Mega drum pci-express card = 3 ms latency?

[gkurtenbach]

I wonder if latency could be reduced even more by making version of mega drum which is a pci-express card?

Seems the scan time and internal latency is very low now at < 2ms, so the only latency left is midi/usb transmission time and audio host play back. At the very best audio host playback latency is the latency of audio buffer which can be as low as 32 samples or 0.7 ms at 44.1 kHz.

So I wonder if a mega drum pci express card could have latency as low as 3ms?

Wouldn't that be better than any Roland/Yamaha drum module?

Cheers,
Gord

[angr77]

Hi!

Regarding latency...MD is one issue...the ARM based MD operates at 1-1.5 ms. A proper sound module in Windows 8 would generate something like 1.3ms in 24 bit/96 khz 128 buffers.

Then you have some latency in the VST implementation...I have measured a total latency on 5ms for the whole chain on my system.

Okej...compared with the TD 30...only the trigger to usb midi will generate 4.5 ms...then if you use the built in sound card in td-30 for running a PC with a VST will add lots of ms....my guessing that you will end up on over 10 ms for the whole chain. Hard to really hear the latency...but still a lot of ms...the drum feeling starts to disapper..

If you use the built in sound in TD 30...it is a complete other story...

Angr77

[dmitri]

There is hardly any point in reducing MegaDrum's own latency any further. As Angr77 explained, most of the latency is added by other stuff.

[gkurtenbach]

There is hardly any point in reducing MegaDrum's own latency any further. As Angr77 explained, most of the latency is added by other stuff.

I agree, the latency is getting very low and I'm not sure how much of different it would make. However, two reason for interest in this are:

- have better latency that super expensive drum brains built in sounds!
- be able to run bigger audio buffers to improve performance
- maybe it does make a difference in feel...

Anyway, with the trend today with fewer desktop systems and more laptops, tablets etc, most people will want usb not pci-e cards. I was just thinking that like audio cards if you want the very best latency you have to go pci.

Cheers!

[dmitri]

To have effect, one must battle latency where it is greatest. At the moment it is not in MegaDrum.