Big latency problem with vst's

timbels · Post by **timbels** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 1:18 pm

I hope you guys can help me with a little anoying problem.
I used to work in Cubase but recently switched to Ableton with great pleasure.
Only 1 problem i can't seem to get fixed gives me a lot of trouble.

I don't have a very good soundcard (sb live) but with some custom asio drivers i could still get a nice latency of between 5 and 8 ms.
In cubase i could play my vsy plug-ins (fm7, albino, battery) without problems and with good timing but when i try this in ableton the latency is extremely big. (feels like half a second or so).
Even dough the preferences info says my latency is around 5 ms in and 5 out (overall 10).

I tried al settings (in my asio driver as well as in ableton preferences) but with no luck.
I hoped you could tell me were the problem lays in this question.
The strange thing is no other audio/midi seqenser i tried gave me this big latency probs.
For your info: operator/simpler give me a perfect latency, (only happens with vst's)

I hope you can give me a simple solution. (i wanna know first before i decide to buy a new soundcard).
Thanks in advance, (sorry for the bad english).

GaryTracks · Post by **GaryTracks** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 2:57 am

i use 2 tracks;

one has Battery with (for my computer) a -95.0ms Track Delay on the track. monitor is set to IN,

the second track is set with a +70.0ms Track Delay. This track's monitor is set to OFF. I use this track for recording. this tracks inputs come from the first track.

after recording the clip , i drag it to the first track. it is then in sync with the metronome.

I got the specific track delays, just by seeing what sounds best. i don't understand their significance numerically.

the -95.0ms track is the one i am monitoring, and the negative track delay increases the attack of playing Battery.

toneklang · Post by **toneklang** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:46 am

Hi.

I have the same problem with MIDI-latency on my Live 6 version. Now, the solution above seems like a good way too solve the problem, but you can't be on stage and fiddle around with delays and offsets on recordings and see what sounds the best. Ableton need to come up with a solution to this problem, or else the whole idea of realtime recording and manipulation is lost.

Best regards

Toneklang

Ps. I didn't have these problems on 5.2.2, so it must be something with Live 6.

Andreas Zapf · Post by **Andreas Zapf** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 3:01 pm

Hi,

please check the plugin buffer size setting (it's located on the 'CPU' page in the preferences). Generally it should be set to "As audio buffer".

A VSTi plugin will cause a delay of that buffer size, for example if you're running Live at 44.1 kHz and have 8192 samples of plugin buffer size you'll get about 185 ms latency.

Note that changing the plugin buffer size will not affect plugins that are already in the set, so you should re-open your set after doing so.

Regards,
Andreas