Hi! I think there's something strange about my latency values. I think i have a "top notch" computer and as I understand it (?) the sound card should not affect latency significantly, if you don't record audio (as long as you have asio drivers). Therefore, I don't understand why I need such a big buffert size to not get annoying / high latency. So, the question of what that could be the bottleneck or problem, have been on my mind now for a couple of days, and i've been reading and googeling like crazy.
My brother says that it doesn't depend on my sound card (because I have asio drivers), and he emphasizes that the computer's CPU alone, processes the sound. But i personally think it probably anyway have with my sound card to do. Since I believe my computer is well above average. Perhaps rotten asio drivers ..?
My main recording software is Record and Reason, and there I don't think it's a problem with latency, since I fiddled with the sound card settings (didn't really understand what I did, more than that I adjusted for as low latency as possible). But in the recent days I have installed Ableton Live and when I set the sound card settings, I had to increase the buffer size to 512 samples, in order to completely avoid the crackling of the test tone. 256 samples worked almost flawlessly, but a small crackling came now and then. But I believe that my computer is so good that I should be able to go as low as 64 samples, so I thought I'd ask you experts here on the forum. Those of you who got everything to work well. And therefore i'm gonna post my computer specs here (not quite sure what you need to know, so I'm posting a bit too much instead of posting too little).
First, let me just say that it says on my soundcard preferences that the driver works in 16 bits. Thtat my set sample rate is 44100. And in the preferences in Ableton it says that the input latency is 8.13 ms and that the output latency is 27.5 ms (ie 41.3 ms overall latency). And that's when the buffer size is set to 512 samples (ie, when there is no crackle at all in the test tone when Ableton simulates heavy CPU work). If i lower it to 256 samples (ie, with 99.9% crackle free test tone) Ableton reports a 7.96 ms input latency, and 15.9 ms output latency (ie 23.9 ms overall latency).
Here are my computer specs:
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600)
System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model: X48-DQ6
BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9450 @ 2.66GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.7GHz
Memory: 8192MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 8190MB RAM
Page File: 2640MB used, 13738MB available
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Sound Devices
-------------
Description: TonePort UX2 (2- Line 6 TonePort UX2) http://line6.com/toneportux2/
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Manufacturer ID: 1
Type: WDM
Driver Name: L6TPortB64.sys
Driver Version: 4.01.0001.0007 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: n/a
Driver Provider: Line 6
HW Accel Level: Basic
Cap Flags: 0xF1F
Min/Max Sample Rate: 100, 200000
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs:1, 0
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: No
EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm: No
---------------------
Sound Capture Devices
---------------------
Description: Digital Audio Interface (2- Line 6 TonePort UX2)
Default Sound Capture: Yes
Default Voice Capture: Yes
Driver Name: L6TPortB64.sys
Driver Version: 4.01.0001.0007 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Date and Size: 9/7/2010 23:45:04, 770816 bytes
Cap Flags: 0x1
Format Flags: 0xFFFFF
Description: Digital Audio (S/PDIF) (High Definition Audio Device)
Default Sound Capture: No
Default Voice Capture: No
Driver Name: HdAudio.sys
Driver Version: 6.01.7600.16385 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Date and Size: 7/14/2009 01:07:00, 350208 bytes
Cap Flags: 0x1
Format Flags: 0xFFFFF
Hope you can help me with this, cause this is far above my abilities! Would be really nice to know what could be wrong. I believe that my computer should be good enough for 6 ms latency in and out (ie 12 ms total latency). But maybe I ought to know that I'm wrong about that. Otherwise, I would like to know if there would be a good idea to replace the sound card, i'd be happy to know if I should go for an internal card, or a good external one. And if I should go for USB or Firewire (USB 3 is soon here, and as far as i know the new cable and old ports will work out well?) And my brother says that Firewire is on hospice, waiting to die.
