Latency is a B****...Card suggestions?

I need to invest in a studio card. At the moment I'm running with a Sound Blaster Live Platinum 5.1 card that gives off alot of hiss and a 42ms latency. Can anyone tell me of a better card that is about $200.00+ and $350.00- that produces a low latency, has a good amount of input channels or so, and will work great with Guitar Rig?

 

you dont even need so much money for a good card, if you wanna just record you guitar and some drums and stuff take the AUDIOPHILE 24/94 about $100, thats it

 

I'll second that. Been using the Audiophile 2496 for years. If you need more than two inputs check out the Delta 44, it's only about $50 more. You might want to hold onto your SB Live, though, for the onboard MIDI synth.

 

I'm thinking of getting a USB audio interface device. Options are the UA-25, Behringer BCA2000 or tascam US-224.
I'm worried the USB devices don't have as low latency as others. What are your thoughts?
Cheers

 

Well, my M-Audio Ozone doesn't. It can only get as low as 10ms at best.

 

Is that 10ms of latency noticeable? I want to use guitar rig for effects at live gigs on my laptop, would I be alright with a USB audio interface?

 

The sweet spot is generally 5ms or less. 10ms is usually noticeable, and even at 5ms you sometimes get the feeling you're playing an amp that has a slower response characteristic. Its important to note that different drivers report latency differently. Some report only input latency, some report input and output latency separately, some sum the two. I've also found that latency is not constant. Especially if you are playing a high-latency device (say 20ms or above) you can sometime hear spikes in latency where some notes arrive later than others, relative to your picking.

Phoenix I'm really surprised to hear your comments about the Ozone. I had one for a while, and running it into Sonar as an ASIO2 device it was by far the fastest conversion I ever had. At 96KHz I had it down to less than 1ms! Maybe your driver or buffer size aren't optimized?

 

Actually, that 10ms is WDM in a DXI host; if you want to use GR as a standalone, that's ASIO--the Ozone does better on that (around 2-5ms, as I recall) you don't notice the latency.

 

I have that soundcard and it runs with a latency of 4ms without any problems.

Have you got the lastest drivers? What's your computer spec?

 

Well, I`m using this Audigy 2 ZS Platinum, and works perfect even with 5 ms latency, and now there`s this Audigy 2 ZS Platinum eX, wich includes the ASIO 2, very good, but in GR manual says do not try to use 0 latency. So I think with around 10 ms latency will not be notorious. But yes more than 40 is a problem.

 

4-5ms Latency is about as low as you can get, and you won't notice it. Anything higher than about 8-9ms starts to become unusable.

 

It's interesting that you say that. I'm at 15ms right now, and don't find it unusable in the least.

 

I don`t even think that more than 8 ms is a problem, I`m getting used to work with 7-10 ms, without any problem, this folk says 15 is good, so "more than eight is too much", I think in the future we´ll work with none latency.

 

I'm using an MBox and in the GR preferences it says I'm running at 23 ms. And I must tell you all, I don't notice it at all. 23 is way higher than the rest of you have reported, but it's completely usable, there are no issues with this high of latency, it sounds normal. Keep in mind they are Milliseconds...that's incredibly small. I just don't see the issue with latency that gets discussed so much here.

 

Look, I've tried the guitar rig demo. I was using a terratec mt88 soundcard and found it only "usable" with latency down to the minimum.

That is 1.5 msec. But: when using a "live" source you should count for input AND output latency.

The last cubase versions report both. So if you have an equal in and output latency, in my case that makes for 3 msec.

But! That is only in standalone or when using as a VST, you don't run a lot of other plugin samplers, vst instruments.

When the load get's high in cubase you have to raise latency and then it could become unusable.

I have to point out that cubase reported different in and out latencies with my terratec card.

when out=1.5
in= about 4

that's ok

when out= 3
in= about 8

Then already I feel the "lag". When you put also direct monitoring on, you can hear a smal slapback echo effect.

All this made me turn to a line6 podXT. Which I love to use.

Pity, since I like the concept, but latency is a big issue for me.

Hugo

www.pego.be

 

Have you checked the latency on the line6 podxt? I tried it with my original pod and got about 9ms of latency. Try plugging a y-cable into to your guitar, feed one directly into your soundcard, the other into the pod, then out of the pod and into another channel of your sound card. Use a clean amp model on the pod, and try recording a few short, muted notes on one string. You can zoom in, and with your sequencer set to read in mins/sec, you can see how much later the pod hits after the direct side. I'd be interested with how the podxt measures up to the original pod.

 

Interesting test. Especially since I don't "feel" any latency playing the pod.

When I have a bit of time I will do this test and let you know.

I know the podxt used as a soundcard is not a big latency champion, but that's another story. It works well for me.

I got to check that.

Hugo

www.pego.be

 

Pego (Hugo)

i visited your site pego.be. looks like you are into jazz. what are your favorite jazz patches on guitar rig? any tips on getting the right jazz box sound out of the software would be appreciated.
thanks!
jack in indiana
jazz wannabee

 

Unfortunately I do not use Guitar Rig. See my post on page 1 of the discussion. I would have liked to use it, but I am very picky about latency. To get rid of latency I bought a podxt.

Getting good jazz sounds out of these simulators is quite hard. No exeption on the podxt. These devices and softs are mainly focused on/at the rock guitarist. I think it's not impossible however. I managed to have a very good jazz sound with the amplitube plugin (demo). But here latency buggered me also, so I did not go for it.

General guidelines for jazz sounds:

People tend to think jazz sounds= lot's of bass. Not so. Try a vintage amp model like fender bassman types.

1.Lot's of mid.
2.Moderately lot of highs and presence.
3.Better give more high's and presence and roll off tone knob on the guitar about 50% to lower "bite".
4.Lush hall reverb. Between 2000 and 3000 msec. play with damping for high freq control.
5.Play with a hard pick like fender heavy (very standard pick). Picks with rough edges don't work. Thin picks don't work unless you use them upside down (Pat Metheny!) and strike with the roundest edge.
6.Experiment with how you attack the strings, "tilt" the pick so you dont hit the strings straight on. Look for a nice "thud" in the attack instaid of a "click".
7.Don't go too deep into the strings with the pick. The attack should be up and down not inside- outside.
8.for accompagniement use more downstroke than anything else, with tilted pick so you "carress" the strings instaid of "racking" them heavily.
9.Use heavy strings from 0.10 upwards.

Hope this helps a bit.


Hugo

http://www.pego.be

 

thanks Hugo! I truly appreciate your taking the time to reply.
jack