Do I need an Audio Interface?

Discussion in 'Soundgear' started by demberto, Apr 23, 2019.

  1. G String

    G String Rock Star

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    Not necessarily true. It would depend.....on the interface itself, the device drivers, the OS config, even the USB cable and USB provider. And we don't know what the current latency situation is. I certainly would not recommend using a USB hub to connect.

    I would happily bet that the OPs performance would improve with, say, an RME Babyface. A cheap Behringer, not so much.


    Well, there you go. Everyone is different but playing "live" on a keyboard with that sort of delay is getting difficult/impossible. It seems highly likely you would get somewhat better performance by offloading the sound processing from your laptop to an external card. There are lots of threads here on how to optimise PC for music. (Clean install, minimal junk, no antivirus etc) Even fancy desktops can fail to produce results expected. But generally more power and better equipment gives better results. But it can be trial and error too, sometimes to a large degree.

    Try them? Make sure auto-disable of plugins is on too (or whatever it is called).

    Not due to (not) mastering. IF you are using ASIO then that will set the sample rate. If you change it in FL, then that should change the (ASIO) rate too. What do you mean the playback quality changes completely? It might sound a bit different but it shouldn't be too dramatic. What audio player do you use?
     
  2. leonidoz

    leonidoz Newbie

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    Well, perhaps I should have said, "The interface will most probably not help you."

    I would bet that OP who's only contemplating buying a keyboard will not invest in the RME Babyface.
     
  3. Mud Jones

    Mud Jones Platinum Record

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    Yes.
     
  4. demberto

    demberto Rock Star

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    What about stock reverbs, fabfilter pro-r, or convolution reverbs? are valhalla verbs much better? (i mean different) coz too much plugins, too much choices = extra confusion, that is why i use minimum amount of 3rd party plugs. also stock plugs = less latency, less cpu usage, i guess. the lower the latency the better.

    I read somewhere that using realtime kernel gives insanely low latency, but since i use my pc for all purposes (gaming, surfing, etc.) it is not that good.

    It is ON always. They call it Smart Disable in FL Studio.

    The rendered mp3 (320kbps) or wav (24/32 bit, even 16 i guess) does not sound similar to what i hear in the daw. well playback quality does not change completely, but the rendered should sound the same as it sounds in the daw, right? i also read many plugs do not have good support for 48khz and sound different than how they should. i use windows 7 64 bit latest btw
     
  5. wasgedn

    wasgedn Banned

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  6. G String

    G String Rock Star

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    MP3s won't sound exactly the same, because they're compressed. A 16 bit WAV render will sound a little bit different. A 24/32 bit render should sound identical. But then it depends on what you are using to play them - if the audio player has EQ, is doing some 3D sound shit, is compressing the audio (or if Windows is (WDM rather than WASAPI, say)) then it will sound different. That's why I asked what you were using to play the tracks. Foobar audio player will let you use ASIO or WASAPI which should be bit-perfect. If you are using WDM in Win10 then yes, likely the audio will sound a bit different than bypassing it (using ASIO etc).

    Worth getting an audio player that does bit-perfect playing, and bypasses WDM (windows driver model - the standard volume control and mixer in Win7 (10?)). [And not using MP3......render a lossless 24/32 bit wav and convert/encode to mp3/16bit afterwards.]

    If you are already getting audio dropouts/glitching then surely you want to address that? As wagesdn posted above, there's a thread worth reading on it here:

    https://audiosex.pro/threads/3k-computer-and-still-dropouts-and-cpu-spikes-what-am-i-missing.43021/

    There's some good advice there, and some not so good (IMO).

    Get LatencyMon so as to get some data/info on your machine and its audio
    https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

    Personally I wouldn't place much hope in using onboard sound for good results. Likely an audio interface would help. But, again, it depends on a lot of factors.
     
  7. demberto

    demberto Rock Star

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    thanks @wasgedn for those links

    I use VLC Media Player for playing all types of files. It is my go to media player. Does resampling quality matter? (i use 32 point sinc for both: while in the daw as well as in the rendered wav/mp3. i also enable dithering for 16bit wav - i heard somewhere it is good)

    Isn't 320kbps as good as a wav (i read it somewhere, again)

    I guess i should turn off Kaspersky when i am in fl.

    upload_2019-4-26_21-8-41.png

    These are the LatencyMon Results. how are they?
    After I switched to Chrome, the second column went as high as 1438 microsecs.

    EDIT: After checking the links @wasgedn gave, I want to add more things:
    1. My drivers are up to date. I use driver booster.
    2. Hyper-Threading is ON (does it matter? i need it)
    3. My mobo: ASUS H110M-S2
     
    Last edited: Apr 26, 2019
  8. wasgedn

    wasgedn Banned

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    dont trash this great tool...but try out https://resonic.at/

    or adsr sample manager...
     
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  9. demberto

    demberto Rock Star

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    RESONIC is AWESOME. I actually was searching something like this. Winamp and VLC takes a ton of time to play. Windows Media Player sometimes tells that load failed (wtf? i dont use it)
     
  10. wasgedn

    wasgedn Banned

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    always better when ever only reaper use multicore really effecient it seems
     
  11. wasgedn

    wasgedn Banned

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    :trolls::hillbilly:
     
  12. G String

    G String Rock Star

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    No. MP3 is lossy. OK for listening to, but a bad format for 'working with' audio. Always keep and use a lossless format: convert/encode for mp3 from the WAV or other lossless format as needed.

    Yes, much better to. Any such stuff, switch it off/get rid. Check the threads here on optimising, plenty of things to try to eke out some performance.

    All green! But only run for a minute. I tend to do 8 minutes (long song?) I wonder how much stuff you are doing (and what) so as to always get glitching. Big projects, or not?

    Having just looked through the array of options, not sure how bit-perfect it is. Does it bypass WDM? No ASIO? No WASAPI? Seems confusing too whether the compressor is always on, and various other things. I never use it, so can't say. I know where I stand with Foobar at least. ;)
     
  13. Jazz-N-Stuff

    Jazz-N-Stuff Platinum Record

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  14. demberto

    demberto Rock Star

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    Most probably the latency is due to my shitty graphic card (GT 710). Whenever I load an ultra big (I mean lots of patterns and tracks in the flp) the scrolling lags (noticeable but bearable). I never OC my GPU, if you can call it one. I also disabled an option called "Safe Overloads".

    Now use Resonic in WASAPI-EX (exclusive) mode. All enhancements like 3D and EQ were disabled since I started learning my DAW. So it is not the problem.

    Does improving priority (Task Manager) for FL really improve it? I set it at Above Normal always.
     
  15. G String

    G String Rock Star

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    All good, then. FL Priority in task manager? I don't know. Marginal, at best?

    Beyond 'freezing tracks' (render to audio) I don't know that you can expect much improvement in performance. Will an audio interface help? Possibly. It could make things worse, if the drivers are poor, for instance. Onboard sound used to be CPU powered and used CPU cycles, I'm not sure if that situation remains. Likely it does, somewhat. So.......probably an interface would help, but it isn't magic and isn't going to lift your default PC performance all that much, I suspect.

    Have fun! :D
     
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