Superior Drummer, improving latency

[hector_18]

I have Superior Drummer loaded on a laptop, and using a Roland TD-10 module (for triggers) with iRig Pro MIDI to USB interface.
The latency is not bad, but I’d like to improve it.
I am using the ASIO4ALL driver, iRig Pro MIDI interface, and the laptop is 4gb RAM and 2.1GHz processor.
So, is this laptop not fast enough (more RAM??) or could the iRig MIDI connection cause some lag????

Topic

[Patrik Wall]

You probably want to upgrade to a ASIO compatible sound card, running built in audio device with ASIO4ALL is most likely what is causing the lag.
It could be something else of course but thats where i’d start troubleshooting.

Bass player in swedish thrash metal band Defiatory
www.defiatory.se

Coder at Toontrack
www.toontrack.com

[hector_18]

So, an ASIO compatible audio sound card for a laptop?
Suggestions?

Honestly, I’m not sure what the internal sound card has to do with it.
I’m not using a DAW or audio recording.
Simply standalone SD software.

[Patrik Wall]

It doesn’t matter what you are using to host SD, the latency is still based on your sound cards ability to process the data fast enough that the time between you hitting the drum and the sound exits your speakers is kept to a minimum.
There are a lot of USB audio interfaces out there ranging from cheap to expensive, i bought mine for like 50$ and it works just fine with latencies < 5ms, just visit your local music store and im sure they can help you get what you need 🙂

Bass player in swedish thrash metal band Defiatory
www.defiatory.se

Coder at Toontrack
www.toontrack.com

[hector_18]

Is the sound card really doing anything?
I’m using a MIDI interface, and the samples are loading into PC RAM.
My assumption is that the laptop CPU processing speed is more important than the sound card.

For reference, my MIDI offset is currently 5ms.
Anything less, and I get clicks and pops.
Has anyone successfully gone much lower than that?

[Scott]

But you are listening to sound coming from S2. The round trip time it takes you to hit a MIDI trigger, that MIDI to trigger an articulation in S2, then to get played back as audio out of your computer’s audio output takes time. That time is latency. An ASIO driver for whatever audio device you are using will do it faster. I’ve had great success using ASIO4ALL on my laptop and its generic audio device. I get better success with my RME audio card and its ASIO driver on my studio machine.

Scott Sibley - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[MarcoRoth]

I have just bought Superior Drummer 3 (SD3).

I have my 2Box Drum-It 3 going into my Focusrite 18i20 Audio Interface and out to my monitors – amazing sound and must be zero latency.

Enter SD3 in to the mix.  Now I go MIDI Out from 2Box to Focusrite 18i20 and the SD3 from there.  Goes back out via my Focusrite to my monitors – and now I have a latency of, err, 0.25 SECONDS.  Unplayable as it stands.

I have tried altering the buffer, the cores for the CPU, the lot…..and still no good.

Gone back to just playing through my Focusrite to the monitors now.

My dream of mixing and recording all individual drums and cymbals has ended before it started.

Work Hard, Play Harder

[John]

@MarcoRoth: Please see my reply to your other post

 

BR,

John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Mani10]

Hello,

This seems like the best place to put this question- I have a Roland TD50 and I’m running SD3 via my desktop CPU. My setup is- USB midi from TD50 runs to USB 3.0 port on desktop. Using ASIO4ALL drivers. Using lowest amount of samples / lowest buffer settings. Here are my results as they appear in SD3 under settings/midi in/edrums:

 

Device Type: ASIO, ASIO device: ASIO4ALL2 ASIO control: ASIO = Output latency- 1.8ms, Buffer latency- 1.5ms samples 44100

Device Type: ASIO, ASIO device: TD50  ASIO control: ASIO = Output latency- 5.1ms, Buffer latency- 1.1ms samples 44100

Difference here being the device type used- TD50 vs ASIO4ALL

 

My subjective feeling is using device type TD50 gives slightly better response? Does this mean the only thing that matters here is the buffer latency? The dynamics and feeling are still off when compared to playing with just the TD50 samples. Playing just the TD50 FEELS almost like you’re playing real drums, but then you have the roland sounds… Playing just SD3 samples sounds more like you’re playing real drums, but then the feeling is diminished / never quite there? My solution thus far has been to mix the two together, which for me has produced pretty good results with a roland / SD3 hybrid sound- mostly SD3.

My question here is- is there any way to make these latency results lower? Is it the latency that I’m picking up on while just using SD3 samples that makes my experience diminished? Or is SD3 still just limited in its capacity to work with vdrums at this point? What sort of adjustments might be made?

Thanks in advance for any input!

Mani

Operating system: Windows 10

[Arthur Cisneros]

To me I’ve noticed that delay is really bad when it is in standalone but in my DAW  there is no latency issue. ?‍♂️?‍♂️?‍♂️?‍♂️

[Scott]

Arthur Cisneros wrote:

To me I’ve noticed that delay is really bad when it is in standalone but in my DAW  there is no latency issue. ?‍♂️?‍♂️?‍♂️?‍♂️

What are your Audio Device settings under the EZD2 Settings? Have you set your audio device? What is your buffer settings? Can you post a screen pic of the settings?

Scott Sibley - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[antanast]

Just wondering. Is the performance i am getting good or should i consider a PCI card? Im connecting directly via USB3.

 

Operating system: macOS Catalina (10.15)

[Mani10]

Hey antanast,

These are the same exact figures I’m getting using a rather powerful PC with standard ASIO4ALL drivers connected directly to TD50 via USB 3.0. For me the latency is far too noticeable. I’ve tried $800 ish audio interfaces without better results using their drivers? I’m tempted to try a sound card directly to my PCI slot? I’ve managed to make the SD3 samples / latency playable by mixing them with onboard samples. After years of troubleshooting it seems that you’ll never be able to get the lack of latency of a roland module without having the samples loaded directly to the module? Which as far as I know is not possible. Let me know if you figure anything out.

[antanast]

For me actually, I notice close to 0 latency… I got a hackintosh OC at 5GHz, 32 Ram, and SSD…

[Mani10]

I think this was mentioned before… I seem to remember trying this without much luck? But…. Today I tried using SD3 via Reaper (DAW). After adding a new track, then selecting SD3 under the add VST (FX) function, selecting midi to TD50 all channels and finally arming the record button—- all of my problems have been solved. I’m guessing Reaper uses a different ASIO driver and or it prioritizes SD3? I have no choppy stream of my samples, no discernible latency and all seems to be working. This is with 64 samples and 44.1 khz, the default sound card and no audio interface- minus my TD50 which is an audio interface I guess. Hope this helps someone.  I have a decent PC- 32gb ram, CPU 4.8-5.0 ghz- 8 cores.

1

Thanked by: John Bhong

[sean2e]

No, You are doing it right…. My jaw is on the ground reading comments where people are plugging their DTX or TDXX into their high end capture card and thing into the Computer.

Apollo VIII You Are Go For TLI

[Author]

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