H/W Buffer and Latency

[DonaldM]

I know we've had many discussions here about changing the H/W Buffer to the lowest possible when recording, and highest possible when editing/mixing. And I do that. For most of my VI's, I can set the H/W buffer at 128 or 256 and not have any issues. But for a couple of them, namely Omnisphere, and most of the East-West Libraries, I can't go below 512 buffer without getting glitches and such. Are there any other adjustments I might make? I have 24gig of ram, so I thought I might turn streaming off and just load everything into RAM. It takes longer to load up a patch that way. But it doesn't seem to make a whit of difference on latency issues.

Its really noticeable on a lot of patches when its at 512 and there's a bit of delay between pressing a note and the sound coming out the speaker.

What else might I adjust? Somewhere on this forum I recall seeing some folks saying they could set their buffers at 64 or even 32 without issues. I might get away with that with a couple of my VI's...but not many. 128 seems to be the lowest. But its an issue when it has to be 512. At 256 you get skips and hangups.

Thoughts?

[DonaldM]

BUMP. Anyone?


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[unkJE]

Hi Donald

While we wait for the experts, I’ll have a go!

I often start by choosing an Instrument for Click Track:
Setup Menu>Click/Countoff>set Output in Click/Countoff options.
Using ‘Save As’ for my User Setting, I can then remove the VI (No Insert) and make its Track Inactive. Just keep the audio, which I prefer to the standard Click Track.
Using PT 11.2.1 HD, I print to audio as I go (Bounce to Disk), to free up resources.

I make all the other “not necessary right now” Tracks and their Plug-Ins Inactive –
I set the H/W Buffer at 64 and record Omnisphere (AAX) with no problems.

For Omnisphere (VST) combined with assorted other VIs and Effects, I love Blue Cat’s Synth version of PatchWork to load “The Lot” in one plug-in. H/W Buffer at 64. Have you tried this way?

[Goobs]

On to what type of drive are you recording?

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by DonaldM

What else might I adjust?

Fully optimize the system. Go double check again that is all done. Make sure disk cache is enabled (set to a size not "normal"). But expecting stability at lower latencies with some of these plugins may be optimistic. How much do you use track freeze to offload CPU load?

You are playing in an external MIDI keyboard? I can't recall if the old MIDI delay comp bugs got fixed or not in recent releases. Try disabling MIDI delay comp in preferences. (but I'm assuming that is not an issue if you can play say some VIs with no delay and others without (at the *same* buffer size).

Post a Sandra report and mark what each disk partition in the report is used for.

[musicman691]

The EW Play and Omnisphere engines are out and out cpu hogs. I've never had good luck running them at low buffer settings and my system ain't nothing to sneeze at. The Play engine can get really troublesome if using one of the libraries that has multiple mic positions. All that loading all samples in Play does is lessen the load on the sample drive during regular usage but it does, like you say, make it longer on loading/starting a session especially if you have more than a couple of Play instances in use. For instance in a session where I have 12 instances of Play running EWQLSO and load everything to ram I can walk out of the room and make a cup of Earl Grey and by the time I get back it may be done loading (I don't run an ssd as they don't come large & affordable enough for my needs - think 2 terabyte).

[DonaldM]

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions all around. To answer the questions. I have 5 drives on my system. One is the OS, one for PT sessions, one for all my samples and a few of my voice libraries for some of the VI's like Nexus 2, Omnisphere, and others, one a catch all where I download most things to, and 1 external dedicated 1TB drive for the EW libraries (its a West Dig, Black, 1TB, 7200 etc etc) connected via USB3 to the system.

My system is optimized. I use track freeze often (or track commit) to free up resources.

This issues occurs with EW even if I only have 1 track, 1 instance of Play with 1 instrument. LIke Jack said, its those that have multiple samples and mic positions, like the pianos or any of the Hollywood orchestral series.

The one thing Darrel Ramm asked was about the disk cache setting. I've tried playing with that, but didn't notice any change. But his asking did make me wonder if there is a suggested setting that might be better than just the "normal" one?

I don't think MIDI delay comp has anything to do with it as I don't have the issue with most other VI's...its really JUST these 2, as far as I can tell.

So that's why my original question was is there some other trick I might try beyond all the obvious ones already mentioned, because in truth, I've done all that.

Jack - Just out of curiosity, what changes, if any, did you make for your settings with EW and/or Omnisphere in their respective settings screen?

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by DonaldM

Jack - Just out of curiosity, what changes, if any, did you make for your settings with EW and/or Omnisphere in their respective settings screen?

Donald:
Attached are my settings for EW Play and Omnisphere. I don't remember exactly which I changed as it's been a while. These are all in standalone mode.

[DonaldM]

Thanks, Jack. I don't use either in standalone mode as I'm always composing and laying down tracks. I tried hosting the VST versions of both EW and Omni in both Patchwork and Reaper. No difference.

So, I spent an hour fiddling with the ASIO buffer on my Focusrite Scarlett 8i6, with the H/W and the disk cache. The best I can get is 256 H/W on EW tested with the Gold Pianos, 2 mics, 4ms ASIO buffer and 8 gig disk cache. Anything lower and the latency is too much. Its still noticeable at 256, but since I'm not doing live performances, I can live with it. For Omnisphere, it varies depending on what I'm doing. With some Multis I can't go below 512 in the H/W without skips and breaks no matter how I adjust buffer and cache settings. I tried all sorts of combinations. For individual patches, I can usually get by at 256 for most, but NOT 128 or lower. It just won't work. Serum is kinda in the same ballpark as EW. Most of the time I can do it at 256 with nothing all that noticeable.

I guess I just have to live with it! I do have everything optimized on my system.

I am wondering if upgrading to Win-10 will have any effect? I need to do that anyways since Win-7 is no longer going to be supported by MS. I can't see anything that would be an issue going to Win-10 since all the music software is up to date and compatible with 10. I just wish I'd taken advantage of the free upgrade when they offered it. But at the time, I just wasn't ready to make the leap!

[DonaldM]

Originally Posted by musicman691

Donald:
Attached are my settings for EW Play and Omnisphere. I don't remember exactly which I changed as it's been a while. These are all in standalone mode.

Your settings and mine are almost the same. I've tried a few tweaks, but no noticeable difference in the delay issue.