Latency And Monitoring - RME Audio Hammerfall Multiface II User Manual

34.2 Latency and Monitoring

The term Zero Latency Monitoring has been introduced by RME in 1998 for the DIGI96 series
of audio cards. It stands for the ability to pass-through the computer's input signal at the inter-
face directly to the output. Since then, the idea behind has become one of the most important
features of modern hard disk recording. In the year 2000, RME published two ground-breaking
Tech Infos on the topics Low Latency Background, which are still up-to-date: Monitoring, ZLM
and ASIO, and Buffer and Latency Jitter, both found on the RME Driver CD and the RME web-
site.
How much Zero is Zero?
From a technical view there is no zero. Even the analog pass-through is subject to phase er-
rors, equalling a delay between input and output. However, delays below certain values can
subjectively be claimed to be a zero-latency. This applies to analog routing and mixing, and in
our opinion also to RME's Zero Latency Monitoring. The term describes the digital path of the
audio data from the input of the interface to its output. The digital receiver of the Multiface can't
operate un-buffered, and together with TotalMix and the output via the transmitter, it causes a
typical delay of 4 samples. At 44.1 kHz this equals about 90 µs (0.000090 s). In double speed
mode, the delay doubles to 8 samples, for both ADAT and SPDIF.
Oversampling
While the delays of digital interfaces can be disregarded altogether, the analog inputs and out-
puts do cause a significant delay. Modern converter chips operate with 64 or 128 times over-
sampling plus digital filtering, in order to move the error-prone analog filters away from the
audible frequency range as far as possible. This typically generates a delay of one millisecond.
A playback and re-record of the same signal via DA and AD (loopback) then causes an offset
of the newly recorded track of about 2 ms. The exact delays of the Multiface II are:
Sample frequency kHz
AD (43.2 x 1/fs) ms
DA (28 x 1/fs) ms
Buffer Size (Latency)
Windows: This option found in the Settings dialog defines the size of the buffers for the audio
data used in ASIO and GSIF (see chapter 13 and 14).
Mac OS X: The buffer size is defined within the application. Only some do not offer any setting.
For example iTunes is fixed to 512 samples.
General: A setting of 64 samples at 44.1 kHz causes a latency of 1.5 ms, for record and play-
back each. But when performing a digital loopback test no latency/offset can be detected. The
reason is that the software naturally knows the size of the buffers, therefore is able to position
the newly recorded data at a place equalling a latency-free system.
AD/DA Offset under ASIO and OS X: ASIO (Windows) and Core Audio (Mac OS X) allow for
the signalling of an offset value to correct buffer independent delays, like AD- and DA-
conversion or the Safety Buffer described below. An analog loopback test will then show no
offset, because the application shifts the recorded data accordingly. Because in real world op-
eration analog record and playback is unavoidable, the drivers include an offset value matching
the Multiface's converter delays.
Therefore, in a digital loopback test a negative offset of about 2 ms occurs. This is no real
problem, because this way of working is more than seldom, and usually the offset can be com-
pensated manually within the application. Additionally, keep in mind that even when using the
digital I/Os usually at some place an AD- and DA-conversion is involved (no sound without DA-
conversion...).
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