Ableton Forum

Hi. I play live guitar through Ableton, and I want the lowest possible latency. I therefore use the lowest possible buffer size in my system, 32 samples. In Ableton this produces quite audible latency, and I loose "the feel".

Settings:
44100 sample rate
Buffer size 32
Input latency shows as 2.22 ms
Output latency shows as 3.22 ms
Overall latency shows as 5.44 ms

I suspect that the latency is higher than these values.

System specs:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2760QM CPU @ 2.40GHz, 64 bit.
Windows 10 Pro 21H1.
Live 10 Suite.
Behringer U-phoria UMC 1820 Sound card.
UMC ASIO driver

I then tried to play through VCV Rack https://vcvrack.com/ (a free modular system), and with the same sound card and buffer size the latency is way much lower (and therefore much better for my playing). How can this be?

In VCV Rack it shows Buffer 32 and a latency of just 0.7 ms.

I use no audio effects in Ableton, so the latency is not due to this.

5 ms is really nice.
Why do you suspect it is more?
You can measure it by playing a percussive hit and routing it back into the soundcard and recording it.
If it is not aligned properly then there you have the difference.


0.7 ms is ridiculously low.
Where do you see the reported latency?
I have VCV rack installed but haven't used it yet and I don't see any audio settings...
Maybe VCV rack is set to 192 kHz samplerate? Or the latency is not reported correctly.

Thank you! I will try the recording test.

In VCV i use the module "AUDIO 8", set to 44.1 kHz and block size 32. After the value 32 it says "0.7 ms".

That 0.7 ms will probably be the latency that the AUDIO 8 block itself will add.
Not the roundtrip latency of the sound card.

Using a higher sample rate will decrease the latency but will strain the computer more.
So you could try to set Ableton to 176400 Hz (if you want to keep a multiple of 44.1) to try it.

Thank you!