Sending a mix stream without adding system latency?

VST Cloud VST Connect
#1

Hi.

I’m quite new to VST Connect, but I managed to set up a connection. However, I’m only interested in sending a mix stream to my college so he can “listen in” at any time. This works, but unfortunately it comes with a major increase in latency. It’s no longer acceptable to work the project, only for playback.

Am I missing something, or is VST Connect not designed for what I’m looking for? I thought it would be possible to send an audio stream without adding latency (doing to in the background in due time to fill buffers necessary?

Thanks

M

#2

I’m not quite sure what you want to acheive. It looks like you want a jamming tool, both sides play along with each other? VST Connect is not supporting that at all, explicitly. It is designed to record a remote artist like recording is done in a “local” recording studio, as if the artist is next room and you can record, punch in/out etc just like that. The difference is that you (the engineer) can not play along with the artist in sync, it’s a “one way street” (albeit sample accurate). You have to look elsewhere for that jamming functionality.

#3

Sorry, I may have been unclear. I’d like to setup a live connection as with the Steinberg iOS app Studio Pass. The description says:

“Let your client dial in with an iOS device via Internet and send the mix live to the mobile device in order to receive the feedback needed to get the job done, no matter where the client is that very moment”

Either sending the mix live to Studio pass or VST Connect Performer runs the system with latency.

#4

There is always latency with a VST Connect stream. In playback mode, that latency is determined by the “Remote Latency” setting in the Studio VST Connect plugin. You may try to reduce that, depending on the distance and connection quality you may be able to get to 0.5 or so.
Filling buffers means latency. There is no latency-free connection anyway, added to network latency there is the speed of light which does indeed come into play with long distance connections, plus system latency. Not quite sure what you expect?

#5

There’s latency and then there’s latency. If I use a third party program like OBS Studio (Freeware), I can stream an input to a streaming service in the background. This, without affecting the latency in Cubase. Surely there will be an considerable amount of latency for the person that taps in to the live mix. But since there is no need to two way connection, this latency is unimportant. So, why can’t an advanced program like VST Connect achieve this, or am I missing something? I am looking for a one-way connection so that anyone can listen in to my live mix without affecting the “working latency” in Cubase. Studio Pass claims to let customer do just that, but the working latency will be unacceptable.

I hope my english is good enough to explain what I am looking for. Thanks

/M

#6

VST connect is designed for remote recording which requires a rountrip latency, not just one way. Sure it is possible to optimize an application for that scenario. The Studio Pass does what it‘s supposed to do using the exsisting recording technology. As I said, you can lower Remote Latency such that you should get closer to lower latency.
Neither VST Connect nor Studio Pass claim to be optimized for streaming from Inputs. „Send the mix“ means exactly that, and not „stream your performance“. Sorry if you expected something different, but it should be obvious from the core functionality that it is not designed for the sort of input live streaming that you aim for in the first place.

#7

For me it’s obviously not obvious at all. :slight_smile:

My interpretation of “send the mix live to another device” is something completely different.

But I don’t have to sweat, I can just use free third party software to “send my performance”. The technology is there, but too bad Steinberg isn’t up for it - yet.

#8

Musicullum, I have successfully jammed/ recorded with VST Connect Pro.
East coast Cubase 10 pro (Keys/ Vox)
West coast Performer (Guitar/ Vox)

#9

Glad to hear that, thanks!