USB Latency

[vinny_vinyl]

I'm just wondering if usb hard drives would cause audio latency with Ableton. I notice that when I push play it takes about a second or so b4 It stars playing. I also notice the play marker not in time with what I hear. It's not a big deal but sometimes becomes a pain when Im working with vocals or trying to line things up.

I'm running a pc quad with 4gigs of ram. Ableton runs of my main internal hard drive but all samples & projects are stored on my external usb drive (7200rpm). I don't think its my sound card but just for the record I'm using a Maudio Fast Track Pro... also usb.

I've tried playing around with the latency settings in Ableton but I can't get it to go away. I assume it's the usb drive but Im not really sure.

Just wondering of anyone else has this problem or any idea's on what could be?

thx

[longjohns]

I also notice the play marker not in time with what I hear.

This happens when you use the 'track delay' settings, especially at high values

just an idea to help diagnose..

[vinny_vinyl]

Thx for the help but thats not it... i don't use track delays

[stallos]

is the delay in firing got anything to do with your clip or global quanitise settings

if these are set to 1 bar, ableton wont start playing the clip until the next bar starts even if you hit play a second before

seems to obvious to be that but thought i would put it out there anyway

[vinny_vinyl]

Nope... thats not it either

Doesn't anyone here have usb hard drives?

[gjm]

Does your HD overload light flash at you?

[laird]

USB1 is definitely not fast enough to transmit enough data that a typical multitrack audio project would require.

If you want a definite answer, just copy your project to your main HD and see. Anything else will be a guess.... good or bad.

[vinny_vinyl]

I'm just starting a new project & its still very basic (6 audio,1 midi) & i dont really see the HD light flash. Flashing means it accessing the drive so i would assume some flashing is normal.

laird, I forgot to mention it's usb 2.0. I did try what you recomended so I played a project from the main drive & I still hav the problem so I guess its not the usb drive. Thank you.

Im still stuck. I put all the audio latency settings back to the default settings.

Input Buffer Size = 8192 Samples
Input Latency = 186 ms
Output Buffer Size = 4096 Samples
Input Latency = 92.9 ms
Drive Error Compensation = 0.00 ms
Overall Latency = 279 ms

Im not really sure how these sould be set.. ive never really had any issues with latency. Any more idea's??

[longjohns]

Flashing means it accessing the drive so i would assume some flashing is normal.

flashing in the live gui means disk overload, not good

fyi

[longjohns]

Input Buffer Size = 8192 Samples
Input Latency = 186 ms
Output Buffer Size = 4096 Samples
Input Latency = 92.9 ms
Drive Error Compensation = 0.00 ms
Overall Latency = 279 ms

latency?

I believe the technical term for your amount of latency is "a shitload"

try input/output of around 512 samples

what is your audio setup - soundcard etc. need to be running in asio

[gjm]

Flashing means it accessing the drive so i would assume some flashing is normal.

flashing in the live gui means disk overload, not good

fyi

I had a similar problem but my ext HD is attached FW400. Changing the latency settings like longjohns is suggesting for playback helped bigtime. One setting for laying down your tracks and one for playback.

[leedsquietman]

I use USB 2.0 Maxtor OneTouchUltra III 300 GB and it works great. It also works FW400 but it performs better on USB 2.0 on my PC.

There will always a short latency on playback but your latency sounds higher than it ought to be.

[gjm]

I use USB 2.0 Maxtor OneTouchUltra III 300 GB and it works great. It also works FW400 but it performs better on USB 2.0 on my PC.

Is your Ext HD attached direct to your comp or through a usb hub? Also when you talk about your "better performance" using USB is that just observation or did you measure it somehow? Also, your Alesis IO/14 is attached via FW. Has that worked well for you? Is it 6pin to 4pin? Also, do you still run the original 80gb 5400rpm HD?

[vinny_vinyl]

latency?

I believe the technical term for your amount of latency is "a shitload"

try input/output of around 512 samples

what is your audio setup - soundcard etc. need to be running in asio

Thx for all the help guys.
I droped the input/output to 512 samples but all i get it crazy poping & static... sounds like its being time stretched really badly. The lowest I can get the output down is about 2300 samples before it starts going nuts. This does help alot with the delay but it's still vary noticeable.

The soundcard is an Maudio Fast Track Pro. It's also usb 2.0 connected straight to the computer. I downloaded the latest driver from Maudio's website. Im not too sure what asio is. How do I know if its running in asio?

Sorry for the noob questions guys & thx for all the help.

[laird]

Input Buffer Size = 8192 Samples
Input Latency = 186 ms
Output Buffer Size = 4096 Samples
Input Latency = 92.9 ms
Drive Error Compensation = 0.00 ms
Overall Latency = 279 ms

I'm gonna hazard a guess you aren't using ASIO drivers.

either that, or you are running Vista, and m-audio drivers for Vista just plain suck.

Either way, I'm betting its the soundcard drivers.

i think we ruled out your USB2.0 HD.

[edit] Oh I see your baove post now. under prefernces/audio you should be able to select your maudio soundcard with a couple of different options, one being something like fastrack/ASIO.

If not, well... I can't remember if www.asio4all.com works under Vista... if not, you might need to wait until maudio actually supports Vista properly, or get a new soundcard. My presonus works great with Vista.

yeah, your buffer should be more on the order of 512 samples giving you a ltency measured in tens of msec, not hundreds, i believe.