Low latency-why is it desirable?

Stupid question probably, but I was wondering...

I have the Tascam 1800, which is not known for its low latency.
 
But when I overdub over a playback, Sonar does all the timing compensation necessary to ensure the tracks are in sync.
 
So my question is: what situations benefit from the new modern low-latency interfaces?
 
 

low latency is necessary only for monitoring thru sonar during recording.

examples:
playing a MIDI controller (keyboard, e-drums, etc) and using a softsynth inside sonar to monitor during recording
playing a guitar or bass direct in while using NI GR or Amplitube to monitor during recording
recording vocals and wanting to hear the vox with reverb on them while recording.

anything that requires plugins or synths during monitoring while recording requires low latency.

"recording vocals and wanting to hear the vox with reverb on them while recording. "

I actually do do that (reverb in cans only; the original voice goes down dry) and the additional delay over the reverb doesn't really throw the artist.
 
"It also matters if you use soft synths and use a keyboard to play into it. Its very disconcerting to play something and hear it an hour later."

True, although my Tascam adds 20ms on a bad day. The speed of sound is 340m/s, so that's like being around 10 yards away. Bands play on stages that size.  

JazzSinger


"playing a guitar or bass direct in while using NI GR or Amplitube to monitor during recording"

Ah. Tried that. Now, that IS problematic. Yes.

Having a modern low-latency interface I have no problem with that at all.

No buzzin' either...

I've always had trouble with stage monitors being more than about 10 feet away also as what I'm playing I get the instant acoustic feedback and physical feeling direct from that but when combined with the foldback being too far away and it's like some tiny amount of off putting 'slap-back' delay, combine that with the reflections of a bigger hall and it can get really confusing.

About 12 ms RTL is about my threshold of comfort, but lower is even better and I'm usually running at 7ms measured max.

JazzSinger

True, although my Tascam adds 20ms on a bad day. The speed of sound is 340m/s, so that's like being around 10 yards away. Bands play on stages that size.  

You'll usually have a monitor wedge closer to you than 10 yards, though. Being too far from your sound source is uncomfortable even on a small stage!

JazzSinger

"playing a guitar or bass direct in while using NI GR or Amplitube to monitor during recording"

Ah. Tried that. Now, that IS problematic. Yes.

Sure is, especially when you set your CPU usage to 'HI' in Guitar Rig. It's in the upper right hand corner in GR4.

What's nice is, a lot of cards have built in DSP Effects so you can hear basic effects but record dry with 0 latency. So far I've seen reverb, delay, modulation, but no distortion for guitar. EMU sound cards had excellent built in effects and came bundled with VST versions as well. The EMU0404 was one of the best consumer grade cards of all time imo. 192kHz/24bit and tons of effects right on the card.

Cactus Music


(Its very disconcerting to play something and hear it an hour later." ) ----------------------------------------------------------------------But this gives you plenty of time to figure out the next chord position and go fetch a beer.

"Sure is, especially when you set your CPU usage to 'HI' in Guitar Rig."
 
Ah, of course. Effect plugs also add delay. 

"What's nice is, a lot of cards have built in DSP Effects"
 
I recently got a PreSonus AudioBox 22VSL which has the effects in the driver. They claim 2.7ms latency for the effects.

"So far I've seen reverb, delay, modulation, but no distortion for guitar."
 
Same here. The PreSonus has compression, EQ, delay, reverb but no distortion.

Once i got this tip from a recording engineer: Put a DI box with in-out jacks between the guitar and the pedals. The guitarist can then play naturally; even use feedback sustain techniques, but you record the clean signal from the XLR output into Sonar to process later.

"EMU sound cards had excellent built in effects and came bundled with VST versions as well. The EMU0404 was one of the best consumer grade cards of all time imo."

Unfortunately it is a card not a USB box, so I can't use it on my laptop.

But its still available, and not expensive!

http://www.thomann.de/gb/emu_0404_pci_express.htm

With a relatively modern high-speed quad-core i7  or  hex-core I7  *and* a quality low latency interface and  drivers  [  ie: RME, EchoAudio, Lynx etc..... ]   and Windows 7 X64  you can:-
 
=> set your latency to  32 samples  [ if PCI ]  or 48 samples [ if USB ]  and   get Real-World-Actual-Round-Trip-Latecny  in the   ~3.6ms <-> ~4.9ms range and  leave it set and forget about it ........ recording / input monitoring / soft-synths /  mixing  etc ......

and

=>  run huge / heavy load projects

Have been running my DAW rigs as above ever since Vista SP2 came out  - it was Vista SP2 that  fixed the audio sub-system 'vs' video sub-system conflicts that made  sub-5ms latency impossible in Vista SP0 or Vista SP1.

The above was also  " acheivable "  in  XP X32 SP2  and  XP X64 but due to ram limitations in the former and  under-developed drivers for the later, DAW's on these foundations were never ready for  huge-load-ultra-low-latency-prime-time.

TomG