Do USB guitar interfaces provide low latency when monitoring during recording

[Greggo]

I've decided to favour recording straight to a DAW on my laptop rather than using my hardware multitracker, but have had a few latency issues when monitoring a part that I am recording.

Using WASAPI drivers I've managed to get to a happy medium where I can record a guitar/bass part into the LINE In on laptop and monitor the sound it with virtually no latency.

However the only issue is, because the latency has been set so low due to the low buffer rate, there are the occasional glitches during recording which are noticable.

If I was to use a USB guitar interface, which claim to be low latency, would this resolve my issue of a good quality recording but stll able to monitor the sound as I play as close to real time as possible?

Edited May 6, 2014 by Greggo

[kyboo]

In my experience you won't get USB latency below 5ms unless you are willing to spend money on some RME USB device [url="http://www.rme-audio.de/"]http://www.rme-audio.de/[/url]
They do their own USB chips to get a really low latency but they charge for their products a lot.

I have been using WASAPI and line-in as well and it works for me. Though, PC notebooks are nightmare for a low latency audio because of all the manufacture's drivers installed on them. Power management, Wifi, Bluetooth, etc. Try running this latency monitor [url="http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml"]http://www.thesycon....ncy_check.shtml[/url]

It should tell you which driver causes glitches. You can also give a go to Echo Indigo IOX [url="http://www.amazon.com/Indigo-IOx-Digital-ExpressCard-Interface/dp/B001TNXUFE"]http://www.amazon.co...e/dp/B001TNXUFE[/url] but it is a hit or miss apparently. I have one and the latency is quite low, about 2ms (reported by Reaper) but the input is noisy.

Also, don't forget to use a line driver pedal. Don't plug your bass directly to line-in.

Edited May 6, 2014 by kyboo

[Greggo]

Thanks for the info thats useful, if I can continue using WASAPI and reducing glitches that seems like a better option. I wonder if maybe knocking wireless antenna off whilst recording could help, as I have it on always.

Edited May 6, 2014 by Greggo

[topo morto]

You might want to consider an interface that allows you to monitor direct, rather than through the computer. The downside is that you don't hear all your virtual effects while you are recording, which may or may not be a huge deal depending on what you are doing.

Edited May 6, 2014 by topo morto

[51m0n]

Yeah defo an interface with some form of direct monitoring.

Again RME provide about the most powerful version avaialable out there in their TotalMix product which come swith their interfaces.

At 192KHz my UCX manages a latency of sub 3ms without glitches, but because I am happy to monitor using Total Mix and work that way I can get perfect results with 16 tracks of audio input (Audient ASP008 plus a coupl eof other mic pres and some line level inputs) at 48KHz (which is absolutely fine to my ear) setting the latency higher to be safe and have no latency at all recording to my Sony Vaio lappie.

I can't recommend RME enough

[kyboo]

[quote name='Greggo' timestamp='1399371290' post='2443446']
Thanks for the info thats useful, if I can continue using WASAPI and reducing glitches that seems like a better option. I wonder if maybe knocking wireless antenna off whilst recording could help, as I have it on always.
[/quote]

I used that latency monitoring app on my PC. Bluetooth drivers were the major cause of glitches so I completely uninstalled them as I don't use Bluetooth. Also, bear in mind that you have to disable drivers in the Device Manager. Just disconnecting from a wifi net is not enough.

The smaller the buffer and hence the latency, the more often an audio driver has to reach for that buffer and process it. This is kind of serialised activity in the context of all drivers. So if there is a driver like the Bluetooth one which takes too much time doing its own stuff, the audio driver does not get to process its buffer and you get sound cracks, glitches, etc ... . That latency monitoring app reports these kind of situations along with driver names. It is very useful.

There is another whole story going on about IRQ (hardware interrupt handlers) sharing. Let's not get into that. Just disable hardware interfaces you don't use at all like a serial port, FireWire, ancient phone modem interface, etc ... .

WASAPI is great. It is an audio API which directly talks to audio hardware. There are no middle men in that communication and that is why it is fast. I am not sure whether it works for USB devices at all, but it is not working for me. However, I sold my USB interfaces as soon as I found out I can use it with the integrated audio card line-in. I get about 2ms latency which is amazing given the price. It sounds good enough to my ears as long as I use a line driver pedal (SFX Boost).

I use this setup for practicing the bass with headphones plugged in. My upstairs neighbors don't knock on the floor at 11PM anymore

Edited May 7, 2014 by kyboo

[Greggo]

[quote name='kyboo' timestamp='1399448624' post='2444248']
I used that latency monitoring app on my PC. Bluetooth drivers were the major cause of glitches so I completely uninstalled them as I don't use Bluetooth. Also, bear in mind that you have to disable drivers in the Device Manager. Just disconnecting from a wifi net is not enough.

The smaller the buffer and hence the latency, the more often an audio driver has to reach for that buffer and process it. This is kind of serialised activity in the context of all drivers. So if there is a driver like the Bluetooth one which takes too much time doing its own stuff, the audio driver does not get to process its buffer and you get sound cracks, glitches, etc ... . That latency monitoring app reports these kind of situations along with driver names. It is very useful.

There is another whole story going on about IRQ (hardware interrupt handlers) sharing. Let's not get into that. Just disable hardware interfaces you don't use at all like a serial port, FireWire, ancient phone modem interface, etc ... .

WASAPI is great. It is an audio API which directly talks to audio hardware. There are no middle men in that communication and that is why it is fast. I am not sure whether it works for USB devices at all, but it is not working for me. However, I sold my USB interfaces as soon as I found out I can use it with the integrated audio card line-in. I get about 2ms latency which is amazing given the price. It sounds good enough to my ears as long as I use a line driver pedal (SFX Boost).

I use this setup for practicing the bass with headphones plugged in. My upstairs neighbors don't knock on the floor at 11PM anymore
[/quote]

Thanks - I will try disabling the unused interfaces to see if this can reduce glitches further.

The laptop is not the best, its 7 years old and was pretty mid range spec when it came out - 1.6Ghz, 2 GIG ram, but it does seem to cope ok and is running Windows 8.1 now which is fairly less intensive than the Vista that used to be on it!