Biome Digital
Been waiting for Studio one to evolve.
Studio One has evolved.
I think they will sort some things out with settings and they may adjust it so the best latency figures should be achieved in LLM mode rather than outside it.
(this is with instrument monitoring and only under certain conditions. There are other circumstances where the lowest latency does happen with LLM mode on) It is not that important how it is set, it is all about getting the figures low for virtual instruments especially. I like it when the software feels as fast as the hardware does.
On the audio side, plugins can be used in real time during tracking easily as long as they meet certain conditions. I am about to do some testing on the audio side now. It is important to feed signals into the DAW under test from the outside and record and measure the results of the DAW under test in a second DAW. I can do this as I have Studio One setup on both PC and Mac machines. Both at the latest version. I am making the MAC machine the DAW under test because of the thunderbolt interface and how well Focusrite interfaces perform under these conditions. At 16 samples it is a little better than the RME PCI interface
(32 samples min only on the PCI buss audio interface for some reason) on my PC machine. I am about to test an RME Fireface at 16 samples both for instrument and audio latency.
(For some reason 16 samples shows up for the FF800 on the Mac. This may be a MAC/thunderbolt/Firewire 800 thing rather than an interface thing) You can use dropout protection and LLM mode at the same time. The audio side is achieving some amazing LL figures. Good for jamming over large complex session playing back.
Another use is for live recording. I did a large multitrack session recently with a band in a room with a PA.
(One of my fave approaches to recording) Every input signal came direct to the audio interfaces.
(mics and DI's) Everyone hears the PA.
I used a thunderbolt interface with the LLM mode and was achieving instant response from the PA buses while tracking and monitoring purely through the software. I was able to set up multiple headphone mixes and things even with effects and still have the PA buses with no perceived delay of any sort.
(Mind you Dropout Protection not needed because there was nothing playing back!) The PA was doing a lot. Vocals (foldback), keyboards and acoustic guitars fitted with pickups, electric violin, all at once. If you mic everything else carefully and choose the mics well, you will barely hear the PA in the spill on the close mic'd tracks.