Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] RFC: API for audio across network - inter-host audio routing
From: Martijn Sipkema (msipkema_AT_sipkema-digital.com)
Date: Fri Jun 14 2002 - 16:15:24 EEST
> if i read this correctly, it's about latency wrt _another_player_. all
> trained ensemble musicians are easily able to compensate for the rather
> long delays that occur on normal stages. not *hearing_oneself_in_time*
> is a completely different thing. if i try to groove on a softsynth, 10
> ms response time feels ugly on the verge of unusable (provided my
> calculations and measurements on latency are correct), and i'm not even
> very good.
Well, I just did some guitar playing through my boss gx700 with various
delay settings. Indeed 10ms delay is noticable, but I wouldn't go as
far as ugly/unusable. You could just feel there was a slight delay. But
really anything below 10ms is realtime. I don't think a 5ms delay is
a problem for playing any instrument. I don't know if the gx700 (or
effect units in general) has an additional delay from adc/dac or the
way it processes.
> let a drummer play an electronic trigger that does not make any sound by
> itself, and feed him a triggered synth drum over his headphones with 5
> ms latency, and he will kill you. his/her body control will be off to
> hell in a handbasket if the actual motion and the sound are not totally
> in sync, which means the drumtrack will be garbage and the drummer will
> suffer from increased muscular strain.
This already happens with 5ms??
> as some people mentioned, some instruments have a long "natural"
> latency, so the players have learnt to compensate, and the latency is
> part of the "feel". but then, this is not true for most percussive or
> plucked instruments.
Indeed when playing pads on a synth it would be hard to even notice
a 40ms delay.
I once read somewhere that some digital mixers have a 6ms delay.
--martijn
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