Oh and agreed on the strictly control-option without audio or latency. But this will still be problematic with boxes that only have multi-outs through usb.
Why didnt they just add adat ports, 8io without added latency and usable next to regular soundcard functionality. That way they couldve just focussed on control and total recall and it would work exactly like Overbridge is advertised.
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What i meant was that now even cheaper audio interfaces have low latency. Of course computers have become way faster which helps a lot as well. I used to have a relatively cheap m-audio interface and not a great computer so my latency was always 15ms plus certainly when using a lot of vst plugins making it impossible to lower the buffer below 512.
Obviously fingerdrummig is not possible with 30ms latency but you donāt have to. Thatās where direct monitoring comes into playā¦ Just like a soundcard. Simply turn on the internal sound to main outs and dissable software monitoring. For recording purposes that is. Heat with ob live is a problem though but it is what it is atm.
Overbridge and the pads on the AR at least suggest monitoring is an option through OB. Having to go analog to play then back to digital to record is the tracking option I suggested. OB so far has been strictly tracking. But thats not whatās expected.
BTW I can use my 2001 soundcard and do a return/send loop through an io plugin and still stay well under 10ms overall latency. And as I mentioned, ADAT does all we can so far just dream about as far as OB is concerned.
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BTW I just noticed Olle in the beta topic mentioning latencies closer to 7 to 10ms, which would be a lot more workable. So not giving up hope, just want to stress the importance of lowering latency, spec for the performance boxes like AR and AK.
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Hmm you might be confusing two things.
As a soundcard the devices have low latency. Roundtrip under 10ms at 64 buffer.
The plugin OB causes 27ms latency. This has nothing to do with the soundcard portion of the device. The plugin latency isnāt surprising to me as there are plenty of other plugins causing plugin latency as well. Especially seen as how it works. They might be able to lower it, I donāt know.
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If youād use adat for the audio routing it would add no latency. If I route audio through the io plugin with my soundcard it adds some latency but not 30ms.
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In an earlier discussion(first days of OB1) I remember the sync being adressed as a main culprit as far as the added latency was concerned. I could live with traditional midi clock sync if that would give me normal latency values. As an option, of course.
Control plugins, like Monstrum, Midi quest etc add no latency whatsoever btw. So I doubt the control on that level is the problem.
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I feel like we should not pretend like that is a good workaround, as it still screws up the latency for your entire set and other instruments, unless you disable the plugin.
Most people probably use other instruments with their Elektrons.
And, is not so āsimple.ā It is something you have to consciously think about while you are working, which can be distracting, and again, it is not consistent with the vision of Overbridge.
Again Iām asking from a position of inexperience using VSTs, but when you say āthe pluginā here, are you talking about the VST?
Would it be an acceptable workaround to instead use the standalone app, outside of your DAW? (and control the instrument using midi from your DAW, or directly)
Iām still curious about the relative latency of the direct USB audio driver vs VST audio.
When playing live instruments anything more than 10ms starts disconnecting you from the groove. Your brain notices this gap between when your fingers play the note and then you hear it. Bring it up too high and playing becomes difficult, feels weird, and you just canāt feel it or get into the groove. 5ms or even the 1-3 range is where you want to be, but at least below 10.
Delay compensation wonāt help this, in fact, just by adding the plugin many daws will then delay your live audio tracks to match, so now you canāt play any instruments through any plugins once the large latency inducing plugin is addedā¦ So not only could you not live play the elektrons without using direct monitoring which means you canāt process it with more plugins, you now canāt process live audio tracks with plugins because theyād have to be direct monitored tooā¦
Just sayin, this stuff will matter to peopleā¦ Maybe it will be lower in the finalā¦ You know me by now, Iāll just use what works and not use what doesnātā¦ 
Itās a musical instrument. You adapt to its limitations. It doesnāt adapt to you.
From one of the papers you linked:
They found that latencies of less than 20 ms are almost unnoticeable to singers and musicians who perform with melodic instruments, but that musicians using percussion instruments can notice latencies as low as 4ms.
Iāve been a percussionist for 31 years. Maybe I am more sensitive.
I am glad you provided those papers though, as they are definitely food for thought.
What kind of audio interface are you using to record with?
I use a RME UFX.
hey everyone! i am using the latest overbridge update and tracking audio via OB usb but there is 69ms latency. is there a solution to this? or should i just buy a larger interface and record the audio via the individual outs
So has the latency got worse in OB2?
As I run OB1 still, clock with OB and Live reports 10.8 seconds of Overall latency when monitoring the OB machines live.
When playing the Rytm pads, or AK keys it is very playable and fine for my uses.
Although Iām also about to change and clock via Multiclock, rather than OB which may change this
Iād like to update but interested in hearing peoples experiences beforehand!
As audio interface or as VST?
I will be using my main interface, and using OB just to stream audio from OB machines to Ableton.
Iām by no means an expert on VST and USB audio, but I have a feeling that using the VST might introduce more latency than just streaming audio from them over USB.
I might be wrong! And I am not in a good place for testing stuff.
OP could try audio (aggregate device or whatever in macOS, trigger with MIDI) and see if thereās less latency?