Softsynth latency Tried everything i can think of.... any ideas?

The effects that you are using may not be meant for recording . Some effects have built in latency and are not meant for real itiem recording, hence the added latency.

If WDM driver mode works better, then use that driver mode. Your suppose to try both driver modes and chose the one the best works for your DAW. So its ok using WDM as its ok using ASIO.

CJ

jazzman


I'd love to audition sounds when the mix is glorious and cooking on all cylinders.
You strip off the verb and the EQ's and its just not the same thing. 

I hope I'm not going off-topic but if you allow me to share some of my working-experience, perhaps it might help a little...


It seems to me like you're trying to record something that sounds like it's already mixed and mastered so you get the full sonic effect.


I sympathize and understand where you're coming from.


Problem is that even if you have a beast of a PC, FX plugins drain the system more than anything else which could also be another reason that's causing your latency apart from what our colleagues said above.


I use loads of orchestra VSTs - stuff that's very demanding on my system. So here's what I do to get a decent sound while recording. You might apply this to your needs.

I constructed a template in which I have all the panning ready. You know... violins on the left, celli on the right, etc and to get depth (front and back) I use a single reverb on a Bus - the most basic there is in Sonar.

Can't think of the name right now but it's not the sonitus one. It's one that comes bundled with Sonar, with the "ugly" very basic UI. Sounds a bit crappy but it's still reverb and helps to fill in a bit.

I put the four sections into 1 bus each (strings, brass, woodwinds & percussions) and on each bus I use a Send to the "Reverb Bus" and with this I control the level of reverb for each section for depth. The more reverb, the further back it sounds in your soundscape. So percussions (at the back) would have the most verb while strings (at the front) have the least.

Before I started using this system, I was using 4 reverbs - one for each section. And when I changed to the way I just described, I saw a drastic change in the CPU load in Sonar.

Once I'm done recording, I freeze my tracks, remove the low quality reverb and then I'm free to load all sorts of FX - in my case mostly reverbs, delays and other things that help achieve a nice ambience for the orchestra to sit in.

The computer struggles most when you're using VSTs and recording. Once you freeze tracks to WAV, the CPU has very little to compute except 'reading' what's in the wave tracks.

It might take some time to get used to basic 'raw' sound, but once you start having fun recording your songs smoothly, I think you will quickly get used to "putting up" with it until you get to the mixing / mastering stage.

I hope this helps!
Sam

5.4ms should be acceptable for live playing. If your real latency is longer than what the buffer sizes would dictate, it's because of one or more effects plugins. Many effects require their own internal buffering, which adds significant latency. Convolution reverbs are probably the worst but far from the only offenders. If I were using a laptop on stage, I'd prefer to use hardware effects such as your garden-variety reverb and delay stompboxes.

EDIT: I guess I took too long to answer your post; it seems you've already answered your own question.

LP-64 EQ and Multiband do it to me every time