High Latency

Nuno
Posts: 13
Joined: Mon Mar 04, 2019 12:47 pm

Re: High Latency

Post by Nuno » Wed Jun 23, 2021 10:10 am

Some PCs are better than others, and that might surprise us because sometimes the cheaper one is better for the task.
I won't defend Dell laptops, but I can tell from my own experience that using a Dell Latitude E7240 (?) was as easy as it could be. No problems at all.
Then I bought a new HP Pavilion for my wife and got latency issues using Aerodrums,
Decided to test an old NetBook, a very cheap Acer ES1 that I bought new several years ago for less than 200€ and was not being unused anymore. Great latency and that Acer became the exclusive aerodrums machine.
I removed all software, turned wifi off and only use it for aerodrums. It's a great machine for the task.

shdixon
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2021 4:50 am
Location: Heath, Ohio USA

Re: High Latency

Post by shdixon » Wed Jun 23, 2021 12:17 pm

That's GREAT information. It just goes to show when it comes to latency you just never know. I don't know if it applies anymore but a computer's internal highway, or buss, is one of the keys to latency. You need speed at every point in processing from the processor, video, and buss. Nuno also added turning off WiFi, Bluetooth, and remove any unnecessary software. Anything that is resource hungry. If you can dedicate a computer to Aerodrums then remove your antivirus software. Also, NEVER run two antivirus software at the same time. Thanks again.
Stan Dixon
shdixon@gmail.com
Heath, Ohio USA

Wolfgang
Posts: 187
Joined: Tue Jul 07, 2015 11:36 am

Re: High Latency

Post by Wolfgang » Wed Jun 23, 2021 2:12 pm

shdixon wrote:
Sat Jun 19, 2021 4:49 am
We also found that if you took the battery out and ran only using the power adapter, there were no skips.
You know, maybe you saved my life ;). One of my laptops is a Dell Latitude E6410 with i7 processor and an external USB sound card with proprietary ASIO drivers and I can use it only with Aerodrums as a MIDI device because of regulary drop outs in the audio-outputs without any reason (no spikes in disk/memory or processor activity). And I’ve really tried all optimisations I know.
After I’ve read your post I’ve taken off the battery and played some hours, and no dropout.
And I rememered a setting in my BIOS called “Charger Behaviour” where you can enable/disable the charging function when the computer is running. Disabled it and no problem since, but havn’t really tested a very long time.
Thank you for getting me on the right track.

shdixon
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2021 4:50 am
Location: Heath, Ohio USA

Re: High Latency

Post by shdixon » Thu Jun 24, 2021 6:27 am

Great! Glad to be helpful.
Stan Dixon
shdixon@gmail.com
Heath, Ohio USA

Wolfgang
Posts: 187
Joined: Tue Jul 07, 2015 11:36 am

Re: High Latency

Post by Wolfgang » Thu Jun 24, 2021 11:22 am

Nuno wrote:
Wed Jun 23, 2021 10:10 am
Some PCs are better than others, and that might surprise us because sometimes the cheaper one is better for the task.
I was using Aerodrums mostly with low-spec laptops, because I wanted to take Aerodrums everywhere with me and I didn’t want to take the risk to use my best one for this.
The first was a HP Probook 6450b from 2009/2010 with a Celeron P4500 @ 1,87GHz processor I got for 25€ in 2014. Used it for 3 years just for Aerodrums in it’s third alternative graphic mode with an external Behringer UCA202 USB sound card for about 22€ which came with it’s own proprietary ASIO drivers. And no problem with latency. With what I’ve seen Aerodrums alone doesn’t need a power computer, but a good sound card with it’s OWN proprietary ASIO drivers for best performance. There might occur problems with old computers (before 2010) where the graphic card isn’t compatible OpenGL 2.0.

Aerodrums 3D is another story. No one of my laptops can run it. However it runs quite good on my little daughter’s entry-level Android tablet for under 100€.

My most important things I verify before a gig with Aerodrums:
- deactivate Windows sounds
- deactivate notifications in Windows
- deactivate ALL network devices, not only the wireless ones
- deactivate Windows update (maybe not nessessary with no active network device)
- deactivate antivirus

And I used nearly all optimizations (excerpt 15 and 20 and I don’t turn off Windows Firewall because I deactivate all network devices) mentioned in this article:

20 ways to optimize your Windows 10 PC for music production

You can find a lot ideas by doing the following research in Google:

how to optimize windows 10 for daw


About USB sound-cards

Even if WASAPI is coming, ASIO is still the standard for all professional music software for Windows. If you want to spend money for an external USB sound-card for your Windows computer you should make sure the manufacturer has developed it’s own ASIO drivers for it. In case he just offers ASIO4All run away.

