Cubase LE

[tom_the_LD]

Hi guys, I hope this is in the right place but if not then mods feel free to move is needed.

 

I recently purchased a Yamaha Synth and got Cubase LE thrown in free. When I am creating a MIDI project, if I go into the mixer view, the level on the fader jumps exactly as I press the keys on the synth. However, when I am recording audio, there is a slight delay (about half a second) after I have pressed the key for the level to react. Same as if I am using a mic - about half a second delay between the person speaking and the level reacting accordingly. This can be annoying!

 

I am using the built in soundcard on my computer - Realtek HD Audio 7.1 channel and am coming out of my yamaha mixing desk into the blue line in on my computer.

 

Someone said something about it maybe being the ASIO (whatever that is!)

 

 

Thanks

 

 

 

Tom

[Rob_Beech]

Somewhere in your settings you should be able to alter the "max latency" or similarly worded settings. This is generally rather high by default for reasons unknown. Depending upon the quality of your sound card will depend how low you can get this. Ideally you'd set this as low as it would go, but this might put additional strain on the system. To start with, lower the setting to a point where you can't hear / feel the delay, this may or may not be slightly higher than its lowest setting. You may well be able to access these settings from cubase itself.

 

OT, which Yamaha synth?

[tom_the_LD]

In the "expert" sections I have ticked the lower latency box, but I am still getting a slight delay. I can't find an exact setting where I can altar the latency. Will there be an option in my soundcard program for latency?

 

OT Rob: It's the Yamaha MM6.

[Rob_Beech]

There may well be an option in the soundcard settings, I can't tell you for sure. Have a look around, generally anything under 10ms starts to get good enough, although dependant upon your playing skills you may find you require this lower still (not the way round you might be thinking, for more advanced stuff you'd require a lower latency).

 

 

Edit :

 

IF!!!! cubase has the same settings as nuendo for this part, if you goto Devices : Device setup, and then Down at the bottom in the VST section you should find some settings there.

 

As an example I get Creative ASIO (as I have a creative sound card that runs on coal), by clicking this and then control panel I get a window up giving me the option to alter the latency. Mines set to 2ms.

[weatherhead]

there is a whole raft of things that affect your latency, including but not limited to: sample rate, buffer size, plugins used, type of audio drivers and the D-A latency of your convertors. It's best to spend a little time tweaking various settings to minimise your latency. Have a quick search you'll find loads of information. Might send some links later. Am at work about to leave at the moment so I don't have time right now. Good luck

[timtheenchanteruk]

check under project, then project settings, and change the sample rate (ours work at 44.1 or 48 but anything else causes serious MIDI latency)

 

for some reason cubase seems to find it a requirement to swap to whatever it thinks is good at the time rather what you set it at last time you used it.

[Chubbs the Techie]

there is a whole raft of things that affect your latency, including but not limited to: sample rate, buffer size, plugins used, type of audio drivers and the D-A latency of your convertors. It's best to spend a little time tweaking various settings to minimise your latency. Have a quick search you'll find loads of information. Might send some links later. Am at work about to leave at the moment so I don't have time right now. Good luck

 

You need time and patience; I've just spent a fairly long amount of time perfecting latency issues in Cubase in our school studio. They don't make it easy....some programs (eg Ableton Live) make it trivial to correct latency...but clearly the sound engine isn't of the same caliber.

 

Charlie

[tom_the_LD]

There may well be an option in the soundcard settings, I can't tell you for sure. Have a look around, generally anything under 10ms starts to get good enough, although dependant upon your playing skills you may find you require this lower still (not the way round you might be thinking, for more advanced stuff you'd require a lower latency).

 

 

Edit :

 

IF!!!! cubase has the same settings as nuendo for this part, if you goto Devices : Device setup, and then Down at the bottom in the VST section you should find some settings there.

 

As an example I get Creative ASIO (as I have a creative sound card that runs on coal), by clicking this and then control panel I get a window up giving me the option to alter the latency. Mines set to 2ms.

Is this cubase LE? As Cubase is slightly different to the other versions.

[Rob_Beech]

Nuendo is based on the same sort of principles and layouts as Cubase it just attacks your wallet more in return for many many more features. How cubase and Cubase LE differ I do not know.

[Bobbsy]

I've heard before about problems of latency when using the Realtek HD on-board audio system (and, for serious work, you should get yourself a better external card!). I've heard of some people managing to improve this by downloading a programme called "Asio4All" and using that instead of the installed Realtek drivers.

 

It's available (freeware) from HERE so you don't have anything to lose by trying it.

 

Bob

[timtheenchanteruk]

IIRC Cubase LE is the cutdown version bundled with things like sound modules etc, whereas Cubase (SX etc) is the proper version you have to pay for.

[paulears]

Right - MIDI latency isn't a problem - it's the audio. It's almost 100% going to be a driver issue - as a Cubase user for years, I've always found the forums on the steinberg.de site really useful. The usual cure for this is to make sure you have the correct and latest drivers for your sound card - depending on what you have you may well find some better drivers - however, if you have a really basic sound card, I suspect that specially written audio drivers won't be available. Virtually all the serious audio cards have decent enough latency values to make the problem insignificant - my latency problems went away around 3 years ago because all the major players needed decent latency values - something budget sound cards with their poor audio performance are rarely asked for.

 

Check the soundcard manufacturers site, have a look at Steinbergs site and the sound on sound forums. LE is an excellent bundled freebie - it is feature limited NOT quality limited - and users find it easy to move to SX.

[tom_the_LD]

I've heard before about problems of latency when using the Realtek HD on-board audio system (and, for serious work, you should get yourself a better external card!). I've heard of some people managing to improve this by downloading a programme called "Asio4All" and using that instead of the installed Realtek drivers.

 

It's available (freeware) from HERE so you don't have anything to lose by trying it.

 

Bob

Hi Bob,

 

Tried the software and played round with various setting but can't see any difference.

 

 

Thanks

 

 

Tom

[paulears]

As I said, the steinberg forums are useful here - as in this knowledgebase one

 

It says

Solution

 

The latency of the audio card is displayed in the ASIO device setup (please consult the manual for details). Latencies higher than 6 ms are often disturbing and can only be reduced by using dedicated ASIO 2.0 drivers. Please check whether the correct driver is chosen since both the ASIO-Multimedia driver and the ASIO DirectX driver are inappropriate for working with low latencies. If no additional driver is available, please add an audio card with ASIO 2.0 drivers to the setup.

 

Latency is a variable, and seems to revolve around the soundcard and it's drivers. Fiddling with settings within LE only produces good results if you have a set of music drivers - written to give good latency figures.

[tom_the_LD]

I've got it sorted now I believe. Or at least, much better than it was so it is not noticeable!!!

 

I had another play with that program you sent me Bob, and realised the reason it wasn't working was because I hadn't selected that program as the ASIO driver in Cubase. All sorted now!

 

Thanks for the help guys,

 

 

Tom