruns?: no

I don't know that it's the Firepod's fault, I used to use an Aardvark 24/96 with similar results. My computer was a custom build and I think I might not have the best components.

Doing manual testing using Live I came up with 30.1ms to get things perfectly in sync. It's nice that Live lets you dial in a custom latency because Cubase never did and it was always a problem for me.
 
thank you stackablemusic for participating. i would like to know what impact system components and configuration have on latency.
 
how much does your computer processor play into it? im using a tascam 2488 right now, but am about to go back to computer recording using firewire. got a new computer a month ago w/ 2 gigs of ram and the intel core2duo processor thingy.

someone mentioned that on ableton live you can set the buffer time? i think i had heard this before - so ideally, w/ live and a little patience one could get your settings reasonably latency free?

it might be a month or so, but when i get my new setup purchased and going ill definitely do a test.
 
Can't you set the buffers on all (or most) DAWS? I thought that was
case. I'm running real large buffer amounts, but since I use no outboard
stuff, this doesn't seem to affect anything--I've never had latency
problems, except when using SIR convolution reverb. As long as I'm on the topic, can I use something like SIR, and then simply move the SIR-ed
track up a millesecond or two in the overall song to re-align the track?
 
TimN said:
Can't you set the buffers on all (or most) DAWS? I thought that was
case. I'm running real large buffer amounts, but since I use no outboard
stuff, this doesn't seem to affect anything--I've never had latency
problems, except when using SIR convolution reverb. As long as I'm on the topic, can I use something like SIR, and then simply move the SIR-ed
track up a millesecond or two in the overall song to re-align the track?
Click to expand...

you shouldn't have to move the "sir'ed" track up any. your recoriding software should take care of the latency compensation. but in every recording app i've tried, there was some amount of offset that wasn't compensated for. for example, reaper was 8 samples offset. 8 samples offset out of a 48,000 window. not enough to worry about. latency and offset aren''t the same thing though.

i really think latency and offset aren't understood because manufacturers steer clear of the subjects.
 
My pc is 1.2ghz duron :eek: 512mb ram XP

This is with minimum buffer, probably only good for running 4-5 tracks with a few low order plugins
Type of interface: PCI- delta 44
Sample rate:44100
ASIO Control Panel Buffer size:64
Reported round trip latency:3.06
Drift after ten testruns?: no

It wont let me do it with different buffer sizes. But generally 256 for tracking (no plugins, upto 20 tracks, 4 simultaneously) and 1024 for mixdown
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top