Slight Latency recording Audio into SL

Using SL inside Ableton Live

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loopylooper
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 8:53 pm

Slight Latency recording Audio into SL

Post by loopylooper »

Excellent piece of software, I've successfully used it in AU Lab, and now trying it in Live but have run into a slight issue.

I followed these instructions provided by Jesse viewtopic.php?f=10&t=103&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a on how to setup SL within Live
- Add the SL AU plugin to a new audio track in Live.
- Create a new midi track and have it get its input from your MPD24
- Set the output for that midi track to go to the SL plugin on the audio track (it will show up in the menus when you set the output)
- Set the monitoring to be 'In' on both the midi and the audio track.
(substitute MPD24 for my MIDI controller)

I have two MIDI tracks with AU instruments that output to the Audio track which SL is on, without problems at all. I record the first track, then the second/third etc sync to the first loop. There are no latency issues when using MIDI instruments, it works perfectly. However, if I use the SL audio track to record audio from a microphone into SL, there is always a slight delay with the recorded track (it seems to be about 20 or so milliseconds late). It loops fine, but of course the loop has a little delay.

Now, I need to set monitoring to Auto or In in order for SL to even record the audio. Supposedly you need to have monitoring off in order for the Driver Error Compensation to work. If I turn off monitoring, SL records no audio when I play.

My Buffer size is set to 128 samples.

So what could be going wrong here? Why would just the audio be out of sync? Do I need to add another audio track and Output that to the Sooperlooper audio instance?

Again, thanks for a great piece of software Jesse!

loopy
jesse
Posts: 554
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 9:46 am
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Re: Slight Latency recording Audio into SL

Post by jesse »

loopylooper wrote: I have two MIDI tracks with AU instruments that output to the Audio track which SL is on, without problems at all. I record the first track, then the second/third etc sync to the first loop. There are no latency issues when using MIDI instruments, it works perfectly. However, if I use the SL audio track to record audio from a microphone into SL, there is always a slight delay with the recorded track (it seems to be about 20 or so milliseconds late). It loops fine, but of course the loop has a little delay.

Now, I need to set monitoring to Auto or In in order for SL to even record the audio. Supposedly you need to have monitoring off in order for the Driver Error Compensation to work. If I turn off monitoring, SL records no audio when I play.
In most DAWs the latency compensation feature is only possible when it has control of the audio or midi to play back or record from disk. For instance, when recording it is able to place the audio at an offset in the timeline to get rid of the input latency from the buffer(s). This isn't the case with the audio recorded inside SL. That said, you should try experimenting with SL's built-in latency compensation, check out the Preferences->Latency/Misc tab, and you will have to un-check the automatic setting, and try changing the values for input and output latency until you get what you desire. It can be confusing, but you should be able to find a setting that works for you.

jlc
loopylooper
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 8:53 pm

Re: Slight Latency recording Audio into SL

Post by loopylooper »

Will changing the latency setting within SL also affect the offset of the virtual instruments? At the moment they have no latency issues, its just the audio.

Thanks Jesse, I will try messing around with the latency later today when I get home.

loopy
jesse
Posts: 554
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 9:46 am
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Re: Slight Latency recording Audio into SL

Post by jesse »

No, the latency controls in SL will only affect how/where/when the audio is captured in SL's loops. It's just another way for you to compensate for things since SL introduces another moving part that the host has no control over.
madriema
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2010 3:34 pm

Re: Slight Latency recording Audio into SL

Post by madriema »

Hi there-
My name is Emanuele and I am writing from Italy.
First of all thanks a lot Jesse for putting out this great piece of software, seriously.
Thing is, I have been experimenting the same kind of delay (around 20 ms) and tried messing around with the input and output latency after disabling the default value (in my case 512 and 1024 most of times) with no luck, no effect at all.
I might be doing something wrong, although I am not sure what it is, but changing those value does not seem to affect playback timing whatsoever.I am obviously referring to SL inside Live as AU. Is it actually supposed to be responding to such value change even when connected in slave mode?
Thank you once more.
Cheers*
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