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Old 03-06-2019, 12:57 PM   #1
DrGed
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Default Latency... again... Sorry!

The other day I noticed something I didn't understand about the latency displayed by Reaper.

With my settings it was shown to be 12/12 which I can just about live with, though it's far from perfect. This is with both my midi controller and digital interface plugged into two USB ports.

I went into Reaper on one occassion and didn't plug in the midi controller (just the digital interface was plugged in) and the latency was 5.8/5.8, obviously a lot better.

Is this normal? If not, is there any remedial action that could be taken?

Ged
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Old 03-06-2019, 01:07 PM   #2
foxAsteria
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Using ASIO4All by chance? MIDI devices should have no effect on the buffer size. That's determined by the audio device driver. I don't know about Mac but on Windows these values don't fluctuate won't ever change on their own.

What OS? What audio device?
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Old 03-06-2019, 01:57 PM   #3
DrGed
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Thanks for your reply.

My audio interface is a Focusrite 2i2 and I'm using the Focusrite USB ASIO driver. The midi controller is a M-Audio Oxygen49. The preference "Audio System" is set to ASIO.

I'm running Windows 10.
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Old 03-08-2019, 03:16 PM   #4
JamesPeters
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Were your project sample rates different?

Latency is a factor of the buffer "block" size, in samples, multiplied by number of "blocks" (buffers). That number of samples, divided by the sample rate, is your latency. So if you are using 48 KHz for one project that has 12ms/12ms latency, and don't change your audio buffer settings when you're working in a 96 KHz project, that 96 KHz project's latency will be 6ms/6ms.

This doesn't mean increasing sample rate is a "magic bullet" to achive lower latency, in itself. It will require more CPU, so it might cause dropouts/glitches if you push things too far trying to get the lowest possible latency at the highest sample rate. You can try it though since there's no harm. If your audio driver won't allow a low latency setting at 48 KHz (you can't reduce your buffer/block size) but it does allow a low latency setting at 96 KHz...as long as it works, run with it.
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Old 03-10-2019, 03:28 AM   #5
DrGed
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Thank you for your reply.

I keep the settings the same on the small number of projects I'm currently working on. The way things are just now, I can work on Reaper without much trouble in terms of latency, glitches and drop-outs so I'm adopting your strategy of "as long as it works, run with it". This is also pretty much what a professional guitarist told me recently.

However, it is better if a musician understands the concepts involved so I wondered if you could point me in the direction of some web site or book that will explains all this.

Many Thanks,

Ged
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Old 03-10-2019, 07:51 AM   #6
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Well I did just explain it, LOL. For each person's computer there will be a different limit for how low the latency can go without any problems, depending on the overall performance of the various components of the computer as well as everything you demand from the computer in your particular project. The only way to know if there are problems is to listen for the dropouts or look for the X runs indicator in your performance meter of Reaper.

There are plenty of websites dedicated to helping tune a computer for use with DAWs. The specifics will be different depending on your exact computer configuration, so you'll still have to read between the lines.

As for what you experienced in particular, I don't know what it could be because I've never had that happen. That is if you did not change your sample rate as I described.
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Old 03-10-2019, 09:22 AM   #7
DrGed
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Thanks, James!
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Old 03-15-2019, 07:22 AM   #8
Philbo King
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I found this link from Stella very helpful:

https://www.cantabilesoftware.com/glitchfree/
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