Latency issues using Reaper

[Guest MoJo]

I usually use Cool Edit Pro 2 on my laptop to record with and it's always been an excellent tool for me but, on the recommendation of a few Basschat members, I recently downloaded Reaper. I really like the the fact that it's very light on system resources but I'm having terrible problems with latency. When I create a new track and select record mode, it sounds like I've put my bass through a delay pedal.

Is there any easy solution to this or would I have to make up a lead like the one MarloweDK demonstrates at about a minute into his video [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZQUkLwwoB0"]marloweDK says hello[/url] ?

Never had any latency problems with Cool Edit Pro at all so have gone back to using this at the moment but I'd like to get this latency problem sorted

[YouMa]

Download and asio4all drivers that should sort you,other than that you need a better soundcard mate.

[Guest MoJo]

I'll give the asio4all a go. I don't think I can change the sound card on my laptop. I could record on the PC but I like the portability of the laptop.

[YouMa]

You can get an outboard usb one fairly cheap,if you are going to start using your pc for recording eventually you will need a better card than the one on board.

[biro]

bassman2790, if you're using the internal soundcard - the one originally provided with your laptop - a latency problem just ain't that peculiar. I would certainly give the asio4all a chance, especially if your laptop is new or at least not outdated. just don't be surprised if it still doesn't fix the problem. before buying an external firewire sound card I used to record on my laptop using the original internal card. Using the asio4all drivers and tweaking the settings a bit I achieved a lower latency, but I didn't managed to eliminate the latency issue completely.
I've then achieved an almost latency-free (latency lower than 5 ms, which is almost - if not totally - imperceptible) using an external soundcard. This is in my opinion the best solution you might consider. there's plenty of great deals right now, and you can get yourself a really good sounding firewire interface for less than £ 150.

[biro]

uh, before i forget: the issue you're talking about, reaper being ravaged by latency and cooledit being latency free is very strange. I wonder if you're actually using the hardware monitoring (kind of a direct monitoring without software processing) with cooledit and softare monitoring with reaper. it would be important to understand this, since it would be very strange to get a low monitoring latency with a software and a higher one with another.
I have never used cooledit, therefore I'm not able to give you hints about it. However I'm becoming pretty skilled as a reaper user, and I'm pretty sure you're going through softare monitoring if you just enable the record button and the monitoring switch.

[Mokl]

I use ASIO4ALL with Reaper on my (cr)aptop, and it makes a big difference. The latency is massively reduced, but I am thinking of getting one of those Line 6 UX1 interfaces which should do a better job.

[Eight]

[quote name='biro' post='422264' date='Mar 1 2009, 11:02 AM']uh, before i forget: the issue you're talking about, reaper being ravaged by latency and cooledit being latency free is very strange. I wonder if you're actually using the hardware monitoring (kind of a direct monitoring without software processing) with cooledit and softare monitoring with reaper. it would be important to understand this, since it would be very strange to get a low monitoring latency with a software and a higher one with another.[/quote]
It wouldn't be that unusual for two different programs to achieve different performance rates - depending on the routes they take to access the hardware. There are various device drivers and software layers in between the program you're running and the card itself. Thats one of the reasons ASIO4ALL can often make a big difference.

Then there's annoying stuff like manufacturers who supply a half decent driver for MME support, but the code for the ASIO support can be truly woeful. One software connects through MME and it works great, another which tries to use ASIO gets the sh*t driver.

Not saying that your theory couldn't be correct though.

[biro]

you're absolutely right. I didn't even consider the MME/ASIO thing. although I definitely have to say that reaper is by far the best daw software I ever tried, latency wise. I would be pretty surprised if, given that the resources are still the same, reaper eventually led to a worse performance than cooledit.

[Eight]

[quote name='biro' post='422341' date='Mar 1 2009, 01:09 PM']you're absolutely right. I didn't even consider the MME/ASIO thing. although I definitely have to say that reaper is by far the best daw software I ever tried, latency wise. I would be pretty surprised if, given that the resources are still the same, reaper eventually led to a worse performance than cooledit.[/quote]
That is a very valid point - I've used Reaper for a while, often on the most basic, overloaded heaps of Windows junk.. and its always been great. Whatever the problem, I would be confident that Reaper is doing nothing wrong - and its something underneath thats letting the side down.

ASIO4ALL would still be my first route, then maybe try updating the soundcard drivers.