Do macs get lower latency?

mayabong · Post by **mayabong** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 5:12 am

I saw a couple videos of people processing directly through ableton. For instance there is a video where the depeche mode engineer runs the drums through ableton using the effects. Do they just deal with the latency? Is it unnoticeable?

Also gotye in that new vid seemed to be processing through ableton during live shows

pepezabala · Post by **pepezabala** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 5:55 am

yes. you need a good audio interface and latency below 10 - 20 ms is acceptable for most styles of music.

mac & pc can do that both.

andydes · Post by **andydes** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 6:35 am

All depends on what you're using.

I got slightly lower latency on my old p4 PC using an emu 1212 PCI sound card than I now get with either i7 PC or core2duo MacBook pro using presonus firebox. But at it's still perfectly usable.

Using on board sound cards, macs are much better out of the box, but you could try downloading asio4all to improve latency on built in card on PC.

I think some old PCI cards can still outperform even the best firewire or USB for speed. If you have a desktop, it might be the best option.

g6r3TdWx · Post by **g6r3TdWx** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 9:20 am

AFAIK low latency performance of PCs (ASIO) is a little bit better than of Macs (CoreAudio). I read in a comparison that Asio only has like 3 processing calls per buffer where as CoreAudio has 5, what gets pretty noticeable at like 64 and 128 samples. I don't like windows too much so i still would recommend a mac

and whats really noticeable: with the new 64bit version i went from 128 samples with seldom dropouts to 64 samples with no dropouts. the beta never crashed and feels superperformant

!!!!!

fishmonkey · Post by **fishmonkey** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 9:50 am

mayabong wrote:Do they just deal with the latency? Is it unnoticeable?

the world is full of latency, we naturally calibrate ourselves to it all the time (within limits of course).

mayabong · Post by **mayabong** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 4:02 pm

I just know if I try to process my guitar live through ableton I can hear a noticeable latency. I have a scarlEtt interface and pretty good pc laptop

H20nly · Post by **H20nly** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 6:34 pm

"sorry Mario, your princess is in another castle".

the Mac vs. PC wars are over... it could very well be your gear, but switching an OS to fix a latency problem is like buying a new car to change a flat tire.

/car analogy

sounds like you need to adjust the buffer/samples settings in your Scarlett's GUI.

simmerdown · Post by **simmerdown** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 7:10 pm

judging from recent threads.....no?

not without some outside hardware? i thought mac were supposed to be the supreme music making machines?

some will give me crap for mentioning it, but if you are pc have you tried asio4all, works very well for me...does the scarlett have built in asio? what do you have it set to?

also, our ears/brains can detect as little as 3-4 ms latency if you are paying attention, thru phones 10ms sounds like and echo chamber

kitekrazy · Post by **kitekrazy** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 9:39 pm

H20nly wrote:"sorry Mario, your princess is in another castle".

the Mac vs. PC wars are over... it could very well be your gear, but switching an OS to fix a latency problem is like buying a new car to change a flat tire.

/car analogy

sounds like you need to adjust the buffer/samples settings in your Scarlett's GUI.

I've never owned an RME card yet but people seem to get really low latencies out of them like .5 to 1.5 ms.

H20nly · Post by **H20nly** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 10:58 pm

i've heard the same about RME... but i've never owned one either... i've also heard good things about the Scarlett (not as good as RME though). i'm positive its a setting that needs to be changed not his gear... either that or his PC is just really bad, but that would be the hardware manufacturer's fault not the operating system.

invol · Post by **invol** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 4:46 am

Drivers can make a big difference (RME is great), but CPU speed, and other related factors such as RAM and bus speed, are the other major factors. There is a direct inverse relationship to CPU load and buffer setting / latency.

It also depends on what you are trying to do, what effects you are using, and how much you can learn to compensate for latency (delay) as a performer.

-Brian

Punky921 · Post by **Punky921** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 3:57 pm

You shouldn't use your onboard laptop output / input, but if you ARE, I've found that Mac's Core Audio drivers are a lot better with onboard sound than onboard PC drivers.

That being said, don't freaking do that.

Do macs get lower latency?

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