Latency on a Focusrite Pro 14

Hi all

I have a new PC which has been built by a specialist audio PC company here in the UK. 

Intel i3 Dual 2100 3.1Ghz CPU. 4GB RAM and a firewire Focusrite Saffire Pro14 audio interface.

Playing the guitar is next to impossible because of the delay that occurs between hitting a string and hearing the sound through my headphones. I am running the signal through Guitar Rig 4. If I add Perfect Space to the the signal chain the latency is extreme, but even with no reverb it is very noticeable and too high. Even if I tap a mic with no VSTs in the chain, there is a noticeable gap between the "tap" and the sound coming through the headphones. 

If I look at the driver settings, ASIO reported latency is Input 46.9, Output 54.9, Total Round Trip 101.8 msecs. 

Isn't that way too high? Am I looking at the right thing? 

I had none of these problems with my old PC which ran an Audiophile 192 PCI.

Any suggestions please? I have the latest Pro 14 drivers installed. 

Bill

I have a focusrite usb saff 6.. here's something you might find..

in your audio devices in advanced.. you'll see 2 items listed for output perhaps.. maybe output 3/4 .. untick that and same with the 2nd sent of inputs perhaps  ... so only 1 focusrite usb is ticked on each.

then apply.. then apply the asio , in driver mode IF it's WDM mode

it might be that your not actually in asio mode for a start IF it's the same setup as my saff. 6

also go into the asio panel from within sonar.. it'll bring up focusrites one.. and you can change the buffer there

I'm guessing either of them 2 things will fix it.. and hopefully the focusrite thing is a family of drivers the same, like other card makers

might be your firewire otherwise.. none Ti chipset..

if you download speccy it should say

http://www.piriform.com/speccy

contact focusrite, they are good to get back to you.. I'd say post a screen shot of the audio setup..

c5_convertible


On the focusrite mixcontrol, you can set two things that influence the latency (both accessible via the Settings button. One of course is the ASIO buffer size, and the other is called firewire driver latency. Play with this setting as well, as this affects latency big time. Make sure no audio applications are running when you do this. (It will not allow you to change it when it is used). On my i5 (quad core) I set the Firewire driver latency to short and asio buffer size to 128. That results in roundtrip latency of 8.7ms. I don't have a saffire 14, but a saffire pro 40. I did have some issues at one time on another machine (with about the same specs) that used a different firewire chipset.

Thanks for all your replies, it was c5's suggestion that sorted it - I seem to be able to run the same settings as you with my dual i3, although that will depend on what else is going on in the track of course.


So simple when you know how...I had assumed that everything had been set up by the audio pc builders, but that wasn't the case. Still, we are now getting there, and as they say, the beer'll taste good tonight! 


Cheers guys,

Marshall: Glad you sorted it out. Keep an eye out for it though, as I've noticed that sometimes it resets back... In the beta version of the driver (which I'm using) they have sorted that problem out. If you want, you can install the beta (from beta.focusrite.com) but you need to know what you're doing, as it needs a different firewire (not saffire!!) driver for windows 7. It might break more than it fixes for you though.... And, it is a beta... I don't use the interface professionally, just playing with music, so I don't really care (sorta :)) if it breaks or not. But if you need it full-time, it's better to wait for the final version...