VST Performance/Latency Questions

[justanotherjo]

I don't really know if these are Cubase questions--in fact I know my latency question is not--but I thought I try here first. Also, these questions aren't really about any problems or difficulties, I'm just trying to understand my system a little better.

I'm currently using Cubase SE--hoping to upgrade to Cubase 4 soon. I've been transfering all work I had on my Boss BR-1600 into Cubase--slowly putting the old girl out to pasteur. Most of my projects are currently 8-10 audio tracks with little or no effect processing (yet). I have a few VST/Midi tracks that I am slowly adding.

For all of my projects, the VST Performance bar shows my CPU load at between 3-10%. For most projects, all except for one, in fact, the Hard Disk Transfer Load is very low--consistently less than 5%. For that one, however, the Hard Disk Transfer Load cycles from 0 to to about 20%. There is nothing different about this project and the others--in fact, it only has six audio tracks. This cycling stops if I up my buffer size to 256 from 128. I imported everything into Cubase via the exact same procedure. The only thing I can think of is that this song has a very prominent synth part from a Yamaha Motis ES6--could the difference be a complex audio file from the synth?

Secondly, I am using a M-audio FireWire 410 Audio interface. If I have my buffers set 128 samples, I get a latency of 9.33 ms. If I have my buffers set at 256 samples, I get a latency of 15.88 ms. Is this good, bad, average?

Thanks,

Joe

 

[NYMorningstar]

IThere is nothing different about this project and the others--in fact, it only has six audio tracks.

I think you need take a closer look at this. There has to be something different including the fact it has less tracks. What sampling rate are you using for this project vs. the other projects? What vst's and vsti's are you using? There is some variable that you are missing. Keep looking and you'll see the difference.

 

[Halion]

Your latency is not terribly, good, but not hopeless either. It'll probalby be a bit anoying though.

Perhaps that one project has some files in it there are all over the harddisk? You won't really know if this is the case, but a disk defragmentation should fix it.