PS: Here is some additional information for those who want more before they can say something about this:
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USB Devices
-----------
+ USB Root Hub
| Vendor/Product ID: 0x8086, 0x2936
| Matching Device ID: usb\root_hub
| Service: usbhub
|
+-+ Line 6 TonePort UX2
| | Vendor/Product ID: 0x0E41, 0x4142
| | Location: Port_#0002.Hub_#0007
| | Matching Device ID: usb\vid_0e41&pid_4142
| | Service: L6TPortB
------------------------
Disk & DVD/CD-ROM Drives
------------------------
Drive: C:
Free Space: 89.6 GB
Total Space: 143.0 GB
File System: NTFS
Model: WDC WD1500AHFD-00RAR5 ATA Device
Drive: D:
Free Space: 314.4 GB
Total Space: 715.4 GB
File System: NTFS
Model: ST3750330AS ATA Device
Drive: G:
Free Space: 73.1 GB
Total Space: 143.1 GB
File System: NTFS
Model: WDC WD1500AHFD-00RAR5 ATA Device
Drive: M:
Free Space: 592.6 GB
Total Space: 610.3 GB
File System: NTFS
Model: SAMSUNG HD642JJ ATA Device
Drive: E:
Model: _NEC DVD_RW ND-2500A ATA Device
Driver: c:\windows\system32\drivers\cdrom.sys, 6.01.7600.16385 (Swedish), , 0 bytes
Drive: F:
Model: NUDK RS9YBK5M7K1 SCSI CdRom Device
Driver: c:\windows\system32\drivers\cdrom.sys, 6.01.7600.16385 (Swedish), , 0 bytes
Drive: K:
Model: NUDK RS9YBK5M7K1 SCSI CdRom Device
Driver: c:\windows\system32\drivers\cdrom.sys, 6.01.7600.16385 (Swedish), , 0 bytes
Drive: I:
Model: HUAWEI Mass Storage USB Device
Driver: c:\windows\system32\drivers\cdrom.sys, 6.01.7600.16385 (Swedish), , 0 bytes
--------------
System Devices
--------------
Name: High Definition Audio Controller
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_293E&SUBSYS_ A0221458&REV_02\3&13C0B0C5&0&D8
Driver: n/a
Name: Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2934
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2934&SUBSYS_50041458&REV_02\3&13C0B0C5&0&E8
Driver: n/a
Name: Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
Device ID: PCI\VEN_197B&DEV_2363&SUBSYS_B0001458&REV_02\4&2B25BDF6&0&00E3
Driver: n/a
Name: Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 293C
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_293C&SUBSYS_50061458&REV_02\3&13C0B0C5&0&D7
Driver: n/a
Name: Intel(R) ICH9 Family SMBus Controller - 2930
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2930&SUBSYS_50011458&REV_02\3&13C0B0C5&0&FB
Driver: n/a
Name: Realtek RTL8168B/8111B Family PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.0) #2
Device ID: PCI\VEN_10EC&DEV_8168&SUBSYS_E0001458&REV_02\4&39AEACF1&0&00E5
Driver: n/a
Name: Intel(R) X38/X48 Express Chipset PCI Express Root Port - 29E9
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_29E9&SUBSYS_50001458&REV_01\3&13C0B0C5&0&30
Driver: n/a
Name: Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 293A
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_293A&SUBSYS_50061458&REV_02\3&13C0B0C5&0&EF
Driver: n/a
Name: Realtek RTL8168B/8111B Family PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.0)
Device ID: PCI\VEN_10EC&DEV_8168&SUBSYS_E0001458&REV_02\4&1B8E5D96&0&00E4
Driver: n/a
Name: Intel(R) X38/X48 Express Chipset Processor to I/O Controller - 29E0
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_29E0&SUBSYS_50001458&REV_01\3&13C0B0C5&0&00
Driver: n/a
Name: Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2939
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2939&SUBSYS_50041458&REV_02\3&13C0B0C5&0&D2
Driver: n/a
Name: Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2922&SUBSYS_B0051458&REV_02\3&13C0B0C5&0&FA
Driver: n/a
Name: Texas Instruments 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller
Device ID: PCI\VEN_104C&DEV_8024&SUBSYS_10001458&REV_00\4&30D54F48&0&30F0
Driver: n/a
Name: Intel(R) ICH9 Family PCI Express Root Port 6 - 294A
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_294A&SUBSYS_50011458&REV_02\3&13C0B0C5&0&E5
Driver: n/a
Name: Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2938
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2938&SUBSYS_50041458&REV_02\3&13C0B0C5&0&D1
Driver: n/a
Name: High Definition Audio Controller
Device ID: PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_AA28&SUBSYS_AA281043&REV_00\4&2C004D25&0&0130
Driver: n/a
Name: Intel(R) ICH9 Family PCI Express Root Port 5 - 2948
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2948&SUBSYS_50011458&REV_02\3&13C0B0C5&0&E4
Driver: n/a
Name: Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2937
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2937&SUBSYS_50041458&REV_02\3&13C0B0C5&0&D0
Driver: n/a
Name: Intel(R) ICH9R LPC Interface Controller - 2916
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2916&SUBSYS_50011458&REV_02\3&13C0B0C5&0&F8
Driver: n/a
Name: ATI Radeon HD 3400 Series
Device ID: PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_95C5&SUBSYS_01D41043&REV_00\4&2C004D25&0&0030
Driver: n/a
Name: Intel(R) ICH9 Family PCI Express Root Port 4 - 2946
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2946&SUBSYS_50011458&REV_02\3&13C0B0C5&0&E3
Driver: n/a
Name: Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2936
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2936&SUBSYS_50041458&REV_02\3&13C0B0C5&0&EA
Driver: n/a
Name: Intel(R) 82801 PCI Bridge - 244E
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_244E&SUBSYS_50001458&REV_92\3&13C0B0C5&0&F0
Driver: n/a
Name: Intel(R) ICH9 Family PCI Express Root Port 1 - 2940
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2940&SUBSYS_50011458&REV_02\3&13C0B0C5&0&E0
Driver: n/a
Name: Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2935
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2935&SUBSYS_50041458&REV_02\3&13C0B0C5&0&E9
Driver: n/a
---------------
EVR Power Information
---------------
Current Setting: {5C67A112-A4C9-483F-B4A7-1D473BECAFDC} (Quality)
Quality Flags: 2576
Enabled:
Force throttling
Allow half deinterlace
Allow scaling
Decode Power Usage: 100
Balanced Flags: 1424
Enabled:
Force throttling
Allow batching
Force half deinterlace
Force scaling
Decode Power Usage: 50
PowerFlags: 1424
Enabled:
Force throttling
Allow batching
Force half deinterlace
Force scaling
Decode Power Usage: 0
Incredibly grateful for expert help! For example what sound card do you have? And how high is your latency (In and Out)? And what are your computer specifications (RAM + CPU)?