Do I have a latency issue ?

[Xmattz]

Hi there,

I think I got some issue with latency. In fact, my problem is that when I play with the HD1 module I have no latency at all, when I strike a pad, I don't hear the impact sound because the module sound cover it. When I try with the MD (or HD1 module plugged to iO|2 sound card) I hear the impact and then the sound comes. It is not like 1 sec delay but still I can't imagine to play with this latency. Am I just too demanding ? Or is there really an issue with my configuration ? So maybe you guys have some advices before I give up to play with sound comming from my computer.

Here is the setup:
Drums : Roland HD1
Computer: Dell XPS 1730, 4Gb RAM, core2 duo T9300 2.5Ghz running vista
Sound card: Alesis iO|2 with latest driver (proprietary asio driver they say very fast)
Megadrum (with default parameters) plugged directly to my drums, and connected with USB to my computer
Software: Tested with Toontrack solo (and BF2)

As I said I tested also to plug directly the HD1 module to the iO|2 midi interface but it is the same. So it is probably not related to MD itself. I checked the setting in Toontrack Solo, it uses correctly the alesis asio drivers.

So the last things I think about are: vista which would cause trouble, some bad setting in my config or usual latency you can expect with such configuration.

Any idea ?
Thx for your answers.

[jman 31]

Try the latest ASIO drivers. Google ASIO4ALL.

[fuzzysnuggleduck]

That latency doesn't seem normal to me.

Of course, there will always be *some* latency, but not so much that it should staggeringly affect your ability to play.

You seem to be doing most things right. Does your MegaDrum have the USB board? If so, try using that instead of the MIDI out into your Alesis MIDI device and see what difference that makes (or is that what you already tried?). I run my MegaDrum v2.7 to a Macbook Pro over USB and I'm able to play along with other live musicians without any kind of pain-causing latency.

MegaDrum itself has a latency setting. I believe the default is 20ms. Try playing around with that.

I would also suggest you try the ASIO4ALL drivers. http://www.asio4all.com/

[Xmattz]

Hi, thx for answers. Before I bought the iO|2 sound card, I tried the asio4all drivers (with my built in sound card). And because I had this latency I bought this (quite expensive) external sound card, which has its own asio driver, which I though would make things better.

[jman 31]

Looks like you should have plenty of computer processing power, so that shouldn't be the issue. I would check the latency settings in the megadrum like fuzzysnuggleduck said, and also see if there are any settings for this in your soundcard software.

[Xmattz]

Well I don't really believe that MD add latency anywehere, in a system on which you want the less latency possible, at least on the drum response. There are no settings on the sound card either. Last thing is Vista... anyone is using MD with vista without any trouble ?

[Xmattz]

Ok, I formatted my PC and installed XP. It slightly better but still got a small latency.
I think there is nothing to do for that. Playing drum with a PC will always be slower than with a module (now I understand why these are so expensive...). So I m considering selling my MD.

[fuzzysnuggleduck]

Ok, I formatted my PC and installed XP. It slightly better but still got a small latency.
I think there is nothing to do for that. Playing drum with a PC will always be slower than with a module (now I understand why these are so expensive...). So I m considering selling my MD.

Like I said above, I do quite a bit of recording with MegaDrum and there isn't any inherent problem with MegaDrum and software like BFD that will cause it to be unplayable.

[dmitri]

In your sampling software there should be a configuration option to choose type of sound drivers. With my M-Audio Black Box I MUST choose 'M-Audio USB ASIO'. In the same place it should show estimated Input/Otput latency. Also you should be able to see something like a 'Control Panel' button for this ASIO driver. When you click it, it should bring up a control panel of ASIO settings and one of these settings should be called Latency/Samples. Adjusting this setting you should be able to achieve an unnoticeable latency (less than 10ms) without introducing sound distortion.