Latency

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badgas

badgas

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I've ran a search for a glossary and found 17 sources.
Several different glossarys.
None has the word
'Latency' or anyword that came close to it,
listed, so no definition.
I've been all over the soundcard forum. People are talking about it, but everyone seems to know what it is.
Except me.
Could someone possibly post a short definition as to what it is?
I just hate reading stuff and not knowing what the words mean. It kinda takes away from the topic, ya know?
I'd appreciate it.
Thanx.
 
Latency is basically referring to the mS delay time as a signal source passes thru a digital signal processor. It is also the delay in response time of say a midi note-on and the time it takes to hear the note actually sound.

Latency of several mS is tolerable - more than 20 mS and musicians will have trouble overdubbing. I'm particularly sensitive to latency and find even 10 mS intolerable.

Bruce
 
Hey, Thanks Bruce.
Much obliged. I understand it now.
I thought it was some kind of noise. Guess it is in a way.
thanx.
 
Latency applies to many things. In the soundcard world, most people are referring to the time it takes between adjusting a parameter in your software multitracker, and hearing the change.

So, you move the virtual fader up. Do you hear the change in 2mS, 10mS, 750ms? Same deal with effects, you crank the pre-delay, do you hear the result close to instant.. or is there a lag or latency?

It can become very annoying when mixing if your adjustements are not close to instant. But these days most cards and software are sub 40mS. I can tolerate 100mS but prefer 42mS or lower. At least in this scenario. For tracking, yeah as Bruce said you want the latency way down there or it will screw up everyones playing.
 
Thanks Frank.
I'm dropping a lot of bucks into this project.
I have two,
KPM 610 Kenwoods headphones. Sounds really nice.
Also have some other HP's laying around. Thanks for the link though.
I've been playing music for around 40 years and have written a couple songs and now I want to record them.
Concerning the 'out board mixer' you mentioned,,,

This is my set up.
800 MHz Pent lll with 80 Gigs of harddrive space.
I have Cakewalk PA9
Rolands VS840GX
Mic's,
ART Tube Pre-Amp
Delta 66 Sound card
and the Omni Intergrated Desktop Audio Station.
I got the sound card and station in a bundle package called
Omni Studio.
I have guitars and amps, pedals ect. I'm a musician, blah blah blah,,,,
About this Out Board Mixer you mentioned;
What kind do you recommend to go with the collection of recording stuff I have now?
I don't want something I'm going to want to replace, after I cuss it to hades and back. Something decent that will work well with what I have.
Can you suggest one or two Mixers for me?
And yes, I'm really new and green at this. Bright green even. The shine hasn't even been scuffed yet.
Thanx!!!

Oh, Yeah, thanks for that Buffering tip.
 
Well, you could use the Roland as a mixer, but the pre's on that suck. You mentioned that you have an ART preamp, which is ok but if you want better pre's and a mixer in one unit, then I would have to go with any Mackie VLZ mixer. The pre's on the mixer are very good for the price, and if you buy a 10 channel mixer you get something like 4 or 6 pre's (one of the two...).
 
Thanks Frank.
You've been really helpful.
I can't tell you how much I apprecitate your input.
I'll check out that Mackie VLZ mixer.
Take care.
 
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