fighting latency!!

[LeedyGuy]

I have the Native Intruments B4 and I love it for studio use via MIDI, but I want to use it as part of my mobile rig and play organ live using the B4's sounds, but it is just plain LATENT and I can't show up at a jam and play everything a half second behind.

Thoughts?

I'm just running it through my little MSI laptop. I guess the onboard sound drivers etc. aren't strong enough for real time? Is there a route to optimization??

[LazarusLong]

my little MSI laptop.

Netbooks and most ultra-portable laptops utilize very energy efficient chipsets versus anything remotely powerful.

You can try quitting everything - literally everything - except B4, then dropping the buffer size. Best of luck to you.

[LeedyGuy]

I have the latency down to about 40ms with a rare occurrence of artifact which is pretty great, but still not awesome. I will definitely try quitting everything and see where that leads me. Thanks!

[LazarusLong]

Wow! No kidding. 40ms is painfully slow! Definitely try killing your anti-virus while you're on stage. Seems like the big brands of anti-virus all like to eat system resources like that's the only thing you'll actually run on your system.

[CedarSound]

40 ms? Yikes.

Are you using ASIO4all on your laptop?If you are using the built in audio driver on your laptop, you'll have really high latency happening.

[kingmetal]

40 ms? Yikes.

Are you using ASIO4all on your laptop?If you are using the built in audio driver on your laptop, you'll have really high latency happening.

what this man said! google ASIO4ALL and install it, then switch B4 II over ASIO4ALL. Make sure you play with your buffer settings in ASIO4ALL and set the buffer as low as your computer can handle.

If that fails, there are a lot of cheap low-latency soundcard options around. Native Instruments even makes one http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/ ... udio-2-dj/

B4 II isn't the heaviest program out there, it should run fine on your laptop. The most I would imagine you'd have to do is buy another audio interface.

[exalted wombat]

It's not about processing power or background programs. It's your onboard sound chip and its driver.

If ASIO4ALL achieves acceptable latency, go with it. If not, you'll have to look for an external audio interface with a dedicated ASIO driver.

[ThePitz]

What about getting a USB 1in2out Audio interface? I don't know who makes these or how decent they are, but that's definitely what I would try.

[0-it-hz]

Don't screw around with usb if you're worried about latency. If your software is reporting 40ms than your actual latency is probably more like 50-60ms when you factor in MIDI input latency and processing.

There's a very long thread on the reaper forums about real latency time vs what your software reports.

Lucky for you that you only have to deal with audio OUTPUT latency...

Anyway, I have a presonus firebox that I can get down to 2ms in the software... that translates to more like 5ms round trip (2ms in, 2ms out, an extra ms for fuckall). It's great.

No firewire? Look into newer interfaces using usb 2.0, make sure you get to try before buy.

[LazarusLong]

It's not about processing power or background programs.

Processing power and background programs that take RAM and cycles will dictate how low of a buffer setting you can set, which translates directly to latency. And if you're using a netbook, you need every ounce of juice you can muster.

[thegeek]

just get a better computer... those Netbooks really don't have the power you need to really be effective.