What to do to get less latency?

[uOpt]

Hm, and that's another question that i didn't clear fully yet, what's the real difference between usb and firewire? I'm too lazy to read, so if you know the answer

Firewire is a professional high-speed bus designed for storage and large video applications, by people who had the will do do things right.

USB, regardless of what the speed spec says, is crap. A lot of USB hardware (interface chip, cables etc) and a lot of device drivers in operating systems are unreliable crap written by people who were thinking "mouse" while they wrote the driver that you hook up your important harddrive up to. USB also randomly falls back to slow speeds when it doesn't like something on the bus, and that fact is hard to discover from software. The designers omitted obvious feature, notably host to host (that's why you cannot connect two computer just using USB, but you can with firewire). Then there is that whole mess with USB interfaces that are either host capable or not, which plagues current cellphones. And to top it all off even if you are host capable on a cellphone then you need another special cable, probably costing more than the device.

All things considered I like Firewire better

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Chris, that's exactly it, i FEEL but i can't hear it. It seems like i have less attack plugging into the computer, but i can't actually listen a latency. I don't remember having this issues with a POD though.

Now i'm in doubt, i'm thinking of getting the Vox AC4TV for practicing and recording purposes. Either that or the Vibro Champ XD.

What do you guys think?

Depending on your recording software you should be able to move the recorded file in ms to compensate for latency. As long as you playing isn't affected don't sweat it.

[Chris of Arabia]

Just want to check, but I'm assuming you're using Windows - if so, what version are you using?

[Funkfingers]

Try this.

Set up a rigid 4/4 time metronomic beat. With guitar strings muted, attempt to play EXACTLY in time with the metronome. (Muted staccato scratching sounds will do.)

On your DAW's Audio Edit Screen, compare the representation of the guitar sound against the bar lines for the metronome. Note how far behind the metronome the sound of the guitar falls.

Now, offset the guitar audio track by the figure that you just noted down. Everything should now be in time. Allegedly.

[Filipe Marquez]

I have no latency in that sense then, since i recorded a version of Hey Joe, playing directly from Amplitube 3...Maybe i'm just plain neurotic in complainining...

I just wanted to be sure i'm getting 4ms tops all the time, since people told me that's what we get in a close distance when playing through amplifiers...

I'm using windows 7 software...

[Chris of Arabia]

I checked with @garrigus who wrote the Sonar Power series of books. He reckons that Win7 is far better geared to the reqts of use as a DAW and needs very little in the way of optimisation. Basically, keep it off the net, and turn off the Aero feature. There are plenty of places that recommend many more tweaks for XP and Vista though.

[Filipe Marquez]

Thanks man! What's the Aero feature?

[Chris of Arabia]

Thanks man! What's the Aero feature?

It's the thing that makes the edges of windows translucent. Check out the tips section lower down on this page http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/issue.asp?ID=42

[Filipe Marquez]

Thanks man!

[Reload in 5]

Firewire is a professional high-speed bus designed for storage and large video applications, by people who had the will do do things right.

Thats a bit of a stretch but go on

USB, regardless of what the speed spec says, is crap.

Uhh, OK. I suppose thats why its the standard across operating systems and brands (remeber there are Apples (since 2008) that have USB and not firewire)

A lot of USB hardware (interface chip, cables etc) and a lot of device drivers in operating systems are unreliable crap written by people who were thinking "mouse" while they wrote the driver that you hook up your important harddrive up to. USB also randomly falls back to slow speeds when it doesn't like something on the bus, and that fact is hard to discover from software.

Dont use crap hardware. That is firewire or USB. That solves both the hardware and driver issue (since drivers for a recoding drvice are written by the hardware manufacturer)

The designers omitted obvious feature, notably host to host (that's why you cannot connect two computer just using USB, but you can with firewire).

Whats that got to do with recording?

Then there is that whole mess with USB interfaces that are either host capable or not, which plagues current cellphones. And to top it all off even if you are host capable on a cellphone then you need another special cable, probably costing more than the device.

So you are saying I cant plug my line6 studio into my cellphone? NOOOOOOO
I suppose I need to go get a new phone with firewire on it....

All things considered I like Firewire better

Good for you.
but windows 7 with USB 2.0 or 3.0 is more than fast enough and robust enough for audio recording.

edit: this is all a very comical post, not meant to be serious in any way, except the last line.