acceptable latency?

[therecordinghouse]

iyo, what is acceptable latency? i have recorded vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards with my mbox 2 at 128, and no one has said anything. i have even asked a few of my clients if they could hear any delay, not one has said yes. what are you guys setting your hardware to?

[spkguitar]

I use 128 or 64 with the 002r when tracking. Never had a problem with either.

I've also used 256 at times, but I personally feel 256 is on the fringe. I notice it quite a bit at 256, while others don't.

[daeron80]

I have a web page about that. Gives details incuding samples and milliseconds for latency at each hardware buffer setting. Some opinions about why it's not as big a deal as some might think.

http://www.elvenminstrel.com/recordi...002latency.htm

[JFreak]

I've also used 256 at times, but I personally feel 256 is on the fringe. I notice it quite a bit at 256, while others don't.

Yep, you hit it on the nail. Performing artists have used to such latencies and 256 is never a problem with live musicians. Never ever have I met a live musician that has complained about using 256 buffer; however, I have met few studio divas who were not ok with 128 setting in their opinion. (one of them that was not ok with 256 in the beginning said later that it was ok when I switched from 128 to 256 and told that I made the latency even smaller.)

It's about how much you have done it and how much you trust yourself. That said, in my experience, even most live artists tend to slower the tempo when 512 buffer has been tried, but going back to 256 has made it groove.

If you're on a big stage, you most likely don't have perfect monitoring. You will have to rely on what you see and what you expect to happen. It is not uncommon to have other band members 10-15 meters away (roughly 20ms of latency) and play in perfect sync -- it's a skill to have a metronome inside your own head instead of the monitor

[EGS]

128. Even experienced session drummers don't notice that amount of latency. Also, I don't like switching the buffer to a higher setting for mixing. I simply track and mix at 128: pretty much a non-issue for me.