Okay, I'm already to pack my studio up because of Latency issues. Here's what I'm running: -Intel i7 running at 3.2 ghz quad core or whatever (it's fast and new) -12 gigs RAM -Win 8 -Sonar X1 (d patch) My audio interface is: M-Audio Fast Track C400 My Midi keyboard is: Roland A-500S So my issue is with Midi latency. There is a slight delay when I play on my keyboard and the VST sounds when auditioning. There is a huge delay (huge latency) when recording with ANY VST instrument. I did not have this issue before when I was recording with a lower quality audio interface and on a laptop. Now, my PC is a gaming PC and I have a brand new interface and I have all these problems. It really doesn't make sense because I have no audio latency issues, even with large track counts and effects during record or playback. This is merely a Midi tracking issue. I am not a Midi guru so I need help from one! I need my VST instruments otherwise I'll have to pack the studio up until I can do everything through audio (which means I have to go buy a very expensive synthesizer). Cheers - Hope you can help!

I am also suffering this problem on a couple of projects. Buffer size of 128, pretty light on the VSTi's no cores peaking, memory usage light, and I'm getting huge latency when playing synths. Played with MIDI buffer setting, no different. I ran a latency checker and it came back with no problems of issues. 

It's gotten to the point on one project where I can no longer record any parts live. Tried freezing synths, no joy. Going to try getting to the bottom of it tonight but right now it looks like just one of the various ways in which some of my projects become "corrupted" the longer I work on them. 

Not sure if this info would be new to you or not, but here goes: If latency is very noticeable even with a small (128) buffer size, there are two most likely possibilities: (1) The audio driver is reserving extra buffers beyond the 128 that is exposed to the software. (2) The project is using one or more of the instruments or effects that need lookahead, and therefore induce PDC, or "plugin delay compensation". Examples are perfect space and rMix. PDC is definitely the more likely cause. A quick check for this condition is to click the [PDC] button to disable PDC. If that reduces the latency, then go looking for the latent effect(s) and quit using it until your tracking or live playing is done. PDC is not a CPU load problem and can't be fixed by a faster CPU.

I'm just shooting from the hip here, I have no facts to base this on, but have you guys tried a different USB port?

I have a USB Wireless LAN thingy. Every once in a while I have to move it to a different USB port, let Windows discover it, then move it back to the original port. I do this because it starts to act flaky some times.

At the OP: Make sure you are using ASIO drivers. You said you were using a different sound card, maybe something got changed. ASIO usually is the best. Not always, but usually.

make sure the ft is on a usb 2.0 bus.  if you're running midi through it it's essential.  if you're running the roland via usb make sure that's in a 2.0 bus as well. 

hth

So it turns out that is IS the PDC. If I disable it with the PDC button, the latency completely disappears. The only problem is that I cannot work out which effect is causing the PDC to kick in to such an extent. I've been through everything, turning off every ProChannel module and FX chains one by one, and nothing makes a difference. I also hit the FX button to bypass all audio effects, and that doesn't make a difference either. The only thing that stops the latency is if I disable PDC. Any ideas of what it could be? I don't think I even use any effects that look ahead - the concrete limiter being a possibility, but turning off the two instances of that in the project doesn't make a difference either. 

Bummed 

I believe there are issues related to turning off FX and turning off PDC. There have been a few posts where a project had trouble adjusting timing even though a effect was turned off. The Concrete Limiter documentation states it adds 1.5ms of delay for the lookahead buffer.

I think I've isolated it to a track with Native Instrument's FM8 synth. Nothing in the ProChannel or FX Chain on the track is causing the delay (I've only got some LFO triggered wah-wah, the PC2A, OneKnob Louder and Sonnitus EQ) so it has to be the synth itself. 

I confirmed this by disabling PDC. All of the tracks remain in sync except this FM8 synth. It's weird. I can't for the life of me see anything in the patch itself which would be causing the delay. It has two FM8 effects active: the overdrive and the cabinet. And I'm also using FM8's arpeggiator. 

Maybe I'll take a look into FM8's settings in standalone to see if there's anything there which might be causing it. But for the moment I'm baffled, and still very much bummed 

OK so now I'm doubly confused. I didn't notice at first because of the nature of the part that was being arpeggiated, but this FM8 track is actually coming in slightly BEFORE the other tracks. And it seems it's NOT FM8, because I replaced it with some other synths (Rapture, Massive) and it's still coming in before the other tracks. 

So what's happening here? Surely if the problem was something on this track then having the delay compensation off would cause it to come in late instead of early. Am I right? 

And if it was the case that this FM8 track was the one playing in time and all the others are being delayed, then surely it's a huge coincidence that all of these other tracks (bass, drums, 3 other synths, a Reaktor groovebox) are perfectly in time with each other. 

Oh and wait...an update....this track has suddenly - in the course of me typing this post - decided to play itself on time. So that's PDC off, and all tracks playing in time, but if I turn the PDC back on then the latency comes back. Oh jeez....I guess I could just turn off the PDC and play it by ear, but I'm still worried about what's causing this. 

OK the plot thickens and I have more clues, but understand what's going on even less. Here are the steps I'm taking to give me this clue (if anyone happens to have their Sherlock Holmes hat on)

1) I open the project, and without starting playback, I play a few notes on various soft synths. The latency is there. 
2) I then delete an instrument track that has an instance of Battery on it. There is then NO audible latency when I play soft synths. 
3) I start playback. Immediately the latency appears. 
4) I stop playback. The latency remains. 

In fact from the point at which I begin playback, the latency remains whether the project is playing or whether it's stopped, until I close the project and open it again, in which case steps 1-4 apply again. 

I really don't understand. Deleting this instance of Battery without playing anything back removed the latency, but as soon as playback starts the latency remains until I close the project and reload it. 

Any ideas?