Re: Laptops and Latency...

[Jeff Kaiser <loopersdelight@pfmentum.com>]

On May 8, 2006, at 5:32 PM, Steve Lawson wrote:

> one of the major differences between your music and mine is that your 
> sound source is acoustic - so your relationship with latency is going 
> to be very different in that you're already dealing with two separate 
> sounds - the acoustic one and the processed one. A 7-10 millisecond 
> latency on that is going to be pretty hard to pick up, I'd have 
> thought...

All digital processing adds latency to a signal, some more than others, 
better units add less....It is true that back-in-the-day (last year) 
there was not tolerable latency, but firewire interfaces and fast 
processors can bring total latencies down to a couple of milliseconds 
depending on what you are running....again, with a good interface and 
tightening up your buffers et al....I think the difference between .3 
milliseconds (is that a hemi-semi-demi-second?) and 2 milliseconds, is, 
as you say....very tiny.....2 milliseconds might be hard for even a 
bass player to pick up.....let alone a trumpet player! But, you have to 
pay for the machine....which is certainly more than a 
Looperlative...but can you check your email on a looperlative...?  :-)

> We're talking about tiny tiny latency margins here, and loads of 
> people are going to find that they don't notice them at all. For those 
> peoples, a laptop is a cool way to go, if they don't mind having a 
> laptop on stage etc.

Well, yup, there are many (thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe 
millions! Well maybe not that many) performing musicians on stage every 
night with copies of Guitar Rig and big synth patches running on 
laptops....all enjoying the light load-in and breeze of a set-up....

> Gimme hardware any day of the week.

I say, "Vive la Difference!"

(Anybody reading this: look for the duo recording of steve [bass, 
looperlative] and me [quartertone tpt and max] coming soon to a website 
near you....)

best regards,
Jeff



Jeff Kaiser
http://www.jeffkaisermusic.com
pfMENTUM.com • AngryVegan.com