RE: All-Laptop live?? (was RE: RE: A poll--shoes off?)

["Kris Hartung" <khartung@cableone.net>]

Except that it is difficult to "tune" your buffer size when you only
have 128, 256, 512, etc as options, and each program/application has
different thresholds for producing buffer errors.  In other words, what
do you do when 128 has no latency but you get buffer errors after 30
seconds of recording...or when 256 doesn't produce buffer errors, but
you have annoying latency? [rhetorical question]  In my experience,
changing computers and processors has made the difference, but this is a
far cry from a simple tuning....and expensive too!  The buffer error
thing here is in context of ProTools, which complicates the issue.

K-

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Larson [mailto:Jeffrey.Larson@Sun.COM] 
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2005 4:24 PM
To: khartung@cableone.net
Cc: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: Re: All-Laptop live?? (was RE: RE: A poll--shoes off?)



Some clarifications on what "latency" means for PC audio software:

There is a certain amount of inherent latency in any computer that is
independent of buffer sizes.  Among other things this is affected by the
operating system, processor speed, sound card driver, the amount of
memory, the speed of the disks, and the applications you have running.

When we set buffer sizes in an application, what we're doing
is compensating for this inherent latency.  If the buffer size is less
than inherent latency you will get "dropouts" or "clicks". If the buffer
size is greater than inherent latency, things will run
smoothly you will just be over compensating.    The goal is to tune
your buffer size so it is as close as possible to inherent latency
without being less.

Jeff