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Re: Sooperlooper or Mobius? Going back to software.




> have you ever tested the latency between the EDP and
> Mobius?or anyone outhere?

Technically, Mobius doesn't have any latency, your sound card and OS
have latency.

Most devices that do analog/digital conversion have a buffer that
introduces a small amount of latency.  This buffer is usually small,
32 samples seems to be about average for computer audio interfaces.  I
remember someone saying that the EDP has a small ADC buffer as well,
something like 16 or 8 samples.  This amount of latency is practically
undetectable by humans, so it is common to think of digital hardware
as having "no latency" when actually there is a small amount.

Where latency becomes a problem is getting the samples from your sound
card through the OS and into the audio application, then back through
the OS to the output channel of the sound card.  This varies a lot
but between 256 and 512 samples is about average.  Most people can't
detect this either, and if they can it easy for them to mentally
compensate for it by playing slightly "ahead".  When latency gets
above 1000 samples it becomes more noticeable and harder to compensate.

To get the best response you should monitor your instrument without
going through the computer.  You can use a mixer or an audio interface
that supports "zero latency monitoring" which is just a small internal
mixer that sends the input immediately to the output without passing
it through the computer.  This works fine as long as the sound you
want to hear is made by hardware outside the computer.  If the looper
supports latency compensation you can tune it so that it feels
just as responsive as hardware for most looping functions.

If however you want to use software amp modelers or effects then you
have to monitor "through the computer".  There is no way to get around
latency in this case, it will take a fixed amount of time to get the
sound of your raw instrument through the audio interface, through the
amp modeler, back out the audio interface, and to your monitor
speakers.  The best you can do is tune the system so that this latency
is as small as possible, then mentally compensate for it as you play.

Mental compensation seems to be easier for players of complex mechanical
instruments like pianos.  Guitar players are the worst :-)

> maybe i am doing something wrong,but the EDP seems a
> bit more responsive

If you are doing direct monitoring, then how "responsive" Mobius feels
is determined by the latency compensation settings.  This is something
you have to tweak until it feels right.  Besides audio latency you also
need to include adjustments for the small amount of MIDI latency
from the footswitch.

What hardware loopers will always do better than software loopers is
sudden changes to what is being played, like unquantized loop triggers.
If for example you had recorded a loop and now you wanted to trigger
it DJ style by pressing a MIDI button, there will always be a small
amount of latency between the button press and the sound that can't
be compensated in software.

Jeff