Topic by GrandSeb

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Topic: Issue of latancy with Notebook Pentium

I am a new user of Pianoteq 6.
I wanted to use it on a convertible notebook using a Pentium 5405U CPU.
I have set-up the sample size to limit latancy to 1.3ms (which I found needed - any latancy above does not give me a good playing experience).
Problem is that as soon as I start playing, using sustain pedal, the CPU gets overloaded...

Question is: is here anything I can do with the parameters to get smooth playing experience with the CPU, or do I have to upgrade to core i5 to get this level a short latancy.

My Pianoteq is connected via USB to a Roland HP 605.

I am looking for best value for money PC solution to get smooth playing under 1.3ms latancy.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Reply by Luc Henrion

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Re: Issue of latancy with Notebook Pentium

There are other factors to look at. The sound card in use, first of all. Also RAM.
This CPU is not bad at all, but you're asking for a very low latency... given the speed of sound, it is more or less equal to 50 cm, unless I'm wrong.
Shorter than the distance between you ears and the hammers on a real grand piano !

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Reply by EvilDragon

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Re: Issue of latancy with Notebook Pentium

RAM won't impact audio latency performance at all.

Also note that this is just audio output processing latency. There's still MIDI controller latency, MIDI protocol latency (sending MIDI from controller to computer) - if MIDI is over USB, that has its own latency, then DAC latency... 1.3 ms is just a part of the overall latency figure.

Last edited by EvilDragon (20-11-2019 13:32)
Hard work and guts!

Reply by groovy

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Re: Issue of latancy with Notebook Pentium

... and not at least the "mechanical" latency! Nice example in the recent VPC1-Thread, where alone the key travel from contact 1 to contact 3 took around 17 ms to produce a MIDI value 37.

Reply by Luc Henrion

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Re: Issue of latancy with Notebook Pentium

Hello Evildragon, are you 100% sure about RAM? Not only the amount but the speed of the modules themselves (DDR2, 3, 4...). And the amount of RAM to avoid "paging". Anything that could make the whole system run faster is interesting to get a better "round trip" latency figure, don't you think so ?

GranSeb, would you give us more info on your system ?

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Reply by GrandSeb

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Re: Issue of latancy with Notebook Pentium

My Specs...

Connected via USB 3.1 Gen 1
Windows 10
Intel Pentium Gold 5405U (2.3 Ghz, 2 Mo cache, 2 cores)
4 GO SDRAM DDR4-2133
SSD 128 Go

I haven't tried to boost my CPU perf, I may try this...

Any idea?

Reply by MrRoland

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Re: Issue of latancy with Notebook Pentium

You can find a excellent optimisation guide here:
https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/...Windows-10

Reply by EvilDragon

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Re: Issue of latancy with Notebook Pentium

Luc Henrion wrote:

Hello Evildragon, are you 100% sure about RAM? Not only the amount but the speed of the modules themselves (DDR2, 3, 4...). And the amount of RAM to avoid "paging". Anything that could make the whole system run faster is interesting to get a better "round trip" latency figure, don't you think so?

Yes I'm sure on RAM. It just doesn't play any major (or even a minor) role in the overall audio round-trip latency figure. Maybe a few nanoseconds? In any case nothing noticeable by human senses. CPU is the major point here, as is the USB I/O, the audio driver, and ADC/DAC on audio interface.

Amount of RAM also doesn't play into audio latency figure - but of course it matters for other things, like how many samples from your sample libraries you can load, how many plugins you can load in your project, etc.

Memory paging is not a problem unless you're using Photoshop or some non-linear video editor. Definitely not a problem with audio applications.

Last edited by EvilDragon (20-11-2019 19:48)
Hard work and guts!