Lag when recording sound

Hi Everyone!

I am pretty new to the world of synths and vsts. I have purchased EWSQL Silver from Quantum Leap, and a 25 key Axiom Midi Controller. I am currently using Reaper to record with. I tried Fruit Loops but after 2 tracks i kept getting screeches and sound distortions.

Anyhow, my i find that on a large amount of the EWSQL VSTs there is considerable lag between the time i hit the key and when i hear the note being played. Or even worse, if i am trying to hit several notes quickly, some notes will 100% get lost and i wont hear them.

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to what the problem could be or any recommendations of different software, or even hardware configurations i might use with my midi controller to record music effectively.

Sounds like a buffer or memory issue to me - check your settings for playback. I know in Logic, there's a switch that's for live playback or mixing playback in the prefs.

is Reaper a decent program? Would getting a better one help at all?

Looked it up, it looks fine to me. Looking at the program a bit, I'm sure its a playback issue. Damned if I can remember where it is in Logic right now...

It's in your settings somewhere, depending on what audio engine fruity loops run on ASIO, MME, DX... Also depends on what your sound card is capable of. You'll probably need to install 3rd party engine drivers.

i was also having the problem with ewql silver, where some keys would almsot not register when i hit it, as if the sound was very very faint, so it was hard to do something like a fast violin progression. Could this be a problem as well?

You need to download the DFD extension. It preloads samples so you don't have this problem. Find it here: EWQLSO Silver Updates :: Sounds Online . Also, you might need to fiddle around with the DFD settings within the Kompakt player to optimize play back for your system.

what is DFD exactly? Page doesnt go into it that much.

DFD does not preload samples. DFD = Direct From Disk that is really called Hard Disk Streaming since they took the idea from another company. It's a computer audio streaming technique adopted by many samplers. What that basically does is buffer sound samples on the go.

Without the DFD extension, it loads everything into the RAM. With DFD on the other hand, it breaks every single wave file into chunks. And loads a bit of it into memory. When your computer plays a certain sound, it plays that first chunk loaded first, then it loads the next chunk (doesn't take too long since they are in small chunks)... and so on. This way, if there are samples that you never use in an instrument, it'll never get loaded. Only that first chunk is loaded. Where as without the DFD, everything is loaded.

I'm not too sure how the exact algorithm works, but that's the general concept behind it. The lack of DFD is NOT the cause of lag or delays.

Isn't buffering essentially preloading something to a point at which you can play it back without any skips or loss in quality while the rest of it plays back?

So it frees up RAM? that helps if i have multiple tracks right?

yes, either way, DFD usually always helps... unless you have lots of ram to spare

Seems like DFD couldnt hurt, More RAM in use the better? But other than a buffer or latency problem is there anything else anyone can think of

with regards to your original problem:

"Supports Asio and Direct-Sound drivers" quoting from a Fruity Loop review site.

I'm assuming you're running on built-in sound cards. Download a driver called "ASIO4ALL". And change your playback engine to ASIO4ALL. Try the default settings first.

With regards to your EWQL silver strings issue, you need to be a little more specific. Are you playing this from a midi keyboard input device?

Yes. an Axiom 25 key

try pressing harder on the keys?

the samples are set to a velocity response curve proportional to volume

Isn't buffering essentially preloading something to a point at which you can play it back without any skips or loss in quality while the rest of it plays back?

I think that's what most sample developers will tell you. There shouldn't be any quality loss. The skips and clicks are associated with buffer size. A buffer in programming terminology is a temporary storage for something before it gets processed. So I guess buffering is making use of this segmentation process. Buffer and preload are different entities. You don't need to preload anything for buffering. The idea of preload is so that when a process requests for data, it doesn't have to wait for that first chunk to be buffered. It can play immediately. If your buffer size is too big, it'll take more computational time to load it... but since your buffer size is bigger, while playing the last chunk in the buffer, it has more time to load it. Likewise if your buffer size is smaller, it takes less time to load, but you also have less time to load it. But it's not a perfect world, so there's a limit. At one point too high or too low, it won't buffer fast enough... This region is dependent on your system specs and primarily hardrive. That's why sample developers can't tell you what figures to set it at, you have to tweak it to figure out what's an affordable setting. That's also why people suggest using faster harddrives or setting up Raid storage space.

If you look at Kontakt's DFD menu:

You'll see first part it says "amount of memory for DFD"

That's the buffer region size. So you can think of that as a area strictly for buffering. That should also mean that as soon as you load up kontakt (aside from the kontakt's memory use), it's going to take up that amount in your ram. But kontakt's direct-from-disk is a little more complicated than that so there are more rams used whenever you load instruments. The more ram you have, the more voices you get because your buffer size stays the same. In expert mode you can change the buffer size. The reason why they call it the expert mode is because if you change that, that's where the skips and clicks can be heard if not set properly. The bottom is the preload size, that determines the amount that is loaded initially.