• SONAR
  • Question: Platinum lower latency than X3 or not ? (p.3)
2016/11/20 14:58:09
Sanderxpander
Again, modern DAWs compensate for plugin latency automatically. You will not get any latency "inside the mix". If you really think about it, the very idea makes no sense. I'm sorry to say but you're just chasing a red herring here. Anyway, you'll do what you need to do, happy music making none the less!
2016/11/20 15:43:42
tlw
Sanderxpander's right.
 
Sonar, like most DAWs, asks the ASIO driver, Core Audio, whatever, what the set latency is, plus you have the option of adjusting that figure in Sonar's preferences if it's noticeably incorrect, which doesn't happen very often.
 
What this means is that Sonar then automatically corrects for latency when placing audio on the time-line. It also compensates for a plugin's own latency as well, and usually gets it right unless the plugin is really badly written. All done automatically.
 
Latency affects the time when we hear something while we are playing or mixing. It almost never* affects where the audio is placed in time or what the mix sounds like after the pass the automation was written, the fader moved etc. other than if there are plugins that require say 50ms to do their thing Sonar will delay commencing playback by 50ms to give that plugin a chance to get up to speed before everything happens. You probably won't notice even that, especially as Sonar has a default start delay of 250ms so it can read and process the first chunks of MIDI tracks.
 
*there are times a DAW gets it wrong, but mostly that's when you're using MIDI to drive external hardware synths and the software doesn't know how long it takes that synth to produce a sound after it gets the MIDI. But even then it's a matter of a few milliseconds at most.
 
Edited to add - in response to your original question, Platinum feels "snappier" than X3 to me, but there's no audio latency difference I've noticed. I just leave the UFX at 64 samples at 44.1KHz and pretty much forget about it. I could run X3 or Plat at the lowest latency the UFX driver allows, but all that results in is having to start increasing the latency a bit as the project grows. So I might as well start where I will end up anyway.
2016/11/20 16:27:18
Klaus
Sheanes
My RME UC does not let me lower buffers all the way, whenever I have a project open.
(I can before opening a project).
I could/want to lower them more as my projects are small/light on a strong computer.
Guess RME built in a safety feature to prevent crashes.
 



You have to change the buffers settings of your RME UC from inside SONAR.
 
Preferences>Audio>Driver>Settings:
 
Click on the ASIO Panel button, this will launch RME's own Driver Settings panel.
 
Now you can change the buffer settings, close RME's Driver Settings window and accept the changes in SONAR.
You don't have to restart SONAR.
 
I do this all the time and never had a problem.
 
Edit to add:
This is not a "could work or not" solution. It's intended to work this way.
2016/11/20 16:55:14
Sheanes
Hi Klaus, thanks for your help and workinstruction how to change the buffer settings.
I think RME somehow set a minimum buffer size for high sample rates, and therefore I cannot get it lower.
But it's ok.
Appreciate your reply, thanks
2016/11/20 17:04:49
Sheanes
Hi TLW / Sander, thanks for all your replies / explaining etc....much appreciated.
 
 
 
 
2016/11/20 19:06:28
Sanderxpander
Minimum buffer size for my UCX at 96KHz is 96 samples which results in just 3ms total roundtrip latency. Which is a ridiculously low figure, I find it hard to think of a practical situation where you'd need it to be lower, especially since TotalMix has the most flexible direct monitoring in the business.
2016/11/20 19:55:17
joyof60
TLW, I have no idea how ya'll did it in 'the day', very glad ya'll did though, and today I feel so ashamed we complained about the price....
2016/11/20 20:08:03
Sheanes
I think there is no such thing as latency compensation.
That is just my opinion and I understand you think otherwise.
In my opinion any latency is applied to the music, and even if you sync /correct the timeline a 100%...that does not remove the latency (at least that's how I see it at this point).
Fe, if you have a drumtrack and put 3 reverbs and 5 limiters and some multibands on it.....that drumtrack will sound a bit lamer/duller/not as beefy anymore.....I think.
Even if you line up everything else and move that drumtrack to 0 on the timeline, it's not gonna sound as good again as it was before all the effects.
Anyway, we can (and probably will) disagree about it, that's fine.
A situation IN MY OPINION where you'd need a rediculous low latency as you say, would be if you work with stems that have been mixed and mastered allready before you import them into your remix project
2016/11/21 00:18:47
Sanderxpander
Then all further discussion on this topic is useless. Let's get back to making music, everyone! :)
2016/11/21 00:27:44
elsongs
Sheanes
Just hoping someone checked if upgrading to Platinum reduced the roundtrip latency or not, compared to X3 ?
Happy with X3 and I just hate the upgrading work....the only thing making it worthwile for me is a lower latency really.
Thanks, appreciate any report about this subject.
 
 




Can't really give an accurate answer to this, as when I upgraded to Platinum, I also upgraded to Windows 10 and a brand new audio interface...
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