Amplitube Latency Expectations

[daveleenc]

I finally got Amplitube working. I have spent only a little time on this next issue (and my base knowledge here is REALLY low), but what I am hearing is noticeable latency. The input is an IRIG UA and output path is through a Dragonfly Red USB DAC to wired speakers. This is enough that it is a show stopper for me. I can hear what I play (carved archtop electric guitar) directly from the guitar and it is obviously (but not hugely) earlier than the sound out of the speakers.

I have cut down the buffer size but it is still noticeable to me. This is a bit of a judgment thing I know, but is this just going to be the way it is with Amplitube? What else should I do here? I doubt that anyone would find what I am experiencing to be acceptable, but maybe I am picky. It is not some huge delay like I have heard with some bluetooth connections. It would probably be OK on a TV set (re: sync between sound and lips), but really bothers me when I play.

Thanks.

deave

[daveleenc]

FWIW, this is just not going well. Amplitube has crashed a half dozen times in the last 20 minutes. Trying to set the buffer size to 64 is one way to cause that to happen, but not the only way.

Also when I just play a note more often than not I don't get an output - but sometimes (30% of the time maybe) I do (and the latency shows up). I tried a different guitar/cord and got similar results.

Just not going well and I am not optimistic.

dave

[supanorton]

Does anything change if you remove the Drafonfly from the chain?

[daveleenc]

@supanorton - I have not tried that (remove external USB DAC). But if you think that is a possible factor I will give it a shot.

I have one other question related to this. The IRIG UA that I am using seems to be primarily aimed at Android although it claims to support Windows. I noticed that the recommended drivers for most of the IRIG devices do not support the UA device. I wonder if that is the culprit here? I would be willing to spend $100 if that would fix the problems that I am having, but really don't want to spend that as a longshot guess for a solution.

Thanks.

dave

[supanorton]

I'm not sure. I did see that the UA is geared toward Android, but its specs suggest it would work with any USB device, including Macs and PCs.

I'm only guessing, but the Dragonfly does add another layer of processing after the initial conversion by the UA. That could be the added latency. The UA has its own headphone out, which it may "want" to use, which may be causing the crashing you describe.

You should get very good results without the Dragonfly as the UA is good guitar interface.

Please let us know how it goes.

[daveleenc]

Right now when I set 'Technology' to ASIO and select the IRIG and my desktop headphones as the input/output respectively, the options are displayed in the linked images below [mod redacted - see the images howto post in General Discussions]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y2kj08rk2sqde ... P.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yxewxwcephmm7 ... t.jpg?dl=0

I have tried all 6 of the HD Audio Outputs (which I would expect to be referencing the RealTek sound card driving my headphones). But I don't hear anything. When I direct output to the Dragonfly DAC I need a 512 buffer size to get consistent results, but the latency is too high. I just can't hear anything through the headphones in that configuration.

I cannot seem to use 'Windows Audio' but can use 'DirectSound'. In that case I need a buffer of 1024 to avoid distortion and that presents a latency issue. But the headphones work.

I am probably about at the end of this experiment - thanks for the help.

dave

[supanorton]

Have you tried removing the dragonfly from the chain and using the iRig's headphone output?

[daveleenc]

I gave the IRIG output a quick try with no luck. But since that would not be a workable solution for me, I spent no time on that. dave

[supanorton]

That's strange. Maybe file a support ticket.

[daveleenc]

That's strange. Maybe file a support ticket.

FWIW, I tried things again today and the output path to my system RealTek stuff worked. I have no idea what changed here from yesterday.

MAYBE latency was reduced when directly driving some desktop speakers (through the RealTek hardware on my PC) vs. going through the Dragonfly DAC, but not enough to be workable.

My situation is unusual. I have three 'primary' audio paths - Dragonfly USB DAC to desktop speakers, IFI USB DAC/Amp that drives high quality headphones and monitor speakers (via Line Out through the Line 6 device), and a Line 6 POD HD500X amp simulator that also drives the monitor speakers. I was looking for a way to 'mix and match' audio paths through my desktop for convenience (e.g., play HD500X output through my desktop speakers) and was going to try to use Amplitube (with no effects and no amp) driven by the HD500x to route the output.

I had trouble at first making anything work so I started with the IRIG UA/guitar directly driving Amplitube (which finally worked). Also driving Amplitube from the HD500x (a native
ASIO device, BTW) worked. But I still have the same latency problem. It is small but would not work for playing guitar.

So I have formally abandoned this effort. I doubt that it is going to work (for me) and it is going to be easier (and predictable) to just use a couple of 3.5mm switches to do the audio routing.

Thanks again for the help.

dave