Latency and CPU

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Danb1
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Oct 25, 2008 11:40 am

Latency and CPU

Post by Danb1 » Thu Jan 19, 2012 10:39 am

Quick question.

Should audible latency increase with the number of audio/midi tracks?

As an example I opened a set running Kontakt 5 and audio tracks only. No other plugins.
I loaded a bunch of heavy sample patches and audio tracks, deliberately trying to stress the system. And I do find latency goes up/note delay gets worse.

Is this normal stuff, or can I do things to improve this.
Sounds like a Noob question, but I've been doing this for years and only now feel like finding out. Perhaps because my playing has got better and I notice the delay between midi note and audio.

Anyway, I'd appreciate any ideas/thoughts.
Dan

Warrior Bob
Posts: 841
Joined: Mon Apr 06, 2009 5:10 pm
Location: Central Coast, California
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Re: Latency and CPU

Post by Warrior Bob » Thu Jan 19, 2012 5:53 pm

Generally audio latency is fixed (dictated by the size of your buffer) and what more CPU/RAM buys you is more robustness against running out of buffer.

So I don't think your latency is going to actively increase as you add plugins and stress the system - you'd have to increase the buffer size yourself.

Now, I have no idea if this is true for MIDI latency or not. Also, certain plugins have their own built-in latencies. Both of these could matter as well.

Danb1
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Oct 25, 2008 11:40 am

Re: Latency and CPU

Post by Danb1 » Fri Jan 20, 2012 12:02 pm

Thanks, thats interesting.
I suppose it could be midi latency, but I can see the midi responding on Live before I hear the note audio. Reduce the stress on the system and it responds quicker. How would I remove midi latency, or at least check for it?
I've set the buffer size using the Tone test and CPU emulated at 100% in Live.
I have a quad i7 MacBookpro with 8gig, so it should be able to handle a few bits.
I guess one mitigating factor could be that I am using Vienna Ensemble Pro to power Kontakt 5, thus making the best of 64 bit. I know this adds a bit of latency, but as to whether this accounts for it getting worse the heavier the load, I don't know.

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