25ms of latency...

Joe P. · Post by **Joe P.** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:32 am

...at 44.1 is the fastest I can run my DAW without experiencing clicks and pops and such. Is this a result of the speed of my hard drive, or is there something I can do to improve performance? I'm not in front of my home pc right now and I can't quote the specs, but it is a two year old, consumer grade Dell which has been pressed into service as my recording computer. It does pretty well generally speaking, but I'd like to lower the latency if possible. Thanks for any insights.

darjama · Post by **darjama** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:47 am

what are the system's specifications? What software are you running?

Hard drive speed isn't usually a limiting factor on latency until you get to larger track counts. Your audio interface, processor and memory are the main players.

Are you using the onboard soundcard? If so, try the ASIO4ALL drivers. That should give you some improvement. They give me 15ms on my 3 year old laptop with a celeron processor.

Have you done any optimizations for audio? Check http://musicxp.net if you're not sure what I mean.

ballpein · Post by **ballpein** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:18 am

ram, ram, ram.

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:41 am

ballpein wrote:ram, ram, ram.

and FSB speed.

fossiltooth · Post by **fossiltooth** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:42 am

Yep, RAM.

As long as the hard drive isn't on its last legs, it shouldn't be a major issue.

Joe P. · Post by **Joe P.** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:06 pm

Thanks, I'll try the 'tuning tips' tonight. I do know that ram-wise I've got 1.25 gigs installed. I can increase that to 2 gigs if necessary. What is FSB speed?

fossiltooth · Post by **fossiltooth** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:12 pm

handofthehost wrote: What is FSB speed?

Front Side Bus.

I'm no computer hardware genius, so I don't know if this can be as easily upgraded.

To my understanding, it's basically the part of the computer that allows the CPU and the RAM memory to communicate with one another. I believe the FSB speed is dependent on the processor speed and RAM specs, so I'm not sure that it can really be upgraded at all without massively altering the system..... but I could be wrong.

Joe P. · Post by **Joe P.** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:20 pm

Okay, well I'm not going to be doing anything major to my computer. I had meant to upgrade to 2 gigs of ram, but got one wrong module. So now there's a 1 gig dimm and a 250. Probably time to start shopping for a matching dimm.

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:21 pm

fossiltooth wrote:
handofthehost wrote: What is FSB speed?
Front Side Bus.

I'm no computer hardware genius, so I don't know if this can be as easily upgraded.

To my understanding, it's basically the part of the computer that allows the CPU and the RAM memory to communicate with one another. I believe the FSB speed is dependent on the processor speed and RAM specs, so I'm not sure that it can really be upgraded at all without massively altering the system..... but I could be wrong.

FSB cannot be upgraded, it's hardwired into the motherboard and the chipset that interfaces the memory and drive controller(s) with the CPU is the biggest part of it.

so you'd be doing a brain transplant there, me bucko!

Joe P. · Post by **Joe P.** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:32 pm

Not no, but HELL no!

japmn · Post by **japmn** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:49 pm

What is your Processor speed. I used to do 10-12 tracks at 48K, 24 bit on a 1 Gig P3 with only 512 megs of ram about 5 years ago running shitty Win ME. I only occasionally got clicks and that was because of plugins. Try increasing the buffer setting and devising a direct monitoring system. BTW what soundcard are you using. If it is the built in internal card on your motherboard... I would make that the first upgrade.

Your ram is fine. I would futz with the buffer before doing anything else.
Also make sure your computer isn't running a bunch of other stuff in the background (Anti virus, NOrton utility type stuff, those things can be a problem.)

jason

Mradyfist · Post by **Mradyfist** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:01 pm

FSB most certainly CAN be upgraded, if you're willing to live life on the wild side. The standard way to overclock a computer with a locked-multiplier CPU is to up the FSB, on any good motherboard you can tweak the settings in the BIOS.

However, increased FSB on its own has very little effect on performance. In general, FSB hasn't been the bottleneck in computers for many many years, especially PCs. G4 Macs had horrible bus speeds for a while, but they've stopped skimping there too.

If you're getting pops and clicks that aren't directly related to CPU usage (ie they show up even when you've got 1 track with no plugs) then you probably have an IRQ conflict or an issue with PCI latency settings. What type of sound card are you using?

Joe P. · Post by **Joe P.** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:04 pm

I found the specs: 2.8GHz,800FSB. I'm using Cubase LE. I do have Norton running, and I'm sure there's other stuff going on too. I'll check that and the buffer out this evening. Also, I'm using a Presonus Inspire.

Mradyfist · Post by **Mradyfist** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:11 pm

So are you using a built-in sound card?

Joe P. · Post by **Joe P.** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:15 pm

Mradyfist wrote:So are you using a built-in sound card?

I'm using a Presonus Inspire interface, it's on this that I adjust the latency.

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