I just purchased “Total Workstation XL” Instrument Bundle and just as I suspected, there is latency when playing any of the sounds from the bundle. My buffer is set to the maximum at 2048 samples per buffer but I’m still having about a 500 millisecond delay from touch to sound. Anyone have ideas on what might be causing this or even more important how I can fix this latency problem???
I’m running Cubase 6 on a Dell PC 2.79 GHz Processor with 3.5 GB of RAM
Thank you for all suggestions…
I just purchased “Total Workstation XL” Instrument Bundle and just as I suspected, there is latency when playing any of the sounds from the bundle. My buffer is set to the maximum at 2048 samples per buffer but I’m still having about a 500 millisecond delay from touch to sound. Anyone have ideas on what might be causing this or even more important how I can fix this latency problem???
I’m running Cubase 6 on a Dell PC 2.79 GHz Processor with 3.5 GB of RAM
Thank you for all suggestions…
Lower your buffer settings. Obviously 2048 is quite a lot.
To reduce latency you want a lower buffer instead of higher 
.
Buffer is the time you give your pc to process the instructions, higher buffer means more time. This is advantageous in case you run a lot of plugins and your pc struggles to keep up while mixing. But for live playing/recording, you really want the lowest stable latency your pc/soundcard can handle.
Think about that 2048 figure. That’s thousandths of a second (milliseconds milli = Latin for a 1000) signal delay through your computer system. 2048 = just over 2 seconds so you’re lucky the latency is corrected to 500ms.
Now, does that make more sense?
Actually, “that 2048 figure” is samples - not milliseconds. Latency has to do with buffer sizes and sample rate.
No, not really - are you suggesting that Cubase breaks the laws of physics to convert your supposed latency of 2048 ms. to 500 ms every time a note is played live?
Kris.
Don’t worry Conman is a drummer 
Like krisp said, your statement is incorrect.
The sum is: buffersize / samplerate = latency (approximately).
So: 2048 / 44.1 = 46.44 ms latency
When there’s a latency of 500 ms your buffersize should be half of the total 44100 samples per second (so 22050 samples). Highly unlikely.
I think you are mixing 50’s and 500’s up or something else than the ASIO buffers is delaying the sound by an insane amount.
50ms with a buffersize of 2048 is quite normal, taking the total round trip in to account.
Like the others said, reduce the ASIO buffersize to decrease the output latency.
A blond drummer moment. BUT! The picture remains the same. The advice is the same.
REDUCE the sample rate. And to be totally technical. LOTS.
The advice given was to lower the buffer size - not the sample rate. The minimum theoretical latency, as niles said above, is buffer size divided by sample rate - if you lower the sample rate you’ll get longer latency.
Kris.
I’ve found 11.025 works very well!
I rest my case 
Hey thanks for all the great pointers and advice, I really appreciate it!! Well since posting this topic I had a major crash and only the dreaded “blue screen” would show when trying to re-boot. Took the tower in for repair and they needed to re-install my operating system (XP). I am opting for a new computer and went looking today but everything have Windows 8 which I hate!! Looking for Windows 7 which I think rocks!
No the latency problem didn’t cause my crash I suspect that my system was just old and couldn’t handle the many upgrades I was attempting to throw at it. I only had 3GB of memory and my computer maxed out at 3.5 so I added another 512 (seemed meaningless). I also had just installed a software based “workstation” package which was 29GB!! This may have been played into my crash scenario as I had to install the sounds (29GB) on an external drive and not where the operating system for the program was installed (on my C drive). I never was able to actually use the new software mainly due to my latency issues but before I could get back to this forum for the valuable info you all so kindly offered, my system did the ultimate crash and I was never able to boot back up to try your suggestion. So, perhaps having the sounds on an external drive and operating system for the bundle on my internal drive caused the crash??? (I didn’t have ample space on C drive to put the 29GB that’s why I installed the sounds on an external HD. Furthermore, the very last thing I did to try to clean up my computer environment was I cleaned the cache and computer history. The technician told me that this was likely the culprit of my crash as my computer was very old (6 yrs) and was not using the memory as much as it was using the cache and when the cache got cleaned out it freaked the system causing a catastrophic crash. Any thoughts on all of this.
Oh btw, I’m a drummer too. This probably answers a lot of question you all may have as to why this dope is doing all these wrong things… I’m more of a player/operator rather than a set-up or tech guy. Goes without saying right?
Anyways, thanks everyone for the help and all the amusing comments… Anyone feel like educating me some more.
As for the new system I am looking to get… I look at a Dell intel i7, 3.4Ghz, 3.9 in turbo. 8mb cache and 8GB memory GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 620 graphics and Windows 8 (if I get this computer I will want t have Windows 7 installed instead). Any thoughts on this system or recommendations on another.
You don’t mention what soundcard you use? this is important as it’s the soundcard drivers “ASIO” that can make or break a good setup.
Also Dell or any other major manufacturer of computers will come will lots of pre installed crap that really do not help in a good DAW setup.
If you are not up for building your own pooter, then the very best advice would be to buy from a reputable DAW builder.
Thanks so much for your message “Split”. That all makes sense, I am aware that buying over the counter from a major company is not the best way to go. Would you have any suggestions on how I might go about getting a new set up? You have any recommendations for me? Any specifics on a “reputable DAW” computer maker? Thank you!
The sound card I am using is Motu PCI 424. I have a Motu Mk3 & Mk1.
I build my own, so I don’t have data on reputable builders… sorry
Steinberg are endorsing HP’s professional Z series, probably quite expensive.
Worth googling about though to see whats on offer.
Depends on where you live. If US, ask Scott (JSChild here), he’s from ADK, they sell PC’s optimised for audio work.
Thanks guys!! Looking into the HP Z Series option or similar configs on a custom build and I will also try contacting Scott (JSChild) here on Steinberg.net