Hi there, Great Day to you,

Would someone ( who knows & has real life experience ) tell me how would i build a zero latency setup, where i can run most basic/regular plugings such as, let's say 6xSerum 4xSpire & 10 Reverbs + Delays and various Distortion / Compressor / EQ etc. plugins.... at a very low latency, with everything playing out pristinely ?

So nothing extra fancy, i m not into over processing stuff... i just want regular modern projects to run at full speed at lowest latency ( like you would have in 90's hardware studio )

Anyone know the specs and settings required for such performance ?

I ve gotten weird surprises in the past, where performance just did not match the numbers and hype.... basically with all intel and amd releases, so whatever the cost and power, as long as the system is proven and functional, i would like to know

Thanks for y'all consideration

 

and lets triple or quadruple the amount of Spire's and Serum's ( wasn't thinking )

 

Zealious I cannot tell you computer components to buy . I have not built a new computer in years

but what I would look for in a mother board is the processing paths for audio ,usb and subsystems every time data has to reverse direction
costs you time in processing and adds time to latency
The other thing is to put as much RAM into the computer as you can 64 GB or higher if you can find a mother board that can support it
and run your programs in a RAM drive, this is the fastest memory on a computer
do not forget about the video card buy one with a lot of ram ,the time it takes to draw, up's processing time and increases latency
I do not know about the new Mac's but the old apple computers were designed to process audio better than a Pc
and look at the programs you are running and see if they take advantage of multi-core processing ,a CPU with 20 cores is no
advantage if all the programs you are running are only using 2 of them ,then a faster CPU would be an advantage
Hope this helps

 

your focus seems to be the measure of latency, but no mention of the audio interface or it's driver. you can spend a lot of money on a computer but it will not overcome any latency introduced by the i/o.

 

Basically, what you're asking for is impossible because all AD/DA converters, all OSes, drivers, DAWs, and all plugins have at least some latency, be it 16 samples or 1600, but it's there and it all sums up. You can only minimise the latency by using the fastest CPU you can buy (at this time Intel 13900, AMD 7950) and the audio interface with the fastest AD/DA conversion. Audient interfaces have very fast conversion, as well as RME, that I know of.

If you simply need a really low latency setup, go analogue hardware all the way. Analogue processors and fx, mixer, synths and samplers, and use the shortest cables possible. There will still be some latency (a few ms), but that's gonna be the closest to near zero latency you can ever get.

People usually point out that a guitarist standing 10 meters from the amp will experience a hefty latency due to cables and speed of sound, so latency is also a rather natural thing. But it sure is annoying when you're just trying to lay down those vocals in your studio and you wonder why it has to be like that, eh?

 

Excuse my ignorance, but what is the main advantage having a zero latency set-up when your DAW compensate for latency delay when recording?

 

In my experience, people are usually most annoyed by audio latency when they're recording tracks live, be it vocals, guitars, drums etc. That's why you have to pay special attention to your direct monitoring setup (DAW>Audio Interface>Performer and back) if you're doing a lot of live tracking, and if you do it right, it won't be a problem.

 

...imho the closest software/vst solution would be a fully optimised DAW computer, drawing from a vst slave cluster farm (at least 8 computers? Probably twice that) over a 1000Gbit network... Even then, as noted above, the DAW and the audio interface will (each) add a few ms, along with a few additional ms processing and transmitting data to/from the slave computers.

 

ProArt Z790-CREATOR WIFI (thunderbolt)
Intel Core i712700K
Noctua NH-D15
Thunderbolt audio interface: Presonus Quantum 2626 (fastest in the world)
Fractal Design Define 7 Mid Tower (no glass)
DDR5 Ram from a well known brand

 

Don't know about "0" latency, but this clip is 3 years old, so I think now it could be better - see from 7:00:

 

Last edited: Jul 31, 2023

It's a myth that digital hardware synths have 0 latency. Most Workstation keyboards have 2-3 ms of latency.

Get a modern processor, Intel 13900K or AMD 7900x and tune it for low latency. Many people have such setups and work at 3 ms latency.

 

Latency impact is psychological for most ppl.
Take an ultimate shredder, like Dragonforce players.

They use DIGITAL sims (Rocktron Prophesy, Kemper ...) + wireless guitar transmitter + digital console + wireless in ear ... (and may be more)
Stacking all this, you are around 20 ms minimum, probably more 30 ms

And you get that live :

So when a slow hand blues player come and whine about 5ms digital latency being impossible to play ...

 

Does anyone have a list of interfaces which can do less than 3ms I/O at, let's say, 96kHz?

 

The only list I know https://gearspace.com/board/music-c...erface-low-latency-performance-data-base.html

 

this is a very conservative suggestion

1.)
Stay away from intel 12th and up or face the uphill battle of optimization
(they have/had latency problems)
dont overload the ram 32gb is enough, or as above
you will need to rely on optimizations by Vendors: OS, MB, RAM and such
Motherboard with less onboard components tend to run with less optimizations.
AMD CPU´s 5000 Series and Above, SIngle CCX/Chiplet none 3D!!

2.)
or go to a specialized vendor that can get u a purpose build machine

anything homemade and not DSP will probably run at 128 -256 sampls

3.)
and of course a 2nd computer as "DSP Box" works really well

 

Last edited: Jul 31, 2023

You need to add Thunderbolt audio interface. They will give you lower latency.

 

Quantum 2626 Thunderbolt. If I go higher on sample rate I get even lower latency.

 

Here is the 96