22 posts
Ok, I need to record something quickly for church (guitar solos for the Choirs CD) and since NONE of my old software works on my new Windows 7 Laptop (and I don't have money to upgrade them right now) I am using Reaper. I've read that with the newer faster computers, latency is "almost a thing of the past." I tried to record last night and the latency is horrible. As bad as it ever was with the older computers.
I am using my Toneport UX1, through USB 2.0. I'm using Line 6 Gearbox for the tone (and a pedal or two of course ;)) What settings do I need to be looking at to get rid of some of the latency. I still have a hard time playing when what I hear is 3 notes behind what I'm playing. (And yes, that is when playing slow. LOL).
DreamTheaterRules — Apr 06, 2010Ok, I need to record something quickly for church (guitar solos for the Choirs CD) and since NONE of my old software works on my new Windows 7 Laptop (and I don't have money to upgrade them right now) I am using Reaper. I've read that with the newer faster computers, latency is "almost a thing of the past." I tried to record last night and the latency is horrible. As bad as it ever was with the older computers.
I am using my Toneport UX1, through USB 2.0. I'm using Line 6 Gearbox for the tone (and a pedal or two of course ;)) What settings do I need to be looking at to get rid of some of the latency. I still have a hard time playing when what I hear is 3 notes behind what I'm playing. (And yes, that is when playing slow. LOL).
I never managed to get the latency issue sorted out. The only way I ever used it was to listen to the output of the toneport through the audio outs rather than from the usb/soundcard.
by the way, can we have a listen to your solo once you have completed it :)
Jon,
I read "Recording" mag, and they keep saying that newer computers are so fast that latency is all but gone... I'm sure there are settings you need to change, particular drivers to use, etc... but this was no better than 5 years ago. And this is a core 2 duo with 3 gigs of ram.
My solos are a few seconds of playing on this song. Maybe I'll put the whole song up once it's done instead.
Side note... it's hard to accept the tone from the Line 6 stuff after listening to my tube amps and pedals all the time. Yeah, I did it quickly. Didn't tweak for 3 weeks to find the best tone, but I did spend some time on it. I'm sure the "synthetic" quality I hear is only magnified through headphones and is probably better on playback through speakers in space... at least I hope so. I can turn any amp I own on and any pedal, and in seconds dial better tone than I could in several hours of tweaking the Gearbox tones.
I still have the same latency problems with pro-tools on my fast computer. Even when I set the latency of the card as low as I possibly can it still is not really useable to monitor through the software, so I always monitor through the "real" mixer instead.
I totally agree on the synthetic sounds of the pods etc. It still amazes me that I once thought all of that sounded really excellent. One thing I will say for the pod etc though....it got me playing again. Before the pod I hadn't picked up a guitar for about 7 years or so, it renewed my interest in it and of course these days it is so much easier to make good recordings at home from real amps that the interest just grows and grows.
yeah, I have to admit, I used the Toneport and Gearbox because it was easy... but three different nights I messed with it trying to find and tweak a tone, thinking it was "easier." I could have thrown a mic in front of an amp in far less time and even at lower volumes gotten better tone. Already has me rethinking this, accept that it HAS TOO be finished tonight and I won't be home til after Amy is in bed so it has to be the L6 stuff this time.
Make sure you are using the asio drivers in reaper
Thanks Fingas, I think I had that set, but I'll make sure. Also, I noticed some other settings in regard to speed, performance, etc, and they are all at the recommended settings.... any of them that should be changed to improve performance that anyone knows of?
Howie - do you still have your RockMaster? Or any other preamp, or heck, the fx loop out from one of your amps? If so, go here and download LeCab http://lepouplugins.blogspot.com/2009/07/lecab-v10.html. It can basically function as your speaker sim, it is much more efficient than say Perfect Space or whatever. It's a great tool and if Reaper lets you monitor thru VSTs you might be able to use this in place of your L6 stuff. Just remember everything in your chain in Reaper adds latency, so any effects, bus compressors/limiters etc, cost you latency. Sonar has an option that is really cool - if you route your guitar track that you are recording straight to your soundcard output, rather than a main bus, etc, and remove any fx busses form that track's chain, you can monitor in near realtime, with only the latency of fx in your track being noticable. Don't know if Reaper has that...
Use the PodFarm plugin. I find that I can get PodFarm (with Pro Tools) down to 128 samples of delay, which is entirely usable for me. If you can't get it down that low with a machine that sick, something is fuxxed.
AS a caveat, I could never figure out Reaper. I did one or two things on it and it drove me completely batty the whole time. YMMV.
Paul,
Sold the Rockmaster. But the Egnator has a loop. :)
I'll d/l this cab and try it tonight. Thanks!!!
I was not using any plugins on the recording itself and wasn't going too until mastering...
Here's a question to go along with this subject though.... What I hear is what gets recorded, so my solo is also behind where it should be. How do you guys handle this? Try to drag it forward a split second or what? This is NOT an issue for this project because I"m only giving him the solos and was not mixing it into the master track. Our music director can just put them in the track in the correct place, but I was thinking how crazy this drove me last time I tried to record something.
p.s. Paul, I still have Rocket's cab impulses. Would you still recommend using this instead of Pristine Space with those (or does this use those as well?).
Well, the L6 stuff is a plug in, right? Or at least it uses your computer CPU to provide the DSP, I think. If not, and you are using a POD type of thing, my suggestion won't really help.
As far as the track lining up, there should be settings somewhere in reaper for latency compensation. Sorry I don't know that app at all.
Yeah, you can use any impulses you want with it, and even more cool, you can run 2 separate impulses simultaneously, and blend them however you want, basically giving a dual miked effect. You have to watch for comb filtering tho especially if you are using impulses that aren't matched up.
I'll look into that tonight. I'm sure there are settings in here somewhere to make this better. I was getting pretty good with the old one and the new version came out and I didn't use it for a while... = starting over...
Hmm, not quite sure what some of that is...
See if this page helps -> http://www.cockos.com/wiki/index.php/ReaperTips
;) I just downloaded a new copy of the manual. Won't have time to read it til after basketball tonight.
This might help (see last entry in thread).
http://line6.com/community/thread/19868
Personally, Firewire is the best way of killing latency once and for all.
I just opened up my Reaper. Note it's very old. With my toneport, these are my settings...
Options > Preferences > Device...
set to ASIO...
then click ASIO Configuration button to configure ASIO props...
Then, in the ASIO config dialog, I set it to 128 and set the Audio Streaming to the next to lowest setting. If you are three bars behind with this set to 128, something else is way wrong... 128 samples is about 3 ms...
I just did this in 2 minutes with that setup in Reaper, with a Toneport and a preset from the Gearbox plugin (for some reason Reaper is not seeing my PodFarm plugin, but I don't really care enough to troubleshoot it). Set it up like I did and it shouldn't be a problem...
I didn't get to try again last night, so I gave him the ones I already had. I made these changes though and will check them out.
Kudos to Richards suggestion of the Ambience plugin. Sounded really nice. Funny how (and I remember this from last time I recorded something with the POD) the verb hides a lot of the synthetic aspect of the tone. Warmed it up really nice.
