Akai is really LISTENING!!

b-righteous wrote:The reason that 5 ms latency would be noticeable is due to the fact that most audio interfaces will pad the figures with double buffers so the settings in the control panel are lying. Anything less than 4-5 ms round trip will be unnoticeable if it is the real figure. I personally do notice anything higher than that though.

You don't think an actual real grand piano, which has actual moving hammers and several other moving parts when you press the keys, would have similar latency to that 5ms, especially given the fact that a piano is even less responsive as it wears? Even on a well performing piano, the keys don't make sound for the first half of distance of key travel!

DJ Hellfire wrote:

b-righteous wrote:The reason that 5 ms latency would be noticeable is due to the fact that most audio interfaces will pad the figures with double buffers so the settings in the control panel are lying. Anything less than 4-5 ms round trip will be unnoticeable if it is the real figure. I personally do notice anything higher than that though.

You don't think an actual real grand piano, which has actual moving hammers and several other moving parts when you press the keys, would have similar latency to that 5ms, especially given the fact that a piano is even less responsive as it wears? Even on a well performing piano, the keys don't make sound for the first half of distance of key travel!

not to mention the time it takes for the sound to travel the several feet from the harp to your ears.

Reading this thread you would think computers, audio interfaces, VST instruments, and MIDI is new technology.

There are plenty of "players" that use virtual instruments. If you are one of those individuals that can't adapt to any real/perceived issues when using computer based production...simply record your sequences on the old reliable hardware and import into your DAW.

JAH wrote:Reading this thread you would think computers, audio interfaces, VST instruments, and MIDI is new technology.

There are plenty of "players" that use virtual instruments. If you are one of those individuals that can't adapt to any real/perceived issues when using computer based production...simply record your sequences on the old reliable hardware and import into your DAW.

Yes, this is what I've been doing since I bought a computer back in 2004. Not that I don't or refuse to adapt, its just that computers can be unpredictable. Even the way I run things in the studio, I still had my files lost from Disk Errors, to hackers ramsacking the hd not to mention viruses on software. I used to run the SP-606 on my old Satellite, so don't think I never embraced the idea.

However, I'm researching for the perfect computer-based set-up. But some software needs internet connection for upgrades and code verification and thats what hinders me to go there. Its like your studio all open on the street. And it'll be a hassle to connect and disconnect the net for little things.

I don't know, but time will tell.

Ill-Green wrote:However, I'm researching for the perfect computer-based set-up. But some software needs internet connection for upgrades and code verification and thats what hinders me to go there. Its like your studio all open on the street. And it'll be a hassle to connect and disconnect the net for little things.

If price isn't an issue you should consider switching to a Mac. A lot of the stuff you mention was a concern when I had my PC because I wanted to keep it 100% away from the internet, but that's a non issue now.

I regularly have shit downloading, 20 tabs open in Safari AND Cubase open with heavy projects running all at the same time. It's open to interpretation, but I think Macs are set up better for this fresh out of the box than a PC.

Ill-Green wrote:

JAH wrote:Reading this thread you would think computers, audio interfaces, VST instruments, and MIDI is new technology.

There are plenty of "players" that use virtual instruments. If you are one of those individuals that can't adapt to any real/perceived issues when using computer based production...simply record your sequences on the old reliable hardware and import into your DAW.

Yes, this is what I've been doing since I bought a computer back in 2004. Not that I don't or refuse to adapt, its just that computers can be unpredictable. Even the way I run things in the studio, I still had my files lost from Disk Errors, to hackers ramsacking the hd not to mention viruses on software. I used to run the SP-606 on my old Satellite, so don't think I never embraced the idea.

However, I'm researching for the perfect computer-based set-up. But some software needs internet connection for upgrades and code verification and thats what hinders me to go there. Its like your studio all open on the street. And it'll be a hassle to connect and disconnect the net for little things.

I don't know, but time will tell.

Man, I've had my studio PC internet connected for years and haven't had a problem. But I don't go to "questionable" websites, torrent sites, porn sites, or anything like that on it. The only internet I really use it for is updating software I own, sampling sound efx from youtube/netflix, facebook occasionally, some research on gear, and the forums; all mostly music related stuff. I don't even run anti-virus on it. And I also rarely update Windows on it, since that can sometimes cause a perfectly working system to have issues. I do all my file downloading on the computer in the house or my laptop. And I scan any questionable files before extracting or opening them or sharing them to my studio rig. And always keep back ups of the music. Build yourself a nice PC with no bloatware or get a decent Mac which is virtually immune to viruses and you'll be fine!

If you dedicate your computer solely to music and keep all the junk apps off of it that have nothing to do with your music, it will be predictable. I don't run any photoshop or video editing software or skype or none of that extra shit on my studio rig. Everything on there is for music! And it boots fast as hell!

Coz wrote:If price isn't an issue you should consider switching to a Mac. A lot of the stuff you mention was a concern when I had my PC because I wanted to keep it 100% away from the internet, but that's a non issue now.

