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What latency and buffer are you using?

JohnG

Senior Member
Am I doing something wrong? I'm running 512 on slaves and DAW. I have SSDs for all samples on 3 slave PCs and regular hard drives on Mac / DAW, but those are mostly for Zebra and other synths like Omni, not heavy-sample-based libraries.
 
I use 512 with RME and 1 or 2 in VEP. I find that if I lower it, the CPU usage at idle on my slave goes up way too much and I can't get very many voices out of it (even though samples are all on SSD's). Maybe my new computer will have a better performance.
 
John, why do you think you're doing something wrong? I use 128, but that's because I don't like latency when I'm playing.
 
Am I doing something wrong? I'm running 512 on slaves and DAW. I have SSDs for all samples on 3 slave PCs and regular hard drives on Mac / DAW, but those are mostly for Zebra and other synths like Omni, not heavy-sample-based libraries.

What is your audio card? Isn't that what it comes down to? Plus the drivers, have you updated all drivers? I use MOTU with ASIO drivers at 128, no issues no crackles low latency.
 
MOTU here as well at 256 in both Nuendo 7 and DP9. I could run 128 but had some CPU intensive reverbs I just replaced with Spaces so I might go back to 128. Slaves are 256 at believe.
 
I use RME 9652 cards on the slaves. I don't see how it could be the cards. It's either the CPU or the drives. The CPU is i7-4790k 4.00 GHz and the drive is (mostly) an OCZ setup, a PCIe with mounted SSDs in RAID 0.

[edit: actually, I don't see how it's the CPU or the drives either. Maybe a VE Pro setting? Multiprocessing 4 threads, which is the maximum for this computer apparently.]
 
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I don't like latency while playing either -- that's the problem. If I lower it to 128 I get crackles.
There are lots of things that will cause that, even if you are using the best audio card drivers (which you are). Inefficient sample players, too many CPU intensive reverbs just for starters.

is it the slave that is causing the problem? What are you running on the slave?

D
 
Last night I tried out 64 128 256 and 512.
All worked fine with Bidule.
I use DSP and hardware Reverb.
512 was 5.6 msec. Which is the time it takes a drummers Cymbal to reach my ears 10 feet away.

Never had to adjust this for crackles in GSIF but K2 was when I first heard audio crap.
Set to 128 and 256 to fix that.
I7 CPUs and K4/K5 have never caused a problem at any setting but MIDI seemed sluggish @ 512.
 
Logic Pro is set to 256 here, connects with 2 buffers to my PC v-frames, 1 buffer to v-frames on my iMac. Very little perceived latency when I play.
 
256, 1-2 buffers on VEP, but John, if I remember correctly you're runnng a big template. I find it's very scripting specific. Some of my libraries:

Lass. Very efficient. HB and HS Gold not bad, but harder on CPU than LASS. Cinematic strings 2- pretty draining. EW Choirs with WB- very draining, same with Embertone solo strings and Sample Modeling Brass. On quick test, Albion sucks up some power though I haven't purged it yet. Omni and Trilian use a bunch of power, whereas Stylus is light as a feather. Apocalypse Perc, very efficient, ditto VSL SE winds. Reaktor eats my CPU for a snack.

I suggest you set up your template and start turning things on and off- much will become clear.
 
Thanks everyone. It's my slaves I'm surprised about, as they sport reasonably robust hardware. I am going to change some drives and things around. I am starting to wonder if I'm using VE Pro exactly right -- settings.

I definitely have some kind of annoying Windows problem and am very tempted to update to Win 10. In a month, maybe.
 
256-512, but mostly 512 because I guess I don't have those golden ears to tell the difference.

Kontakt (CS 2, Cinebrass, APE, PiB etc.), Omnisphere, VSL and lots of plugins. Looking to add Hollywood Orchestra in the near future to simplify my mixing process and focus on the music.

With ~100 tracks in my general template all playing simultaneously, my real-time CPU usage is between 20-30% (Cubase 6.5.5, Komplete Audio 6, Windows 7 Ultimate).
 
64-128 here. Im using the Apollo Quad Firewire. Win7 i7 3930k 64gb ram. Cubase 8. All SSD's.


With most non-orchestral projects, I run at 64. Big Orchestral template usually have to bump it up to 128. My template is setup with a premade mix ready to bounce when finished. The Apollo is a workhorse for sure.

I do run a slave system, but only for EW Hollywood stuff. Still no change in buffer settings.

Low latency is VERY important to me. I switched from the MOTU 2408 mk3 to the Apollo... and haven't looked back.
 
512, anything lower is a glitchfest unfortunately in more complex orchestral projects. Mostly EW Hollywood stuff and Kontakt.

RME UCX, 6-core i7, 64GB RAM, mostly SSDs. No VEPro, just Cubase.

- Piotr
 
512, anything lower is a glitchfest unfortunately in more complex orchestral projects

This is where I am as well. Will try a few things and if it gets better, report back. Thank you all!
 
John - running all w7 64 bit machines (Nuendo 5. x), RME multiface 2 (only on master) - none of my slaves have soundcards (all thru VEPRO 5 to master). My writing template is striped of all eq's, processing things, etc. (turned off or muted) and I get away with 128 with 2 buffers on VEP. Feels natural. Of course the denser the orch/arrangement the more touch and go it might get (I have had to bump up to 256 in that instance). Of course always mix at 1024 on RME. Good cat6 sheilded cables, switch and decent 'master' puter (with pro card) and you should get to 128.

Remember to keep the writing template as lean as possible (I bet I have over 700 midi tracks...BUT no processing is turned on AND I don't keep one more track then I 'think' I need. If I find myself 'never' using a track (after a month or so) - it gets removed.

This main will be replaced in Jan (3.5 years old) - should get even better. But of course when I update to N6 of N7 it could change everything (which is why I haven't - loving how things flow now.) Hope there is something in the above that can help. Best of luck.

(It really helped to use Valhalla verb rather than B2 on my writing starting point. In many cases I actually stay with it - VERY light on resources AND I love the sound - hard to believe something that cheap sounds that good.)
 
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