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Traktor running speed...


supacuts

  

3 members have voted

  1. 1. How low is your latency with Traktor and NI hardware?

    • Sub-2.5ms
      0
    • 2.5-4ms
      0
    • 4-6ms
      3
    • 6ms+
      0


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Long story short (ish)... had a FireWire MOTU Ultralite 3 running Traktor via an Express Port, yielding 2.5ms latency, computer broke and my new one doesn't support FW so I bought a USB 2.0 Soundcard today (actually it was a present) and I cannot get it below 5.6ms without it sounding crap.

 

Question: what is everyone getting out of their NI A6/A10/Hybrid systems? I hopefully have the option of a FW-Express Card-USB solution tomorrow but worry about the resulting latency so am curious as to whether the dedicated system is actually worth investing in.

 

Your time, knowledge, opinion and expertise is appreciated.

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The A10 I had and the Z2 I've got are more efficient than even my FireWire interface.

 

A word of warning though - most manufacturers latency figures (including the ones your quoting for you old Motu and new one) are just the processing figure...

 

Confusingly Maschine's latency figures are made from input latency/processing latency/output latency and Traktor's figures are made up of just processing and output. In both these cases, when your comparing these devices to other manufacturers figures you need to just compare the processing figure. All devices have all three latencies in play, but most only quote the processing figure. Why NI use a different system for their two softwares is beyond me.

 

So... On my Z2 I can run my latency at a 128 samples buffer for full use of the software and I get a processing figure of 2.7ms, plus 2.0ms output latency which gives a final figure of 4.7ms but its only the 2.7ms processing figure you want to use when comparing it to your Motu, etc. if I'm just running one deck and a couple is FX in Traktor I can drop it down to 64 samples buffer getting 1.3ms processing, 2.0ms output and 3.3ms total figure - again it's just the 1.3ms you want to compare it to.

 

I think Steve and Dopez are quoting their overall Traktor latency figures so again they're are lower than they are saying.

 

The current generation of NI interfaces are the best I've tried for latency. To put it in ti some sort or perspective, on Maschine (where all three figures are quoted, so these figures seem huge... but aren't) I started with an Edirol USB1.1 interface and at a certain buffer (I forget how much) I had a total of 27ms, then I got an Audio 8 with USB 2.0 and got a total of 21ms, then I got an Echo FW one and it dropped to about 17ms at the same sample rate. This made sense as the connection was getting faster and the latency dropped with it. Then I got an A10 and the same buffer size yielded a latency of about 13ms - still USB 2.0 of course, but much more efficient drivers in play.

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Guest rasteri

Someone should really do a proper investigation into the sources of latency. I'm willing to bet the USB chipset makes a big difference - it's quite likely two laptops with identical CPU/RAM but different motherboards would have different latencies. Operating system definitely makes a difference too, I dual boot windows XP/7 on my laptop and I can get my traktor latency much lower on XP than on 7.

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I can only get the overall latency down to 8.6ms but it hasn't glitched once and it is workable, so am on a leave it. It is down to the laptop being crap, I think. I'm just gonna make do and save up for a better laptop. Thanks for sharing your advice though, chaps.

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  • 6 months later...

I'm currently looking for a cheap Laptop that's fast enough for mixing with Traktor Scratch Duo / Audio 4 plus a little Korg nanopad. I don't really need it for anything else than mixing and a bit of scratching, so I was wondering what the performance bottle neck is.

Would you reckon that something like this is sufficient? (ThinkPad R400

Based 7440-11G: P8400(2.53GHz), 2GB RAM, 160GB 5400rpm HD, 14.1in 1280x800 LCD, Intel X4500HD, CDRW/DVDRW, Intel 802.11agn wireless, Bluetooth, Modem, 1Gb Ether, Ultranav, Sec Chip, 9c Li-Ion, Win XP Pro)

http://www.ebay.de/itm/IBM-Lenovo-R400-Core2Duo-2-53Ghz-2Gb-160Gb-DVD-RW-LED-Display-7440-DQ6-T400-B-/360758286485?pt=DE_Technik_Computer_Peripherieger%C3%A4te_Notebooks&hash=item53fede9895

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Hi, thanks for the offer but I've always been a Windows guy. Plus with shipping, I might as well buy one over here. But still thanks!

 

Also, thanks for your opinion, Steve - My problem with looking for computers is just that I don't really know what's important. For Traktor I guess it'd be the CPU frequency and RAM but I'm not sure and I don't really know how to compare all the different series. I've found a thread via google in which people say that the Laptop I've posted above would be capable of running Traktor smoothly but maybe they're just mixing without control vinyls. But if I go to the store and ask for Laptop to make MP3s go wig-a-wig, they might just put me down as a complete nutcase and only offer me some over-priced gaming models.

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I can sell you a black macbook for £250 if you fancy, 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 250GB hard drive, neoprene sleeve... Plenty fast enough for Traktor Scratch, plus a lovely machine.

 

Nice, is it a 2008 model? I've got one just like that except its got 2 gigs of RAM. Its currently on a fresh install of Lion and it runs TSP2/Kontrol Z2 like a champ, love that little computer.

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