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Devices To Eliminate Latency

LChen	Date: September 8, 2006 @ 8:37 AM This has recently become a large and frustrating issue for me, but Line 6's Toneport UX2 seems to be the perfect solution, apparently supporting zero-latency. Has anyone had experience with this product, and does it indeed allow for both guitar and MIDI recording, as the promotional images seem to suggest? Also, to clarify latency itself (note that I'm not particularly accomplished in the more technological areas of audio production), does it occur because of computer soundcards? Is that why the Toneport is able to avoid it? On that note (aren't musical puns just, like, everywhere?), would using a multi-track recorder eliminate latency as well? In fact, could someone run through the basic function of one? Does it allow a guitar or microphone to be plugged in and recorded, and does it connect to a computer? What's a good (and cheap!) model to start off with? I am prepared to be enlightened.
Opossum	Date: September 8, 2006 @ 8:57 AM All that I can say is that I have hardly ever had latency problems with anything I've ever used (even in combination of real audio input and MIDI at the same time), other than with Plugsound, relative to MIDI input. So I guess I'm not much use in that department.
smokey1980	Date: September 8, 2006 @ 11:44 AM There's no such thing as zero latency. period. If your serious about audio and you are making a track which has for example several synths running, some efx, some audio tracks, and some midi, theres no way you can keep your latency to zero. cause running your audiocard at the lowest latency setting, like mine 6ms, demands to much from it so you'll have to adjust the settings so you'll have more latency (like set it to 2064, you'll have about 100 ms latency, fe.) http://smo.dmusic.com/
smokey1980	Date: September 8, 2006 @ 11:50 AM the line 6 toneport seems to be a regular soundcard. you can record guitar and bass etc via a hi-z (impendance) 4-inc jack input. plus it has xlr for more expensive mics etc. Also the line6 software seems to be very good for guitar and bass. it has something called direct monitoring, which kinda bypasses your soundcard hence, no latency.
hueseph	Date: September 9, 2006 @ 2:58 AM I had my card running at about 10-20ms of latency without too much hassle. It all depends on your computers capability. Having a good amount of RAM helps too. If you're using a lot of soft synths and samplers 2+Gigs isn't unreasonable. I have a Line6 Toneport UX1. It's fine. Direct monitoring isn't new however. Most reasonable soundcards which were designed for recording have some sort of direct monitoring.
hueseph	Date: September 9, 2006 @ 3:01 AM Dorect monitoring on most cards however leaves you with a dry signal to listen to. I suppose that is where "tone direct monitoring" is different in that it allows you to hear what you are recording WITH effects. As a drawback though, you basically are recording the signal that you hear so whatever effects you apply when you record, you are stuck with. So, you better make sure that the tone you record is absolutely what you want to hear in the final mix. I tend to only use the Amp modelling and leave all the other effects out until I go to mix.
leedsquietman	Date: September 9, 2006 @ 4:19 AM Hardware synths such as Yam Motif, etc all have latencies of around 3-5ms, direct monitoring bypasses the DAWs mixer and routes input directly to output, it is not exactly latency free but it's latency is in the 2-4ms range which the human ear cannot detect but this means recording dry like Hue said, you will not be able to hear any effects in the mixer while recording. In my experience anything 6-12ms is fine for recording and once you've recorded everything it's better to set the latency a little higher anyway, especially on systems with no plugin delay compensation, 25-50ms is fine for playback (most games in windows use 65-90ms latencies)
leedsquietman	Date: September 9, 2006 @ 4:22 AM One last thing for keeping latencies fairly low - mix automation done by manualy adjusting sliders, eq's etc, unless (like me) you draw in automation with the pencil or curves, but higher latencies can cause mix automation to be slightly out if you don't draw it in and mix by adjusting knobs and sliders in your software daw. When finished you can set the latency a little higher.
woodhead	Date: September 9, 2006 @ 5:32 PM You can also save resources (latency) if in stead of adding effects to each indivivual track and eq each individual track you do these in sub groups, if you have multiple guitars and are going to use the same eq and effects send them in to a sub group, toms send them to a sub and eq gate what ever you want to do. The only tracks I eq in the track stage are kick and bass, and I also add comrpression if need in the track for kick and bass as well, every thing elese goes to sub. then subs to main, works for me. Sub groups are def the best way to mix if you ask me but that IMOP
imemine	Date: September 9, 2006 @ 6:01 PM Until a better “high performance” simpler protocol is developed and/or faster circuit topologies in RAM, It’s a fact you have to deal with. More RAM does seem to help----me anyway! I have 1024MB!
LChen	Date: September 9, 2006 @ 7:36 PM To correct my first post, Line 6's Toneport does not cater for MIDI recording. Is that the purpose of audio/MIDI/USB interfaces - to bypass using the soundcard and hence lowering latency? smokey1980, I was already aware of direct monitoring, but it's good that you brought it up. To rephrase, I'm essentially asking what devices will allow this, not having much experience in this area. Is this where multi-track recorders and MIDI interfaces come in?
leedsquietman	Date: September 10, 2006 @ 1:23 AM USB interface, I use Motu's Fastlane, there are Midisport and Edirol and various other options - some people believe it's better to not have MIDI and audio in the same card as extra internal noise can be generated but the newer all in one solutions tend to have addressed this. I can use MIDI totally fine with audio at latencies of 6ms or less (in Reason 3ms 128 buffers works fine).
LChen	Date: January 22, 2007 @ 3:41 PM Awesome, so USB will help solve my latency problem? I'm considering purchasing the Behringer iAXE ("The Ultimate Electric Guitar with Built-In USB Port to Connect Straight to Your Computer. Jam with Killer Modeling Amps and Effects"), which received an excellent review in a guitar magazine, despite Behringer's questionable nature based on its other products. I love how Audacity comes free with it.