latency

[natan666]

i am toying with buying a digi001 for my new Windows98 DAW in the works. i am curious as to what kind of latency i could expect running a PIII 800MHz and 256Mb of RAM, with pro tools LE and a fair amount of plugs-ins, etc. running (i.e. in real-life situations)

[crs117]

Your latency is dependant on which buffer setting you run in the hardware setup. they have (technically) 5 different settings that determine how long the latency is. Each setting utilizes a different amount of memory to buffer the processing, but each increased buffer size increases the latency accordingly. The settings are low latency monitering, 128, 256 512 and 1024.

with your machine you should be able to do most all the mixing you would ever need to do at the 512 setting. So you should have plenty of processing power to spare when it comes to mixing. if you are wondering how apperent the latency is at each setting let me tell you this. Low latency is great for recording a track at a time, its really hard to determine delay. Well I recorded our band about a month ago live at a concert, and i used the 128 setting for latency. We where recording 14 tracks(sources) at the same time and i was bussing our moniters, and mains out of the 001 so i could not use low latency. But no one in the band said a word about any latency whatsover. So even with the delayed moniter, and house sound it did not affect our band or our rythem whatsoever. So latency should not be a problem at low latency monitering or at 128.

My system 800mhz athlon (overclocked most of the time)
and normal sdram mobo asus a7v133

Christian

[natan666]

the reason i am asking all this is because the RME hammerfall series functions with the steinberg ASIO 2.0 driver, and all (or most) audio processing is handled on the card itself. running 3 tracks of ADAT I/O and an S/PDIF coax in/out SIMULTANEOUSLY (52 channels in all) it has been reported by users to achieve latencies as low as 3ms (maximum 1.5ms)with a 9% CPU load and no pops or clicks. so i could see spending 400.00US between the RME and cubase, not only tripling the available inputs, but destroying the idea of audio latency as well. basically, im trying to justify the purchase of a DIGI001 system.

[This message has been edited by natan666 (edited March 13, 2001).]

[Jaleo]

natan666,

The RME Hammerfall series requires a direct input of ADAT lighpipe signals. That would mean you would have to have 3 ADATs or 3 AI-3 ADA converters (or some other analog interface to ADAT lightpipe) to achieve what you claim in your post. The AI-3s sell for about $400 each, the list on the RME unit you refer to is $650. I doubt you can get both for $400, but then again, maybe you can. As for the 52 I/O...Wow! what would you do with it? Most live concerts don't manage or need that many inputs/outputs. And then, cubase isn't Pro Tools! If you are going to need that many tracks then PTLE is not your answer anyway. Tell us about your applications.

[Digi Engineering]

>>the RME hammerfall series functions with the steinberg ASIO 2.0
>>driver, and all (or most) audio processing is handled on the card itself.

The "audio processing" on the card is probably just a monitor mixer, routing the inputs back through the outputs so you can monitor with minimal latency. Pro Tools LE also has this feature - called "Low Latency Monitoring Mode." When enabled, this brings Digi001 monitoring latency below 2 milliseconds.

Eric Day
Digidesign

[natan666]

not to say id need 52 tracks at all, but pro tools LE only supports 24 audio tracks. is this 24 tracks to record, or 24 tracks period. im not saying im planning on recording the London Philharmonic or anything, but id like to have my optios open. the latency is dealt with in the hammerfall card, also there is a ZLM feature as well. im looking to build a large-ish home studio, windows-based, and integrating lots of live studio recording with outboard drum machines, samplers, etc. pro tools seems like a great, seamless system, im just trying to be as critical as possible. if i have to spend more to achieve the right rig, then i have no problem with that.(TDM is just not an option right now)

[IOP Drummer]

Get the Hammerfall, digi 001 and Logic Audio. You have over 60 inputs and tracks. Sick