User's Manual

CHAPTER
55
9 Reducing Monitoring Latency
OVERVIEW
Monitoring latency is that slight delay you hear
when you run an input signal through your host
audio software. For example, you might hear it
when you drive a live mic input signal through an
amp modeling plug-in running in your audio
sequencer.
This delay is caused by the amount of time it takes
for audio to make the entire round trip through
your computer, from when it first enters an
UltraLite-mk3 input, passes through the
UltraLite-mk3 hardware into the computer,
through your host audio software, and then back
out to an UltraLite-mk3 output.
If you don’t need to process a live input with
plug-ins, the easiest way to avoid monitoring
latency is to use the UltraLite-mk3’s CueMix FX
digital mixer to patch the input directly to your
monitor outs via the UltraLite-mk3 audio
hardware. The UltraLite-mk3 even provides effects
processing (EQ, compression and reverb), which
can be applied on input, output, or even at the
bussing stage, just like a conventional mixer. For
details, see “CueMix FX hardware monitoring” on
page 58.
If you do need to process a live input with plug-ins,
or if you are playing virtual instruments live
through your UltraLite-mk3 audio hardware, you
can significantly reduce latency — and even make
it completely inaudible, regardless of what host
audio application software you use. This chapter
explains how.
It is important to note that monitoring delay has no
effect on when audio data is recorded to disk or
played back from disk. Actual recording and
playback is extremely precise.
Monitoring live input. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Adjusting the audio I/O buffer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Lower latency versus higher CPU overhead . . . . . . . . . . 58
Transport responsiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Effects processing and automated mixing . . . . . . . . . . . 58
CueMix FX hardware monitoring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Two methods for controlling CueMix FX . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Using CueMix FX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Controlling CueMix FX from your audio software . . . . 59