by Malcolm Boyce » Sat Apr 01, 2006 12:59 am
Jon,
Glad you found my little space here. I hope with enough folks joining in, we can get a cool place to talk shop, with a local vibe.
Latency can be affected by many things. Hardware, drivers, software, memory, and processor and bus speed are the main ones. It's usually a case of optimizing all of the above for a given setup. This is why it's usually hard to find concise information on how to troubleshoot a rig, because combinations are unique, and fixes are unique to the setups you are using. Most of the "Help" files consist of info like: "If running with a low number doesn't work, try running at a higher number." REALLY?!?!>>>
If you can't get at any settings for your sound card, look in the software you are using. Sound Forge will have a buffer setting, in the preferences/wave tab, that should adjust the amount of latency you experience. As you probably know, the lower the latency, the larger the strain on CPU and memory, so it's a balancing act. I have not used Ableton Live, but it probably has a buffer setting that will allow you to adjust things as well.
Different drivers for your sound card in question could also help. Even with my MOTU, using the suggested WDM drivers with Sonar caused the thing to flail hard. It took another user's suggestion of using the MOTU ASIO drivers and bam, never looked back. Totally different rig. Check and see if you have the option of newer drivers, or different drivers.
Hope some of this helps, and if you have any more info, pop in and let us know...
Anyone else know specifics about Ableton Live? Mike?