Real Band and latency - SOLVED !

Mitch Crane · Post by **Mitch Crane** » 19 Aug 2011 9:40 am

I have 2011.5 BIAB w/ RealBand on a new Dell XPS17 i7 core laptop PC. No external soundcard or preamps.. Just going line in from my pedal board.

I'm trying to lay down some lap steel parts on these tracks but can't figure out how to get the latency down to a point where I can play along / overdub without the lag time. Any suggestions ?

David Collins · Post by **David Collins** » 19 Aug 2011 10:42 am

Mitch,

Latency is an issue that comes up frequently in recording. This is more of a recording question than a BIAB question.

I would suggest that you post in the recording section also. I'll leave this here for a while and hope that you get some good answers, or I'll move it to recording if you want me to. (if it were me, I'd leave it AND post in recording) It's up to you, either way.

Good Luck,
David

Mitch Crane · Post by **Mitch Crane** » 19 Aug 2011 11:57 am

David,

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll leave this here since it is BIAB / RealBand that I'm using and I'll also post in the recording section.

David Collins · Post by **David Collins** » 19 Aug 2011 4:27 pm

Cool

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 19 Aug 2011 5:20 pm

I doubt that you will ever get any lower latency than what you have with the internal integrated audio.

I've seen a lot of posts about this on the Sonar forum and on the Windows 7 forum and the general concensus is that you will need a (good) USB connected recording interface to get lower latency.

This is a "recording" issue as noted and not an issue with BIAB. I would probably see the same thing with my PC sound card and SONAR ( what I use for recording - Sonar X1, Producer Edition).

One thing you can do (or maybe do depending on the PC's sound card) is to output the audio from BIAB to an external mixer with the BIAB to one channel and your steel or whatever in the other channel of the mixer and then record that with the PC. Since the Line In is stereo, you can use a recording program such as the free Audacity to record the Line In to two channels, one for the BIAB track and another for the steel. I'm not sure if you can do this with the laptop's audio, they are not as flexible as a desktop's.

Mitch Crane · Post by **Mitch Crane** » 19 Aug 2011 5:30 pm

I think you're right Jack. Laptop is the problem. I used to have a desktop unit with a good external firewire sound card and used ASIO instead of MME drivers to get near zero latency. Can't do that with the laptop

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 20 Aug 2011 5:01 am

It's not the laptop that is the problem. It's the internal sound device. As I noted, an external recording interface, such as a USB recording device would allow better latency.

There are many around with two channels for under $100 (but I can't say what their latency is).

Mitch Crane · Post by **Mitch Crane** » 20 Aug 2011 2:56 pm

Thanks guys. I've ordered the M-Audio Fast Track USB unit. Been trying to get ASIO4ALL installed but can't figure out how to disable the MS Wavetable Synth... they don't like each other

Mitch Crane · Post by **Mitch Crane** » 20 Aug 2011 3:24 pm

GOT IT ! Installed ASIO4ALL and selected it in Real Band.

Then:

1. Rt click My Computer
2. Select "Manage"
3. Select "Services"
4. Find Windows Audio - Stop the service

Believe it or not, sound still generates using the ASIO driver, now with near zero latency...VERY useable ! Downside is now I can't play mp3's etc... so I'll have to keep turning on/off the Windows audio service.

Also, MIDI tracks wont play back, so I converted them to audio tracks in Real Band... and they play just fine.

Here's the result... not the best performance for sure, but I'm thrilled that I now have a way to record !

http://soundcloud.com/mitchc-1/rainbows-over-paradise

Andy Sandoval · Post by **Andy Sandoval** » 20 Aug 2011 7:43 pm

I take it then that RealBand doesn't have a window where you can adjust the latency in options like BIAB

Roger Kelly · Post by **Roger Kelly** » 20 Aug 2011 8:12 pm

That tune sounds real good Mitch....so did your other tune Hana, a favorite of mine too. Great playing fer sure!

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 21 Aug 2011 3:22 am

I've tried ASIO4ALL and all that did was cause many problems.

Mitch Crane · Post by **Mitch Crane** » 21 Aug 2011 6:50 am

Thanks Roger !

I've ordered the M-Audio Fast Track USB, so I'll see what it's like soon. I'm pretty sure it's going to use ASIO driver as well.

Andy, yes, Real Band has a latency adjust, but with MME drivers it was still a very annoying lag and not useable for playing along live with the track. The ASIO driver, in conjunction with the latency adjust is what gets it near zero latency.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 21 Aug 2011 1:18 pm

When you get the new MAudio unit, uninstall the ASIO4ALL and then restart the PC before you install the new unit, as you should not need it with the MAudio drivers/software.

Mitch Crane · Post by **Mitch Crane** » 21 Aug 2011 1:23 pm

Thanks Jack.

Mitch Crane · Post by **Mitch Crane** » 27 Aug 2011 3:02 pm

Got the M-Audio Fast Track and successfully installed the ASIO drivers and having a blast finally being able to record steel over the BIAB tracks. Thanks for the help guys !