Appendix; About Latency And Buffers; Different Types Of Asio - Native Instruments TRAKTOR AUDIO 10 Manual

10 Appendix

10.1 About Latency and Buffers

When converting audio information to digital and vice versa, the audio driver needs to store
the data in buffer packages (audio buffers) which are then sent to and processed by the
CPU of your computer. The higher the buffer size, the longer it takes for a signal to finally
arrive at the output as audio. You might experience this as late response between hitting a
key on a controller which controls music software on your computer and hearing the sound
at the output. Fortunately, with today's computers and low-latency sound card drivers, this
delay is usually very low (e.g., three milliseconds is about the same delay caused by fingers
snapping one meter away from your ears). Latency must be kept at minimum in order to
make software instruments and DJ applications playable.
How Low Can You Go?
1.5 ms of latency approaches the theoretical minimum because it will always take some
time to process information in a computer. Note that ultra-low buffer size settings (as well
as higher sample rates) make your computer work harder, which can adversely affect the
performance.
Read chapter 6 for instructions on how to adjust buffer sizes and sample rates for shorter latency.
! !
If you cannot get rid of audio dropouts, crackles, and noises by adjusting buffer size and
sample rate settings, check your system using the DPC Latency Checker Program for
Windows®, found on the web at http://www.thesycon.de/eng/latency_check.shtml.
10.2 Different Types of ASIO
It is extremely important to use the dedicated ASIO driver written for the TRAKTOR AU-
DIO 10 and installed during software installation (chapter 3) of the TRAKTOR AUDIO 10.
There are also generic ASIO drivers (for Windows®), typically called ASIO DirectX Full
Duplex Driver or ASIO Multimedia Driver. If you're not sure which one to use, try them all
and choose the one that provides the lowest latency.
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