Latency comes from two sources:

• Audio Interface (determined by the ASIO buffer size)
• Latent plugins

If you have a latent plugin inserted anywhere in the project, automatic plugin-delay-compensation will delay ALL other audio to keep things 100% in sync.  Thus, don't use latent plugins when tracking... oruse the global PDC bypass button (in the Control Bar) to temporarily disable PDC while tracking.

Jim Roseberry


Latency comes from two sources:

• Audio Interface (determined by the ASIO buffer size)
• Latent plugins

If you have a latent plugin inserted anywhere in the project, automatic plugin-delay-compensation will delay ALL other audio to keep things 100% in sync.  Thus, don't use latent plugins when tracking... oruse the global PDC bypass button (in the Control Bar) to temporarily disable PDC while tracking.

In general terms, yes, but it can also come from background services that periodically 'spike' the latency, as well as some hardware devices - such as wireless devices, and I believe insufficient memory for the given project can also cause latency/dropout issues.  Sometimes things like antivirus software, or that sort of thing.


Bob Bone

I assume you have at least 8 threads... there is a parameter in AUD.INI that allows you to set the MAX workers threads that SONAR will reserve for SONAR.  

I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but try and free up two threads for the OS overhead by setting this parm to 5 instead of ZERO.  ZERO will take all the available threads by default (if you have 4 cores, multi threading it will take all 8 for SONAR).

I think that SONAR is choking the rest of the system thus causing your issues.  Just try this setting and see if it helps.

It did for me and I just posted a helpful hint yesterday on this forum.

Good luck,
Jim

am I doing something wrong or is this normal?

http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/support/ozone.html#5

In general terms, yes, but it can also come from background services that periodically 'spike' the latency, as well as some hardware devices - such as wireless devices, and I believe insufficient memory for the given project can also cause latency/dropout issues.  Sometimes things like antivirus software, or that sort of thing.

Hi Bob,


FWIW, You're confusing "audio latency" and "DPC latency".
Effectively working at low audio latency is dependent on having low/consistent DPC latency... but they are two completely different things.   

Audio latency only comes from two sources:

• Audio Interface (ASIO buffer size)
• Latent Plugins (automatic plugin delay compensation causes all audio to be delayed by the total amount of latency from all inserted latent plugins - doesn't matter where they're inserted)

Sorry - Jim - I wasn't thinking and posted that in a hurry to catch a bus.  You are indeed quite correct.  I was referring to DPC latency and should have added the distinction.  I did not compose my post very well.

To the original poster: certain plugins, such as Ozone 5, can drastically affect latency - such as those with 'look-ahead' processing.  Some plugins are intended for use in mastering, so you may want to substitute plugs until ready for mastering, and then swap them out at that point.

Here is another thread on this, from the forum: 

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=2575641

Bob Bone

As far as soft synths go, there is a buffer for MIDI as well within SONAR... set too low and you get MIDI dropouts... as you set it higher, the MIDI latency increases as well... you need to find the sweet spot between the two.  If I set mine at 256, I get the MIDI note dropout.  At 512, the MIDI plays back fine but adds real time latency (un useable for me).

So, what I have had to do, is use an older LAPTOP and install my softsynths on it (as well as my main DAW).  I have a MIDI splitter coming from my MIDI keyboard and send one signal to the DAW for MIDI recording and the other MIDI to the extra laptop.

This laptop only runs the softsynth so I can monitor my MIDI performance in real time.  I mix my DAW audio and the LAPTOP audio through my external mixer so I can hear all the music at the same time.  

THis way my MIDI performance is in sync with my DAW project and I can monitor the soft synth in real time.

Just one of those workarounds.  In essence, I am using the laptop as a synth hardware unit but I am recording my MIDI in real time.  I then go to my DAW and link the soft synth to the newly recorded MIDI track and go on with mixing.

I don't know any other way to eliminate the dreaded MIDI delay with soft synths trying to record MIDI in real time using the sounds of the soft synth.

The above works flawlessly for me by the way.

Jim

Thanks for all the replies, very helpful.   Everything is working fine, except when I try Ozone 5 on the Master Bus whilst tracking.   So do I understand right, that Ozone 5 is a "latent plugin", meaning that it will add the latency whatever the computer power?   So even if I had double the computer power it would not make any difference?   

Jim Roseberry


Latency comes from two sources:

• Audio Interface (determined by the ASIO buffer size)
• Latent plugins

If you have a latent plugin inserted anywhere in the project, automatic plugin-delay-compensation will delay ALL other audio to keep things 100% in sync.  Thus, don't use latent plugins when tracking... oruse the global PDC bypass button (in the Control Bar) to temporarily disable PDC while tracking.

For what it's worth Ultra, I can't do any tracking on my system if I have my usual chain of TRackS plugs in the master buss - the buss needs to be bypassed before latency becomes a non-issue.

Also, I try when possible to complete all my tracking before I start mixing (sometimes it's difficult not to!) and I have resorted to globally bypassing all Fx plugs ('E'), then do my recording before enabling the Fx again.

I don't think it matters what your computer specs are - once you have any latent plugs in your project, recording will not be possible until they are bypassed.

So do I understand right, that Ozone 5 is a "latent plugin", meaning that it will add the latency whatever the computer power?

from the FAQ linked in my first post:


"Does Ozone offset the audio by some delay time?
Ozone's digital processing modules will insert a delay into Ozone's output. Many host applications will compensate for this delay if you enable "Delay compensation" in Ozone's General Options tab. Ozone's Dynamics and Loudness Maximizer also use lookahead algorithms to intelligently predict and interpolate the waveform. This lookahead time is on the order of a few milliseconds.

You can also compensate for the delay manually after applying Spectron to your audio. To see the total delay Ozone is currently inserting into its output, see the General Options tab."

So, yes, it is a "latent plugin," to use your terminology, inserting delay and in some cases using a lookahead buffer which really cannot be compensated for in real time.