TR-8S : Managing the latency

[GauGau]

Hello,

I apologize if the question was already asked but I cannot find the answer I'm looking for.

I'm experiencing issues with the synchronisation of Roland TR-8S I recently bought.

The TR-8S is connecting through USB for all midi information (I can go to MIDI through the soundcard if that's better).

For the audio, it comes to the soundcard (Komplete Audio 6) and then to Ableton Live 10.

I managed to trigger the TR-8S when playing Ableton Live.

However, I have an important latency of the sounds coming in live.
I understand the soundcard has a latency, the software also and that it's impossible to be perfectly sync with no adjustments.

My question are :
How can I adjust the latency of the system/TR-8S to aligned everything ?
What's the best way to do that ?
Is there anything I can improve in my setup to correct this ?

My objective is to play the software synths and other instruments in synced with the TR-8S and record everything when it sounds right.

Thanks for you help,
Have a nice day.
Julien

[Shift Gorden]

This might be a good question for Tarekith - he just uploaded an in-depth review of this machine a day or so ago!

[Tarekith]

Normally I just record the TR-8S over it's own USB cable, haven't really noticed any latency issues there.

[GauGau]

Hello,

That means you use the TR-8S as the soundcard for Ableton ?

I heard latency is getting worse when audio goes directly through USB.

[Mark Williams]

You heard this for yourself or you heard it via someone else

[GauGau]

I red that many have this issue when I was looking on articles to find the solution.

[GauGau]

I did some more testing and it appears that the issue is that the TR-8S triggers/starts with a delay.
That mis-aligned everything.


My new question is then : How can you improve that triggering delay" ?

Thanks,

Have a nice day

[oddeo]

Same issue here...

Just purchased a TR-8S and I'm finding the audio through USB quite useless at this point. A main reason I purchased the TR-8S is the audio through USB feature, as all of the in on my UAD Apollo 8 Thunderbolt are occupied. After installing the Roland drivers for TR-8S I created an Aggregate device with the TR-8S and the Apollo. When I changed my Audio Input Device in Ableton to the aggregate device my overall latency readout with a 128 sample buffer went from about 10ms to 3ms. Obviously that's not true, Roland isn't going to magically make my UAD latency even better. So from the start I had some questions about the Roland drivers. Technically, it could be Apple's handling of aggregate devices, but I've not had that issue in the past. If I crank my buffer down to 32 samples, I can the TR-8S to sound fairy in sync with my metronome, but at that rate I pretty much can't Use Ableton for anything else and the Roland audio crackles when I start and stop a track.

For reference, here are the specs on my Mac:
Mac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)
4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
32 GB 1867 MHz DDR3
macOS 10.15.7

A short video of the Ableton metronome flamming away with the TR-8S: https://www.dropbox.com/s/39y89xve2z1kc ... 1.mov?dl=0

[PeterPauz]

Is there any solution yet?
I am running the tr-8s through my Audio interface and I am facing the same problems.

There is a noticable latency during live playback of ableton and the tr-8s which completly destroys the tightness of the groove. Live jamming is therefore not possible

What I have done so far:

- minimized the Buffer size to 32 Samples
- activated the "reduce latency for Monitoring" function
- determined the "driver error compensation" which was pretty low (far below 1ms)
- determined the Recording latency and set the MIDI output buffer to - 14ms which works fine for recording but not for live playback

[Ant.on_music]

Hello!

Same problem.
The TR8S (in aggregated mode with my RME UCX) causes differences in latency.
I realized this by following the Ableton tutorial on driver error compensation.

Test results:
RME alone = 0 latency
TR8S + RME = variable latency (test 1 = 15ms / t2 = 30 / t3 = 31ms / t4 = 22ms).

Anyway, if someone has an idea...

Thanks in advance

[MattP]

Hello!

Same problem.
The TR8S (in aggregated mode with my RME UCX) causes differences in latency.
I realized this by following the Ableton tutorial on driver error compensation.

Test results:
RME alone = 0 latency
TR8S + RME = variable latency (test 1 = 15ms / t2 = 30 / t3 = 31ms / t4 = 22ms).

Anyway, if someone has an idea...

Thanks in advance

I use a TR8S with Live 11. What I’ve found (IME, YMMV etc etc) is that Roland gear is pretty bad when it comes to USB implementation, both MIDI over USB and audio over USB. I’ve had a lot of issues with different bits of Roland and Boss gear over the last 10+ years, ranging from a brand new device not being recognised by Roland’s editor when connected via USB (and therefore also unusable in MIDI or audio over USB mode) to seriously bad USB ground loop noise (even when only using a MIDI over USB connection, not audio).

My solution is to bypass USB altogether and run all of my Boss and Roland gear over MIDI DIN only (which is optically isolated by design and bombproof in use) and connect audio via quarter inch jacks into my audio interface. It just works, every time, no dramas.

Once my TR8S was hooked up via MIDI DIN and quarter inch jack audio cables, I just adjusted for MIDI latency as per Ableton manual (and there are good YT videos with step by step guides for this also) and saved a Default template with the TR8S set to IN mode for audio (i.e. audio output from TR8S is passed directly into Live) and with the right amount of delay compensation dialled in.

Result is the TR8S is rock solid on the grid down to the millisecond level for 8 bars without fail (the longest clip I’ll record from the TR8S) and is still in the pocket at 16 bars of continuous looping without a stop/start message (which would reset the clock and bring everything right back onto the grid again. By around 32 bars of continual play there is a *tiny* bit of drift as the clock sent from my Mac via Live and my audio interface ever so slightly diverges from the TR8S clock, but it’s still not that bad (and as I say, I’d never record that long a clip from the TR8S anyway).

[csanderson0077]

What MIDI interface do you use, if you don't mind me asking?