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[Interface]

I have a Tascam US122-MKii that I always used on my older mac. After upgrading, driver support has gotten worse and so I was looking to use it on my new Windows8 box instead. However, latency is just killing me. I'm using Ableton Live9 lite. From some googling it seems windows is just not a good platform for this stuff. What platforms/software would you guys recommend, or does anyone have some recommendations for improving MIDI performance on Windows 8.1?

[Lauchsuppe]

In the year 2014 it basically doesn't matter whether you're using windows or mac. Did you install the latest win8 drivers for your interface? If there's no driver support anymore, you could give asio4all a shot.

[Interface]

Well, the drivers for windows are available and supported, so they should be fine. I don't have lag on the mac, but some features of the device aren't working at all.
I agree it's annoying that in 2014 with up-to-date hardware I'm suffering from lag on something as basic as midi.

[Lauchsuppe]

If it's not a driver problem, can't you just reduce the latency in your interface settings? Did you make sure to select the correct driver in your ableton preferences?
Just to clarify: are you speaking of input lags from midi device to pc or are you speaking of performance issues? If you run into performance issues, double check your sample rate and depth (working in more than 44.1kHz/16bit can get costly). Try to deactivate all the Ins and Outs you don't need.

[Oguz]

Sorry, I have no idea about Windows but can you reduce your buffer size?

[Interface]

If it's not a driver problem, can't you just reduce the latency in your interface settings? Did you make sure to select the correct driver in your ableton preferences?
Just to clarify: are you speaking of input lags from midi device to pc or are you speaking of performance issues? If you run into performance issues, double check your sample rate and depth (working in more than 44.1kHz/16bit can get costly). Try to deactivate all the Ins and Outs you don't need.

Yes, input lags from a MIDI device to Ableton. I've already turned off as much as I can - also found a setting for optimizing "live" performance, but no difference. This PC is i7 quad with 16gb mem.
I guess I'll do more googling, but seems you are saying this should not be an issue at all (which I guess I would agree) so it must be something specific I have going on.

[Lauchsuppe]

Ah, if your system runs smooth either way, ignore the second paragraph of my last part for now.
I assume you did this already, but check it out if you haven't:
Somewhere in your driver utility window should be a parameter where you can adjust latency, maybe also called buffer size.
If you open live 9, go to preferences and check the audio tab, it should state your current buffer size and latency. The smaller the buffer size, the less input lag you have = the smaller your latency is. What do those numbers say?

[MoritzPGKatz]

Hey,

Ableton Live's Plugin Delay Compensation is pretty lacking… and a few plugins introduce some serious latency! (e.g. UAD)

There used to be an option to reduce the additional plugin buffer, as of Live 9.something it's permanently set to the same size as your audio device's buffer.
To make things worse, some heavy-duty plugins, especially those with bigger look-ahead values (e.g. limiters) double that buffer size to avoid overruns.

The only feasible way to reduce latency to a minimum is to do without plugins that induce high latencies during composition and recording.
I like to export projects to Logic or Nuendo for mixing.

Of course, there could still be something wrong with your setup…
For a reliable fault analysis, the whole signal chain is needed or it's all guesswork: What audio interface are you using, what outboard equipment (if any), what plugins, any other stuff (like digital speakers, control surfaces), what audio settings (buffer size, sampling rate) in both Live's and your interface's settings?

Cheers,
Moritz

[Interface]

Ah, if your system runs smooth either way, ignore the second paragraph of my last part for now.
I assume you did this already, but check it out if you haven't:
Somewhere in your driver utility window should be a parameter where you can adjust latency, maybe also called buffer size.
If you open live 9, go to preferences and check the audio tab, it should state your current buffer size and latency. The smaller the buffer size, the less input lag you have = the smaller your latency is. What do those numbers say?

Well, the input buffer size is 0 and input latency is 0. However, the output buffer size was 4096 samples and latency is 92.9ms. I lowered it (didn't go below 256) but that sounded horrible. Changed it now to 1024 samples which results in 23.2ms. It's below what I can hear as far as delay, so I consider it fixed!

Thanks a bunch!!

[Lauchsuppe]

Glad I could help! You'll always have to deal with some kind of latency for these matters. The trick (which you already figrued out) is to get the latency low enough so you don't hear the difference.
However, 23.2ms is still a lot. You may not notice it while playing, but it's likely that you'll notice it when relistening to your recordings. For instance, at 160bmp, 23.2ms would nearly make a 1/64th note. May not sound much in theory, but it's audible in practice if an instrument is lagging behind 1/64th throughout the whole track. If you can't get your latency lower by any means, you'll have to keep in mind that you might have to make adjustments in that regard after recording (using live's quantize function for example).

[Interface]

Still have to learn live9 but thanks for the tip. I'll try to lower it a bit further but it sounded bad. Perhaps instead of using the PC sounds I could use my old midi device's sound bank and output when recording, for direct feedback.