8.2.7 - Reduced Latency When Monitoring

[jbone1313]

From release notes:

There is a new entry in the Options menu: "Reduced Latency When Monitoring", which toggles latency compensation on and off for tracks which have input monitoring on. When enabled, input-monitored tracks will have the lowest possible latency but may be out of sync with some other tracks in your Set. When disabled, all tracks will be in sync, but input-monitored tracks may have higher latency. Before, the option was only available via the 'StrictDelayCompensation' options.txt, and was ON per default. It now defaults to OFF

Does that mean the feature discussed in the below link now a reality? If so, neato. I was not aware of the options.txt option for this.

Allow Recording Without Delay Comp When Monitoring: http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=106221

[Ableton_David]

Moved to Beta Discussion.

[Piplodocus]

Well I never! F-me!!!

Had a jolly good read of those threads, and tried it off (the new default). I'm not as bad a keyboard/synth player as I thought!

I too feel that it should record when I hit the note, not when I hear it. I spent a couple of decades mostly playing guitar through valve or solid-state amps and trombone in jazz bands where I do the physical play/sing, and expect that to be recorded, not the personally compensated delay (Why I could never play live with a modelling amp or laptop, even with low latency). I find it's ever so slightly harder to play with low latency off if I'm listening back to the VST, but I often tended to record some parts with monitoring still on auto, but the track muted, and use direct monitoring (which I now understand to be wrong - monitoring should be off). Thanks for the option as I may use it both on and off, depending what kind of part on what instrument I'm playing, and whether I want to base it off a very tight funky hand movement, or a more relaxed part as I listen and self-compensate.

Regardless, it's been well worth adding it as an option at the very least if only to make me at least realise I should have turned monitoring off when I use direct monitoring, not mute the track and leave it on!!!

[ivanohe]

Hi,

I tried the "Reduced latency when monitoring" feature and either I misunderstand what it is supposed to do or it simply don't work as expected. What I am expecting is for the monitoring button of "IN" or "AUTO" to behave like when monitoring is set to "OFF" regarding the audio latency compensation.

Here the test I do :

- First, I set the latency of my soundcard to something very high in order to clearly see if there is latency compensation or not. On my M-audio, I set the buffer size to 4096 samples @ 44.1khz = 191ms overall latency.

- I start the metronome and press play to hear it

- I put my headphone over my microphone in order to do a loopback.

- Now, if I record enable an audio track, set the monitoring to OFF, and record a bar, the recorded audio and metronome will be in perfect sync. (the first beat of the metronome is exactly at 1.1.1 in the recorded wave clip). This is the normal behavior when monitoring is set to off.

- OK, now I try to record another clip but with monitoring set to "IN" or "AUTO". This will create echo in this setup (or feedback if using a loopback cable). However, I expect that the louder recorded click metronome sound will be aligned to 1.1.1 if the "Reduced latency when monitoring" feature work. However, the first click in the waveform start arround 190ms (my overall latency). I try with or without the "Reduced latency when monitoring" and got the same result.

- Next, I do another test with a live looper on the track. I set the looper output to "never" so I don't get to hear echo. This test would simulate a live looping situation when monitoring through the air (or via a mixer or direct monitoring hardware). With live looper, you must set monitoring to IN or AUTO. Once I record a loop, I can clearly hear it is not in sync with the metronome. Dragging the audio using the "Drag me!" button to another track, I can see the audio start at 190ms. I try with or without "Reduced latency when monitoring" and got same result...

So, please tell me what this feature is supposed to do. BTW: on live 8.2.6, I tried the -StrictDelayCompensation in options.txt without success too...

I am running on window 7 64bits.

Thanks
Yves

[ivanohe]

Ok, I was misunderstanding the purpose of the "Reduced latency when monitoring" button : This option work in tandem with the "delay compensation" option. It turn it on or off when monitoring track. This compensate the plug-in delay and not the audio interface delay like I was thinking.

Yves

[4strings]

Am I the only one having trouble dowloading 8.2.7? Its not my computer, cause I can easily dowload everything else from their site without issue. Any one else having this issue?