I regularly have shit downloading, 20 tabs open in Safari AND Cubase open with heavy projects running all at the same time. It's open to interpretation, but I think Macs are set up better for this fresh out of the box than a PC.

20 tabs and Cubase?!! Now thats power I seek.

Yeah I was considering a mac-mini to get my feet wet, then save up for a G6 or whatever new Mac appears, hmmm...

DJ Hellfire wrote:Man, I've had my studio PC internet connected for years and haven't had a problem. But I don't go to "questionable" websites, torrent sites, porn sites, or anything like that on it. The only internet I really use it for is updating software I own, sampling sound efx from youtube/netflix, facebook occasionally, some research on gear, and the forums; all mostly music related stuff. I don't even run anti-virus on it. And I also rarely update Windows on it, since that can sometimes cause a perfectly working system to have issues. I do all my file downloading on the computer in the house or my laptop. And I scan any questionable files before extracting or opening them or sharing them to my studio rig. And always keep back ups of the music. Build yourself a nice PC with no bloatware or get a decent Mac which is virtually immune to viruses and you'll be fine!

If you dedicate your computer solely to music and keep all the junk apps off of it that have nothing to do with your music, it will be predictable. I don't run any photoshop or video editing software or skype or none of that extra shit on my studio rig. Everything on there is for music! And it boots fast as hell!

Yeah all that anti-virus software really slows things down, I can do like you said to download files in my living room then toss it on to dvd and transfer it to the studio comp.

Thats definitely the plan though, a dedicated rig just for music no interuptions.

Thanks guys

I am going with a Mac for sure...probably an iMac unless they are releasing the big daddy Mac Pros with thunderbolt connections.

Ill-Green wrote::shock: 20 tabs and Cubase?!! Now thats power I seek.

The only reason I've got 20 or so tabs open in Safari is because when you restart a Mac with Lion running it keeps everything exactly how you had it before the restart. So basically I've got stuff to read that's still open in tabs from weeks or months ago.

JAH wrote:I am going with a Mac for sure...probably an iMac unless they are releasing the big daddy Mac Pros with thunderbolt connections.

The daddy Mac is rumoured to be dropping as soon as Intel's new 6 and 8 core processors get released. In fact, Apple usually get a head start with new chips from Intel so I'd give it 2 to 3 months before they hit the street.

Coz wrote:

Ill-Green wrote::shock: 20 tabs and Cubase?!! Now thats power I seek.

The only reason I've got 20 or so tabs open in Safari is because when you restart a Mac with Lion running it keeps everything exactly how you had it before the restart. So basically I've got stuff to read that's still open in tabs from weeks or months ago.

just to jump in on this Coz as it was doing my head in...

i'm sure you know there's the pref which you can uncheck to disable this, but i've found that only kinda works.

So there's a bit of code for terminal here which disables that fully.

http://osxdaily.com/2011/08/25/disable- ... ompletely/

To be honest, I quite like the Resume feature and wouldn't want to disable it. I only reboot my MBP once in a blue moon and I've only completely shut it down once in 12 months of having it, so it doesn't really have a negative impact on anything I do.

yea i hear that... it's only the rare occasion when the whole system crashes and you're forced to shut down - on restart when everything tries to load again. Which (if my comps having a really bad day) can lead to it falling over again.

Coz wrote:

Ill-Green wrote::shock: 20 tabs and Cubase?!! Now thats power I seek.

The only reason I've got 20 or so tabs open in Safari is because when you restart a Mac with Lion running it keeps everything exactly how you had it before the restart. So basically I've got stuff to read that's still open in tabs from weeks or months ago.

Same here! Google chrome does the same thing, which I love. I never have 20 tabs though because it get's crowded, but I do sometimes have more than 10 with Pro Tools and/or Maschine running. Only only my family computer though. On the studio computer I don't keep a lot of tabs open on the browser, especially when recording vocals. Most times when laying vocals, I like to close the browser completely if I remember to. Even though the studio PC is a bit more powerful than the family PC, I just don't like to push it during vocal takes!

Ill-Green wrote: 20 tabs and Cubase?!! Now thats power I seek.

Yeah man! If you got the bread, go for the big boy Mac! If you need to save, build that PC. Built my PC for less than $700. Got a Quad Core Intel chip running at 3.4GHz per core, 16GB high performance ram, and Windows 7. A comparable Mac Pro is gonna run you probably at least $2500 brand new. Only thing is all you have to do is open the box and turn it on! Whatever way you go though, I'd recommend sticking with Intel based chipsets as they seem to be compatible with damn near everything.

My family computer is actually my old studio computer. So it's pretty powerful too. It's a Dell with a Quad Core CPU @ 2.5. Maxes out at 4GB ram though. But it still runs Pro Tools and Maschine very well with all kinds of other shit running in the background (dropbox, AV, Verizon media manager, iCloud, printer service, Twonky Media server for the PS3, etc), basically all the shit you don't want running on your studio rig!