16 bit stereo looper - Beginners only - Size of box may disturb some

[darwin_deathcat]

Well I got PureDyne installed, so it's a bit too late for me to check out Sidux (although smaller would have been better on this ancient laptop I'm using). I've had time to fool around with it, and it works VERY well. There is NO latency, and the effects (JackRack) sound fantastic. As good or better than the fx on my Digitech RP155. I need to get more familiar with sooperlooper, but I got it working, and it seems pretty damn good. I need to make my modified keyboard footcontrol so I can take full advantage of it! There's so much other cool stuff there to play around with too. I love some of the software synths. You can even play your computer keyboard as a keyboard (like from a piano)! Very cool!

[El Heisenberg]

What is latency? I've messed with the setting on ambiloop.

[darwin_deathcat]

latency is the time lag between when the sound enters the computer and when it leaves. If latency is too high, there will be an audible gap between when you play a note and when you hear it come out the amplifier. A small amount of latency is inherent to digital audio processing because you must translate from the analog audio signal (a small AC waveform) to digital (bits of 1's and 0's) when entering the system, then do stuff to the signal (add or subtract various 1's and 0's), and then convert the digital signal back to an analog signal before sending it on to the amplifier. If the computer does not consider these digital to analog/analog to digital conversions (D2A/A2D) to be a high priority, then they will take longer. Setting the latency in a piece of software like Ambiloop is one part of the solution, but not the total solution. Try setting the latency low in Ambiloop, and you will hear "clicks and pops" in audio coming through. This is because WINDOWS ITSELF does not consider audio I/O to be a high priority. You can ameliorate this a bit in windows by using an alternative audio I/O driver like ASIO4ALL (which can get your latency quite low), but this means you have to run another bit of software which will take up ram and processor time. The best solution is to use an operating system that is programed from the very start to have low latency (various version of Linux like Pure:Dyne), or to use a dedicated external USB box that does your D2A/A2D and sends only a digital audio to be used by your computer.

I hope that clears it up!

Cheers,

DDC

[El Heisenberg]

Well, it taught me something, but really just opened another can of worms! thanks

[El Heisenberg]

When I use the monitor function on ambiloop, there's a freakin delay from what I play to what comes out. I've messed with the latency before I knew what i was doing. I just took it down to where it wasn't sputtering anymore. But the monitor is still late.

[darwin_deathcat]

Yeah, that's the native Windows issue with audio I/O. That's the kind of latency that is very hard to get rid of. The best way to do so, short of using a differnt OS or buying a USB audio I/O box, is to install ASIO4ALL, and then set the audio drivers in Ambiloop to use that instead of Windows Direct Sound or whatever your particular native Windows audio driver is. That's what I've done on my 5 year old Toshiba PC with XP on it, and it works pretty well. Probably well enough to be used live, but not as good as my the 10 year old Thinkpad running Puredyne Linux that I just did.

[El Heisenberg]

Where do i get aso4all?? Is it software??