Afro_Raven Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 Hi everyone, My second question posting here - my first was very nicely tackled by the almighty David, so I'm hoping I can get a similar response for this one... I'm trying to record some electric guitar into Logic (64 bit) using a Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 interface. I'm using the Amp Designer plugin too. Now, the latency I'm getting isn't good. I've activated low latency mode, and also reduced the buffer size to the lowest possible (32) and the latency is the same. It also makes no difference whether I monitor in Logic, or monitor using my interface (Saffire Mix Control). There is no latency if I monitor from my interface with Amp Designer disabled or removed, but obviously I would like be able to hear the plugin working as I record. The project I'm currently working on is not particularly big: 2 software instruments, and one track of real bass that I recorded previously. There are no big plugins being used, just a couple of compressors. Have I overlooked something major here in resolving the latency as much as possible (I know you can never get perfectly zero-latency)? Is this likely to be a deeper-set issue with my computer, or to do with how much else is on my hard drive? Muchos thankos, Afro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ski Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 It also makes no difference whether I monitor in Logic, or monitor using my interface (Saffire Mix Control) ...and... There is no latency if I monitor from my interface with Amp Designer disabled or removed, Those two things are contradictory. If you're monitoring direct from the interface it means that latency generated by Logic is out of the picture. When it comes to latency on any digital audio system... • the fastest turnaround (thruput) of signal from input to output is always going to be directly out of your interface (Logic's software monitoring off, as it should be in this scenario) • second fastest will be using Logic's software monitoring, where there are no plugins in the project, and provided that the buffer size is set to its lowest or near-lowest value • third fastest will be when using Logic's software monitoring, using plugins that are turned off by Low Latency mode Careful analysis of the above will reveal that monitoring through Logic will always present you with the highest amount of latency as compared to direct monitoring. Of course, when using direct monitoring you can't take advantage of channel strip plugins to shape the sound. Hate to say it, but "welcome to the wonderful world of using plugins to try and process audio in real time." Sometimes you can, sometimes you can't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afro_Raven Posted December 6, 2012 Author Share Posted December 6, 2012 Ski, Thanks for your reply! What I meant in your first quote from my original post was that when the plugin is enabled/active, there is no difference in latency time. Promise! It's my fault for not being clearer. However, if I don't put any plugins on the channel strip in Logic (i.e. keep a totally clean signal) then I lose the latency. The reason I've posted the issue up is because I've been using Logic for quite some time now, and this is the first time I've had this happen. I did some recording previously where I was running the guitar directly through the interface into Amp Designer (and other plugins, in fact) and had no problems with latency. Since doing those recordings, nothing has changed in my system, except for simply the amount of stuff that's on my hard drive, which is why I'm wondering if that's the issue. What do you think? Is it worth doing a mass transfer of stuff onto an external drive? Thanks again! Afro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ski Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 The hard drive you mentioned... just to confirm, are you referring to your system drive? If so... if your drive has less than 20% free space on it then yes, it can affect performance. This isn't to say that it's causing you the additional latency, but as a general rule, if your system drive has less than 20% - 25% free space available, it can seriously affect performance. In fact, just recently I helped out a composer friend whose Logic system had ground to a near halt, the system was taking minutes to respond just to mouse clicks. The very first thing I looked at was the free space on his internal drive. It was down to something like 3%. We moved a ton of data off to an external drive, allowing him to reclaim 40% free space on the internal. Voila, he was back up and running. So latency issues aside, as a matter of good "digital hygiene" towards maintaining optimum system performance, make sure you always have at minimum 20% - 25% free space on that internal. Will post back about latency later on if someone else doesn't beat me to the punch first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afro_Raven Posted December 6, 2012 Author Share Posted December 6, 2012 Thanks, ski - yes, I am referring to my system drive. I'm pretty sure it's got quite a lot more than 25% capacity remaining, but I'll double check. It's frustrating, because as I said, I just can't work out what I'm doing differently this time to cause the problem compared to when I was having no issues at all! Thanks again for your input - any other suggestions? Afro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattyp Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 Just a question, but if you use the same guitar setup in a brand new logic file, do you get the same latency (without the other tracks)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afro_Raven Posted December 6, 2012 Author Share Posted December 6, 2012 Good question, mattyp. I haven't tried it, but I'll give it a go and post back here with the results! Thanks, Afro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afro_Raven Posted December 6, 2012 Author Share Posted December 6, 2012 mattyp, I think you might be on to something! I've tried recording guitar in a new project with no other tracks, and with the Amp Designer plugin active, and there's no latency at all, either through software monitoring or interface monitoring! This is good! So, any ideas as to what I can do differently to get it working like this in my original project?! Afro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattyp Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 try freezing those software instruments / turning things off (just to test) A quick freeze should be enough to record with, as much as I hate freezing tracks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afro_Raven Posted December 7, 2012 Author Share Posted December 7, 2012 I'll try it out and post back here - thanks! Afro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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