Whats the lowest latency possible on a midi controller / keyboard?

[Whipsmack]

Been using my audigy and it seemed like it hated me or crapped out on me and no longer works was able to get 10ms with it and was satisfied with that but would have liked to get 3 or 4

Now i'm back to my friggin SB live that gets me 21ms its horrid I can't play like that hehe.

What can I expect to see with the EMU 0404?

Thanks!

[Souliarc]

It all depends. How big the instrument is you're using, how many instruments you're using, computer specs (ram, cpu speed, HD speed, etc), drivers, all that good shit.

Sorry I couldn't give you a more definitive answer.

[Whipsmack]

no problem I don't know enough about the technology to have asked a more specific question. But say on an average amount of instruments loaded with under your typical circumstances with a high end computer im wondering whats possible. I do mainly everything with live recording and i'm always having to edit my timing mistakes because of the delays it messes my playing up.

[Souliarc]

With a high end computer (though "high end" can be subjected to different opinions in different minds) and an EMU 0404, I'd say you would be golden. Though if you can afford a high end computer, you can probably afford something better than an EMU 0404 as well. Not to mention, there are plenty more cards out there on par with the EMU 0404, around the same price range.

[zircon]

3 to 4 on a decent card on a decent machine (<1.5 years old) is not a problem for small plugin loads. If you plan on using really intensive stuff that is pushing your CPU, then expect some pops and clicks.

[Kanthos]

I get 5 on mine and find it to be entirely playable. I'm using a 4-year old 2.4 GHz machine, but my soundcard is an M-Audio MobilePre USB. I find that it's not just the latency of the card that makes a difference, but the plugins do too, and sometimes randomly. Last night, I was trying out TruePianos and Rayzoon Jamstix at the same time, and TruePianos was unplayable with Jamstix running, even though my CPU load was about 25% and I had a lot of free memory. I tried again this morning, after rebooting, and they played great together. Latency due to plugins has always been kind of hit and miss on my machine.

Another possibility is to do all your recording with soundfonts or something that doesn't use up much memory or CPU, and then convert to better samples when you're editing and mixing, because having 21ms of playback latency won't matter then.

[MaliceX]

Remember though, too much latency could cause response issues with the interface in the long-term, although in the end the outcome is better than having a loud buffer stutter that makes your PC speaker curse, or "beep" upon any further actions.

If you're using soundfonts, it's 0ms. Otherwise, 2ms is perfect, if you're using one instance though it depends on the plugin AND the computer you are using. (Sometimes, the program matters too. ACID stutters more on low latency compared to Cubase.)

NOTE: This is based off of use of an SB Audigy 2.