Latency Sonar 2.0

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Take1

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Hello,

My home studio consists of Sonar 2.0 Edirol Roland VSC 3.23, Radium 49 Midi Keyboard and a Dell Inspiron E1505 laptop.

Everytime I hit a note on the Radium Midi Keyboard it is always a little delayed. It doesn't match up with the drum track.

Anybody know how I can solve this latency issue?

I have tried forever to no avail. I found a bar on the VSC that I can move and it helps, but it is still off.

Can anybody please help me!!!!!!!!!!!!:confused::confused:
 
You are going to need to get your latency down below 10 ms (preferably 5 ms or less).

Are you using the stock sound card in your laptop? If so, you may not be able to get there.

What you should try first is make sure you are using WDM or ASIO drivers (Options > Audio > Advanced). Then try moving the slider bar (Options > Audio > General) to its lowest setting, and set the buffers at 2. Then reprofile the card.

Also, some audio cards have their own mixing applet which can also control latency (yours may not). If it does, open the applet and look for something that controls latency or buffers and reduce the settings.

If you can get the latency to below 10 ms, the delay may be tolerable. However, you could find that you will start getting dropouts. There is a trade-off between latency and CPU resources needed.

Good luck.
 
Latency

I have come to the conclusion that the main thing that is driving my response (Latency) is the Edirol Roland VST 3.23.

When I move the bar under Options- Audio- General and switch the buffers to 2, nothing really happens. All the change in response seems to be triggered by my response bar on the VST.

If I put it to 68 mSec it sounds pretty damn close, but the quality is crackly. Any suggestions? Do I need a new Sound Card?
 
"VSC" refers to VIRTUAL sound canvas, right? IF this is what you have, don't waste your $$ on a sound card because it won't help. I've tried several times to get latency down on the Roland software so that you can play along in "real" time, and it's just not possible. Those non-hardware sample players are only good for playing back an already existing sequence, in which case ALL the tracks are delayed so it doesn't matter.

When you try to play along with 'em, though, you get this horrendous delay between the time you play a note and when it actually sounds.

What you need is an actual sound MODULE (hardware) - HTH... Steve
 
Latency

Thank you for the feedback.....Is there a Sound Module that you recommend?

I got the Latency down on the VST so I can play in real tme, but it sounds like donkey farts!!

I thought this was going to be easy too! Midi is driving me crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Seriously.
 
That would depend on your budget and the type of music you're into - so bare your soul :=) and you'll get better answers... Steve
 
Oh, BTW here's something that may (after a while) help with the confusion -

https://homerecording.com/midi.html

Follow the links, and if you want a book I'd recommend nearly anything by Craig Anderton, he's been doin' this even longer than I have... Steve
 
Take1 said:
I got the Latency down on the VST so I can play in real tme, but it sounds like donkey farts!!
Click to expand...
Don't worry about the sound too much while you're recording. You can always route it to another software synth afterwards. There are some decent sounding ones out there.

Some things can sound fairly decent in MIDI - piano, bass, drums - but others, like horns, are pretty difficult. It takes quite a bit of practice because of the note bends and expression.

If I recall, Sonar 2 doesn't come with a VST adapter. So for software synths you will need to use DXi's, or get yourself a VSTi adapter.
 
knightfly said:
"VSC" refers to VIRTUAL sound canvas, right? IF this is what you have, don't waste your $$ on a sound card because it won't help. I've tried several times to get latency down on the Roland software so that you can play along in "real" time, and it's just not possible. Those non-hardware sample players are only good for playing back an already existing sequence, in which case ALL the tracks are delayed so it doesn't matter.

When you try to play along with 'em, though, you get this horrendous delay between the time you play a note and when it actually sounds.

What you need is an actual sound MODULE (hardware) - HTH... Steve
Click to expand...


Thats not my experience- I use a midi controler and VSC quite a lot and I have a latency of around 7mSecs which works quite well. My interface is a M-Audio Delta 66 +omni;)
 
latency

How do you get latency of 7msec on the VST?

My performance bar gives me the option of 22.7, 45.4, 68, 90.7, etc. at 68 I can play in real time but it sounds crackly. At 90.7 it sound good, but it is slightly off.

As far as what style of music I play and how much I can afford on a Module:

I like to play DA FUNK! and I am pretty broke.............maybe $400 max on a sound module.

Thanks for all the help..........with this never ending nightmare...
 
I've tried the VSC on my 2.4 gHz Toshiba laptop using an Edirol/Roland PC-300 controller, and while I didn't measure the latency it was enough to sound like a bad "elvis" slapback echo, which would put it around 20-25 milliseconds. Had the same prob several years ago with an older laptop using an SK-88 controller (serial) and VSC for Win98.

So, Paul, I'd also like to know what you're doing to get 7 ms latency - not being sarcastic, I seriously wanna know so I can stop packing a hardware SC-20 around with my laptop and PC-300... Steve
 
Take1, with a budget like that I'm not sure what'd be a good funky module; I would have recommended maybe one of the Roland rack Fantom's because of their expansion slots, plus maybe one of their R&B expansion boards - but the Fantom XR is around $1300 by itself, and the boards are usually 3-400 each.

I've yet to try any of the soft synths because of my negative results with the VSC's, but I can't believe they're as popular as they are if they have that kind of latency.

So far all my MIDI stuff's been hardware, with modules by Korg, Alesis, Emu, Yamaha, Roland; keyboard controllers/synths by Roland, Yamaha and FX by Yamaha, Alesis and TC electronic. Drum modules by Alesis, Emu and Roland including a V-drum setup I've yet to find time to set up - I use a MOTU Midi Timepiece AV for 8x8 midi, word clock, smpte and video genlock (been doing quite a few corporate training video projects lately)

Hopefully I may get a week's break in all that next month so I can re-do some of my gear/space to make room for the V-drum kit and do some re-wiring, but I'm not holding my breath; so far, every time I deliver a finished project they want another one - good for bank account, bad for R&R... Steve
 
Okay, here's how I do it. I use a desk top - nothing fancy but a 2.4Gig P4 with 2.0 Meg RAM.

Win XP o/s and a decent sound card with ASIO drivers - Delta 66 +omni - old, but works fine.

Latency with DMA buffers of 384 of 8 secs.

Oh, and Sonar 6 PE:)

But you should be able to get similar results with a decent soundcard in your rig. Anything less than 10 mSec is acceptable without too much lag.
 
Thanks, I'll play with it when I get a chance; have an Echo Indigo IO for the laptop which is a LOT cleaner than the internal, maybe it'll be faster too. I'll also check for newer drivers just in case. Thanks... Steve
 
I am an idiot

I figured it out.....................

I was using the Edirol VST 3.23 as an outside source.

Now I am using the Edirol VST DXI that comes with Sonar2

Set the Bar to 10 Msec and 4 buffers.
 
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Wrong - idiots don't keep trying. You're learning, which makes you part of the solution in my book. Anyway, congrats; the deeper you dig into this stuff the more you'll learn and the less you'll need outside help (not that we were much help :=) ... Steve
 
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