Could you please describe what means “combining it as an audio interface with my regular interface into an aggregate device” ?
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On a Mac there’s an app called audio midi setup in /applications/Utilities. Open it and you should see your available audio interfaces, if not go to the window menu and select audio. On the bottom click the + icon and select create aggregate device. Next you choose your devices by checking the box on the left, all of the in/out of the devices you select will be combined into one virtual audio interface with the sum total of all combined in/out. The one you choose first will be inputs/outputs 1->however many the device has, the next device you choose will have its in/out numbered appropriately after that. I choose my audio interface first so it’s in/out numbers appear as normal, and then I choose Rytm and its in/out will be the last ones in the aggregate. There will be a picture of the combined interfaces showing there in/outs and if you want you can click them and give them custom names. To get the low latency and just because I prefer I set my audio interface to 96k, but this does use a lot of cpu. Where it says clock source set it to the audio interface. For overbridge device check the drift correction box. Double click aggregate device on the left to give it a name.
Now when you in an app you can choose the agg device as your audio interface and all the interfaces in/out plus the overbridge in/out will be available… 
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Hmm, no its not. Overbridge only adds to latency. Then it uses the plugin to delay all of the other stuff in your sequencer so it has the same lateny as what the elektron device gives you.
So its a synchronization tool, but it adds latency.
This is a very very important difference and the reason overbridge is useless to me.
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Overbridge definitely adds way too much latency to be used in a music production setting. Probably works well for mixing, or if you only use sequencers and never play an instrument.
You can get the plugins to report 0 samples latency by disabling all the outputs/inputs in the Overbridge Control Panel, and using the analog outputs on the units.
The problem is that this has a major bug that has been left unfixed for multiple versions now: the kernel sometimes gets stuck in a 100% CPU loop, with the following message being logged thousands of times every millisecond:
PGDevice::rtsProcessIsocIn_Elektron numFrames(48) != numAudioFrames(0)
I really hope this bug can be fixed.
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You definitely don’t want to use an aggregate device! It adds lots of latency
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Im new to OB (but had my elektrons for 1-2 years), been reading the thread cause I haven’t been able to completely setup AK-AR-OB so im gathering info
I was thinking, if you are only playing your elektrons, can’t you start recording and monitor your playing through the machines’ headphone outputs? There won’t be latency in the headphones out
Focusrite has zero latency live monitoring.
You just mute tracks in DAW and send audio directly through card.
Latency of lowest common denominator.
@safetyofobjects, that’s a good idea(!), but I also like to use an outboard Kush Tweaker compressor, plugins, etc., and I really value playing through it live. The immediacy of results gives me ideas that I would not have if applying effects after the fact.
It seems like this is an issue that would be fairly easy to solve: using Overbridge not as a sound card, but as a controller.
@Purusha, really? Do you have a source for that, from what I could find it’s either “up to 300ms” or the sum of all devices latency. If it’s LCD that would mean lcd([10, 30]) = 30 samples, while lcd([10, 31]) = 310 samples, which seems odd.
From a few observations on my mac it seems the latency used for an aggregate device is the longest latency of any of the devices being used, I haven’t thoroughly tested though…
If you read up a few posts you’ll find that I actually got a much lower latency using the rytm in an ag device set at 96000 sample rate than than using the plugin… It was only a few milliseconds… That’s why Armenak was asking me about it…
My own experience shows that it’s set to the longest latency of any device attached. Discerned by looking at individual devices and combined devices.
I didn’t mean LCD in a literal sense. Was being tongue-in-cheek.
wow, that is big news for me!
will try instantly!
UPDATE:
This really seems to work on the RYTM.
Sadly there is no option to switch off channels on the AH. Anyway, the AR was my much bigger worry.
Wow, thanks a lot @grainstate this is a game changer for my workflow.
I have been going back and forth with Elektron’s support, even suggesting such a “0 ms mode - without audio transmission” . Feedback was that this is maybe something for the future, but rather unlikely.
…and then you find out that it’s been there already.
#mindblown
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Reading Olle’s replies in this thread was really painful. Very unbecoming of someone representing the company.
I’m using Win 10. Every time I disable all the i/os in OB, after I hit “Apply” it says this error:
“Your channel configuration could not be applied on this system. The required USB bandwidth could not be allocated.”
UPDATE 2:
the 0ms trick works, just not for for Midi Note Out through the AR-Plugin to the AR.
I can still use the plugin to change parameters on the AR, but for midi notes i have to use the Midi Interface.
Weird.
@grainstate is this also what you experienced?
Yea i think in windows you need to allocate something. I think the 0 allocation trick only works on Mac. Limitation of how windows handles audio drivers.
Do not know if this is the correct thread to post to…btw AH plugin seems to be hugely slow on my mac with Live (9.7.4)
I mean, sometimes it takes ages just to load the GUI and the responsiveness of buttons and menu is like jumping back 20 years…
Someone knows how this could be fixed?
thanks!
Will the new version of Overbridge which is (hopefully) coming in February mean updates for devices which already run earlier versions of OB?
If it does, then I reckon it makes sense to sit tight for a couple of weeks and see if these issues are addressed. If it doesn’t then a slightly more substantial response from Elektron would be good: I agree that their replies in this thread aren’t hugely encouraging.
As a Digitakt owner I’d also be keen to know if the new Overbridge is likely to have the same trade-offs with latency: it would massively decrease my interest in it if so.
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Overbridge is NOT to be used in with the sync setting checked. If you just have it as an automation lane and editor/librarian there will be no sync problems. Just monitor through your phones/monitors from sound card. Sync via ordinary midi cables instead. USB-midi is bound for problems. It’s a sad but true state of affairs. However! I don’t have any problems running over bridge with A4 and AR like this. They are both synced via OT that is synced via MIDI from my Fireface UCX and ableton. I tried to sync with overbridge sequencer sync, but that’s a disaster no matter what I did (maybe 30ms delay).
Presumably, if the advertising is to believed, all the new devices (digitakt and up) will have ultra low latency of all tracks streamed to your daw of choice. Older devices should have latency improved, but whether they fully fix the issues outlined in this thread has yet to be seen.
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