How do you deal with latency while recording your Elektron devices into a DAW while performing with plugins/MIDI controllers?

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

The only thing I can think of is buy another Elektron device… lol.

I got my setup to near perfection… Digitone controlling a Behringer Neutron, receiving input from Neutron and Moog Sub Phatty, and my Presonus Atom Controller input into my DAW to mess with samples, drums and various poly synths, thanks to previous help from this forum.

The problem is the latency between the hardware setup and the software (Studio One 4 Professional). Regarding the samples I use they’re usually drums so it’s annoying as hell. I got a production pad type controller so I could play the drums on my own unquantized or quantized to a very small unit after the fact.

The DAW is now the last restriction I feel with my setup even though it’s potentially so powerful. Will a better audio interface help at all or is this just a fact I have to deal with?

#2

One way to do it is to use an interface that has hardware monitoring and simply disable input monitoring in the DAW.
Clearly you cannot hear any plugins you might instantiate in the track this way.

I use Pro Tools HDX so latency is about 0.8ms.
Before I had HDX I was using an analogue mixer before the audio interface that fed the signal to the monitors before hitting the computer.

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#3

My interface has a mixer for inputs and playback. The DAW and plugins only sound through playback and my hardware only sounds through input… if I put the dial in between them the latency between the two is horrible and unplayable.

Thus unless I record one first there’s no way for me to hear how they sound together which renders the setup nearly useless because all my drums come from plugins…

#4

You should be able to get useable results by monitoring the hardware through the DAW, not through the interfaces mixer, and then lowering the audio buffer in the DAW to as low as your computer will allow without audio glitches, I’d try to see if a 64 sample buffer works…

If you monitor everything through the DAW the latency of the inputs should be much closer or the same as the plugins, and then by lowering the buffer hopefully the latency will be minimized enough to be playable… The DAW will always apply at least the latency of the audio buffer (possibly more with latency inducing plugins), the interface mixer will bypass this and send the signal out as fast as it can, so there will always be a sync difference of at least the size of audio buffer latency minus the interfaces direct mixer latency. If your computer and interface are fast enough you can run everything through the DAW for monitoring and it will still be playable…

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#5

E-RM Multiclock, ACME syncgen, etc.
If you are a perfectionist, or if jamming all machines at once in combination with the daw + plugins is important to you, you will never be satisfied without using an external sync solution.

#6

Studio One has zero latency monitoring. If you don’t already do that, look into how to accomplish that.

Now, unless I’m mistaken, the way zero latency works for instruments (not audio) is on a per-instrument basis. So if you have multiple vsts going and you want to control them all at once this may not be possible. But again, I could be wrong. Watch videos and read the manual.

But also, do you need like 10 things running at once? Is this for a live setup? Cause if you’re just recording that’s a biiit overkill and depending on your CPU, you may not be able to run that efficiently.

And then also if I’m reading this right, your DN is getting audio in from Neutron and Moog? Or do you mean MIDI input? Cause if it’s audio you’d be better off recording it separate anyway…

Lastly what do you think of the ATOM?! Even on the presonus forums I haven’t seen anyone buy it yet. How’s it helping with workflow, etc?

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#7

I’ve got my DN receiving audio from Moog and Neutron, and it is sending MIDI out to the Neutron for sequencing and playing.

Today I managed to get everything up and running with minimal latency and I was able to play my Atom like an instrument. Ironically I’m a huge fan of computers but I like them to be in the background as much as possible (like they are in good synths) and not getting in the way. To me the Atom is great, I paid $125 for it brand new, I’ve never owned a pad controller before but I can play the VSTs like instruments now (namely drums and poly/pads). And no, I only use one VST at once when recording inputs live. The problem was being able to play that one VST alongside my hardware and hear the real time output to see if I liked it, but it totally works now and it’s amazing. The creativity has become boundless with the combo, add my guitar in there and it’s fantastical for one person. I can go from Santana at Woodstock with more synths to Com Truise

The last thing I think I’d enjoy having is a nice guitar pedal again, I got rid of my previous pedal setup but having a delay like Eventide would be insane. Of course over time I’m sure I’ll acquire more modular synths, namely a DFAM.

For $125 the Atom is a great addition if you want to play things like Impact drums live or conga/bongo samples, etc. or poly synth chords easily.

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#8

Honestly I’d like to see a video of this if you can do it. Sounds real sweet. Bet the guys over at the presonus forums would like it too.

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