11DreamsI thought I would have a latency issue when I put an amp plug on my bass and hit echo but it was still zero.
I think Cakewalk has nailed the latency thing at least for me.
If I happen to use a midi controller it plugs in usb with zero issues. I think though, there are too many setups and drivers that can fix or mess up an audio chain. It's definitely a balancing act and if I can get it to work anyone can.
ha!
Latency is determined by three things more than anything else.
The first is how well the computer can handle the requirements of near real-time audio processing, which is related to the processing power of the cpu and data bus but can be thrown by things such as badly written device drivers or drivers which take too much time in their share of the multi-tasking jobs, amd may have nothing to do with audiomprocessing at all. On Windows PCs wi-fi drivers are a notorious example of this, though Macs generally don't suffer from the same issue despite using similar hardware.
The second is how efficient the audio interface's driver is and the interface hardware itself. Many interfaces have a kind of built-in "secret safety buffer" which is added to the buffer set by the driver but not reported by the driver to the DAW. Few interface manufacturers will acknowledge what the real-world minimum possible latency of their products is. RME are one of the exceptions and do explain this, and the internal latency of their devices is about as low as the laws of physics allows them to be. Their PC and Mac drivers are also very well behaved indeed.
The third factor is plugins. Some can cope with doing all their stuff within the time allowed by a very small audio drover buffer so add no additional latency. Others can not, or rely on things such as "look ahead" and add varying amounts of latency to the driver-set value. Things like convolution reverbs, compressors with a "look ahead" function and linear phase eqs tend to be the worst culprits. Again, few manufacturers say what the latency implications of their products are, Waves being a notable exception.
So your bass amp plugin is presumably coded to create as little internal latency as possible, which is what you'd expect from a competently written amp emulator because it's very likely to be monitored through the DAW.
As for mixers, an RME UFX is basically a 12 input channel (8 line, 4 mic/line), 8 hardware output channel digital mixer controlled by their Totalmix software which looks and behaves like a high-end traditional mixing console with a huge number of routing possibilities, comprehensive eq and dynamics, basic reverb and delay and the ability to further inputs and outputs via ADAT plus SP/DIF. Which can be configured as a rack mount live mixer controlled by an iPad if you want. Their mic pres are also pretty good as it happens.