Soft Synth Latency comapared to Hardware Synths

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Gravity
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Re: Soft Synth Latency comapared to Hardware Synths

Post by Gravity » Sun Feb 27, 2005 12:01 am

MarkH wrote:However, the real advantage of soft synths is even though they are later in their midi timing, it is consistant with the same number of samples of lateness where as midi hardware synths can vary as the midi track keeps playing.
If that timing changes with hardware synths i-t's because your DAWs timing is wobbly. ;)

With soft-anything you can never rely on the timing. It's rarely a problem though.

3phase
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Post by 3phase » Sun Feb 27, 2005 12:34 am

AdamJay wrote:
sweetjesus wrote:what about analogue synths?
they're heavy and use too much electricity.
How much electricity is your pc + monitor using? an Athlon? puhhh...sounds expensiv...

3phase
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Re: Soft Synth Latency comapared to Hardware Synths

Post by 3phase » Sun Feb 27, 2005 12:41 am

Gravity wrote:
MarkH wrote:However, the real advantage of soft synths is even though they are later in their midi timing, it is consistant with the same number of samples of lateness where as midi hardware synths can vary as the midi track keeps playing.
If that timing changes with hardware synths i-t's because your DAWs timing is wobbly. ;)

With soft-anything you can never rely on the timing. It's rarely a problem though.
This wobbeling is getting on my nerv since a decade now and its often a problem when things start to sound tired just because timing jitter...
It was quite good in the early days of OS x but by now the developpers seem to consider that a bit wobbely miditiming dont hurts...arrrgh...
I realy wonder why a monster cpu cant do the same good job as an akai mpc.... Gigabites of audio date get transfered with sample acuracy but a few little midi and espercially midiclock events are allowed to jump around 2 or more ms... By now i dont belive the story of the technical limitations anymore... I think its more the question where somebody sets the priorities.

3phase
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Post by 3phase » Sun Feb 27, 2005 12:57 am

12micsn1 wrote:Can anyone name a analog synth that doesnt have any digital circuitry?
that dont have digital circuity in the sound generation? lots and lots of synth dont have digital circuity in the sound generation even when all switches and controlvoltages are generatet digitally... even an oberheim x-pander with its rather digi style analog sound has analog oscilators and filters...his week point are the digital envelopes...
But even snths with digital oscilators have a so much richer sound than 100% digital ones just by the little mistakes the analog filters are producing....
I spend quite a while to simulate analog sounds with digital modular systems and i know by now that a digital synth with a high enough samplerate (around 250 Khz?) and a very detailed programming, that even simulates the noise in the powersupply, can sound the same as the analog original...
Its however possible to program good digital sounds with less than that...in the high frequencies you will find the analogs to be cleaner because the digital limitations of a low samplerate...
If you do some frequencie modulation on a high pitched resonating filter a 96 khz samplerate is much to low to manage this task without heavy distortions or alliasing artefacts.

AdamJay
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Post by AdamJay » Sun Feb 27, 2005 1:22 am

3phase wrote:
AdamJay wrote:
sweetjesus wrote:what about analogue synths?
they're heavy and use too much electricity.
How much electricity is your pc + monitor using? an Athlon? puhhh...sounds expensiv...
considering how much hardware gear those computers replace, its only a fraction. my electricity bill rarely goes over $35 a month.

12micsn1
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Post by 12micsn1 » Sun Feb 27, 2005 7:06 am

Thats the hidden cost of outboard gear we often forget until we see the electric bill. Whoever thought software would make that all possible sure was a frugal thinker. The nicer addition to going software is saving alot more room space. Thats just another cool feature hardly ever mention but ever so greatly appreciated.

iAmMick
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Post by iAmMick » Sun Feb 27, 2005 10:50 am

can't see a problem here. you will compensate for latancy while playing. and when you quantize, zero problems.

so: ?

~
Mick

noisetonepause
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Post by noisetonepause » Sun Feb 27, 2005 10:57 am

How does quantizing solve the problem of software being slow to react to incoming notes?

-Paws

iAmMick
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Post by iAmMick » Mon Feb 28, 2005 8:04 am

well, sloppy playing or instable midi-input can be corrected with the Q

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