If you need a good and cheap USB sound-card with good connectors (and for me it’s just a condition for using Aerodrums with a group) I suggest the Behringer UCA202 USB sound card, actually for 20.40€ @ Thomann. Works with Linux and Mac without any additional driver. But for Windows they are offering today only the generic ASIO4All and this is a shame!
UCA202.jpg
UCA202.jpg (14.31 KiB) Viewed 18891 times
And if you need ASIO don’t use this card with ASIO4All! The old driver was much better. With the old HP Probook I could go down to 128 buffers what I couldn’t with ASIO4All without crackling noises. When I bought this card in 2015 it came with it’s own ASIO driver. Behringer have retired them (there was also 32bit driver) for whatever reason, but it works very well with Windows 10, never had a problem. And other than ASIO4All, this driver lets you still use your Windows sounds, listening to YouTube, etc while using ASIO low-latency for Aerodrums. To find this driver do following research in Google
BEHRINGER_2902_X64_2.8.40

Be carefull what you download! This is the original file from Behringer:
BEHRINGER_2902_X64_2.8.40.zip
MD5: E4462F7F5B17586F6201856F2A882975
821KB

This driver works also with a lot of other legacy Behringer devices like mixers and controller keyboards:
UMA25S, UCA200*, UCA202, UCA222, UFO202, UCG102, iAXE393/624/629 and many more.
*bundled with UMX series, XENYX mixers, PODCASTUDIO USB
Personally I use this same driver also with my UMA25S MIDI controller keyboard and my old XENYX QX1202 mixer.

Just seen at Google that there is another package (854KB) and a lot of scam. Don’t download any other download-helper or whatever! The good file is under 1 MB.
You can check the md5 checksum of all files in the installation directory with my attached Checksum.md5 file.
CHECKSUM.txt
(524 Bytes) Downloaded 865 times

Looking for high quality sound-card without breaking the bank?
I got me a Behringer UMC1820 more than a year ago, it’s a very good sound card with an unbeatable price / performance ratio. And it’s the same for all the Behringer’s U-Phoria UMC family. Most musicians I’m playing with on Jamulus are using one of these UMC 202/204/404 HD.
Last edited by Wolfgang on Sat Jul 03, 2021 3:09 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Ringowig
Posts: 104
Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2014 11:54 am

Re: High Latency

Post by Ringowig » Sun Jun 27, 2021 1:53 pm

Hi Wolfgang...I have exactly the same little soundcard which I used with no issues with Aerodrums and my old 2015 Netbook!...it’s a great bit of kit! ...cheers!

Wolfgang
Posts: 187
Joined: Tue Jul 07, 2015 11:36 am

Re: High Latency

Post by Wolfgang » Sat Jul 03, 2021 3:10 pm

Ringowig wrote:
Sun Jun 27, 2021 1:53 pm
Hi Wolfgang...I have exactly the same little soundcard which I used with no issues with Aerodrums and my old 2015 Netbook!...it’s a great bit of kit! ...cheers!
Hi Mitch,
Did you use it with the original ASIO driver from Behringer or with ASIO4All? Have you tried it with your Mac?

Ringowig
Posts: 104
Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2014 11:54 am

Re: High Latency

Post by Ringowig » Tue Jul 06, 2021 8:57 am

Hi Wolfgang, sorry for the late reply. I used ASIO4ALL with my Windows notepad. I use my Mac now for Aerodrums with my small Behringer Xenyx 302 USB mixer. I haven’t tried the UCA with the Mac.

Regards,

Mitch

alex29
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2022 4:03 am

Re: High Latency

Post by alex29 » Wed Aug 17, 2022 4:08 am

How can I understand there's a latency issue?
I don't get a crazy long one for sure, but it feels a bit wrong to me, especially with pedals, and maybe with sticks too. If I try to play something slow, it's ok, but for a faster tempo I kind of get lost - I feel like I need to slow down to get the notes positioned right.
The LatencyMon shows good numbers, I tried all the troubleshooting steps too.

Should I go for external USB audio? Would it definitely solve any issues? (the ones from the "recommended" lists).

Richard
Posts: 1012
Joined: Wed Feb 26, 2014 1:45 am

Re: High Latency

Post by Richard » Tue Sep 06, 2022 1:07 pm

Hi, I'm sorry for the long delay approving your post - I somehow missed it.

The latency should be practically imperceptible when playing with the sticks so it does sound like you have a latency issue. I assume you are using Exclusive WASAPI as the audio device (set from the Aerodrums Latency screen) and you have played with the audio buffer size setting. Exclusive WASAPI takes full control over the sound card so it typically gives much lower latency than the alternatives but of course some audio drivers behave better than others in terms of latency.

For example, we came across one case with a Dell XPS laptop where the default Realtek drivers gave a lot of latency when using Exclusive WASAPI but switching to the generic Microsoft audio drivers gave much better results. So it could be the case that updating your audio drivers would help, for instance.

I think it is quite likely that switching to an external USB sound card would solve your problem. We have used this one (less than $10) in the past and it worked well:
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External ... 00IRVQ0F8/

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