Help with Latency Apogee Symphony 64

[rct]

Hi MotuNation,

I am running DP 7.24 with Apogee Symphony 64 and AD16X and DA16X.

At a buffer setting of 64 the delay is substantial enough to cause a chorusing effect in the headphones, and distract live performers. At a buffer setting of 128, it is not possible to record live instruments.

The return trip from input to speaker output is 28ms at buffer setting of 128. Clean audio track, no plugins etc...

At a buffer of 256, forget even trying to play along, the delay is unworkable, but this is where the buffer setting needs to be if I am running a couple of VIs.

Has anyone encountered similar problems with their system? If so, how did you fix it, or did you just work around it?


Mac Pro 8 Core intel 24gig Ram Media Drive Arrays

[jweisbin]

The Apogee "Maestro" software allows you to monitor latency free. Unless you absolutely need to track through plugins, you should record dry and use that to monitor your inputs instead (turn off software monitoring in DP - I forgot what they call it in DP, but whatever it's equivalent is). Then you can set your buffer up to 256 or even 512 with no problems.

[rct]

Hi Thanks for your post.

Maestro is fine for recording one instrument dry, but its cumbersome and not a professional solution for tracking. It also does not allow efficient access and control of all the outboard gear and reverbs connected through Apogee's advanced routing.

Do you monitor through DP using Apogee gear, and do you encounter the same latency issues?

[jweisbin]

I have to disagree with you. It is easy to use and certainly there is nothing "non-professional" about it. It's just that if you want to track through plugins, such as reverb, without latency, then you are using the wrong equipment. Either use an outboard reverb and mixer, or use Avid/TDM hardware. I have just switched from Apogee to UAD Apollo and you can track through plugins with that as well, although there might still be some latency on up-sampled plugins.

I don''t use DP much anymore but the principle is the same regardless of the DAW.

[rct]

Just to clarify, the reverbs/effects I'm talking about are all outboard and connected the the Digital I/Os of the AD16X-DA16Xs - I don't track with any plugins. Setting up a couple of different headphone feeds using Maestro is also not as easy or fast as using a mixer style GUI, that's why its not my preferred option.

I agree with you about the Avid DAE, no latency at all, but using DAE with DP and many VIs now is a bit of a dead end. I understand DP will no longer be supporting DAE as an audio driver from 7.24 onwards, and my experience with VIs with DP and DAE has been less than reliable.

I guess Avid is the obvious alternative if I want latency free monitoring through software but, having run ProTools for 15 years, I still prefer DP to work with.

[jweisbin]

Looking at your original post, you speak of a "chorusing effect". Are you sure you are not BOTH monitoring through DP and Maestro? That would account for a flanging or chorusing effect. If you are monitoring with the Maestro, you should turn off software monitoring in DP, and vice versa.

In Maestro software, you can set up Mix A and Mix B, each can go to a separate set of outputs. So you can have one go to your control room monitors and one go to the Cue/musician mix.

Or you can set up sends from DP to your cue outputs to accomplish the same thing.

[jbyerly1]

When I first got my Ensemble I encountered this. Under the studio menu>Audio Patch Thru>Auto has worked for me. I am not using outboard gear as send/return. One of settings under Audio Patch Thru solved it for me.

Other than it drives me crazy that it will stop talking to DP and also Give me nasty crackles every once in a while the Apogee has been very reliable.

[rct]

Hi All,

Thanks for your posts and help. Definitely not monitoring thru DP and Maestro at the same time. The chorusing effect I am getting is due to the 20ms+ delays thru software monitoring.

I will double check all those other DP settings mentioned here.