Audio Interface latencies

  • Thread starter Thread starter Badtz
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Badtz

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Example setup:
Digital Performer 3 [G4 mac]
MOTU 828 interface, via firewire [audio interface]
MOTU timepiece AV, via usb [midi interface]
Mackie HR824 [monitors]

Questions::::

Would there be latency from the point of triggering a midi note to the actual recording of the note?

Is there latency from when i press "play" on DP to listen to a track, to when the track is actually played through monitors?

If I play midi data recorded on DP, is there latency if I want to record the audio from this data?

Any other potential places along the setup where I should worry about latency & methods I can do to minimize it?

I'm just curious if there's more than one place where latency is a problem along the audio chain. And what is acceptable latency?
 
Holy freakin' bezoula's!!!!

Wowie zowie. :eek: You really gotta do some reading. Those are all good questions, but in everyone of those questions you're really asking 3 things at the same time.

There's always latency. If you press a note on your keyboard you have to wait untill the microprocessor inside the keyboards scanning algorithm finds out that you are pressing the key, then it has to process it, and send the correct midi info over the serial cable. Midi is a serial protocol, so you also have to wait until the complete 3 bytes are send and received by whatever the keyboard is hooked up on.

The receiver has to process the midi-note on command and take actions, which would be most likely to play the sample with the right parameters. This is put on the output. Then there's some delay in the cables to your amp, your amp itself, the cable from your amp to your speakers, and the audio needs time to get from your speakers to your ears.

Why do you wanna know all that??

Wow... :confused:
 
hehehe....

actually, i'm just wondering if latency is as big of an issue as it seems to be..........

i'm about to invest a lot of my $$$ *sniff* in new production gear so I'm wanting to know as much as possible before making all the purchases, just so I don't waste any money in testing out different equipments. i'd rather get it right the 1st time by doing my research.

i guess also, it's because i wanna know just because i wanna know, sounds weird ehh? ;) hehehee
 
It's just quite some messed up questions... Read the threads about latency, do a search on latency... These questions hardly make sense. Don't think that's the latency you have to worry about. As far as I know, the latency you have to worry about is between the original signal and the signal you get back from your recording equipement as monitoring etc. I don't really know alot about the topic. Never had a problem with it. Never read about it either.
 
you only start to worry about latency when it occurs, there are enough worries in life without that:).
 
Don't sweat it. If there is a problem you can usually fix it. Latency is usually measured in milliseconds (thousandths of a second). It usually takes at least 30ms before you even notice latency and that would be pretty high on most systems.
 
thanks tex!

i just heard that latency can be a bugger in some setups :P
 
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