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Re: Foot Controllers.




On Tue, Dec 8, 2015 at 9:07 PM, Josh Elliott <jrelliott500@gmail.com> wrote:

But...this is a big reason I'm afraid to move from hardware to software Looping. The clock sync in my hardware rig is sooo tight( at least to my ears) and I'm really afraid of latency being an issue in software setups.


Every instrument has latency. For guitarist, the sound is coming from somewhere onstage and the latency from the moment they play a note to the moment they hear the note can be quite long, depending on their setup. Guitarist learn to deal with this. I never could get used to that... I play trombone and I'm accustomed to hearing my notes in my head through bone conduction very slightly before I hear them with my ears. 

That doesn't mean I don't deal with latency issues... Low notes take longer to start than high notes (ask your physics teacher). When I play very low notes, I have to think to start the note before its time to make sure the long slow moving waves sync with the trumpets' high notes. Through practice, I've internalized that and my low notes are in time, even if I start them sooner than my ears tell me they should start.

There's latency inherent to playing with a group of musicians. I've played a lot of big band music with 24+ musicians. The size of the bandstand can hinder a group playing tight, unless you're listening for it and can adjust your playing. This is (partly) why large orchestras have conductors. The musicians sync to a visual cue, not what they hear, they could not sync otherwise. Again, they might start a note before the time that their ears tell them is the right time.

Playing an electronic instrument with latency should not be seen as impossible. With practice, you'll learn to trigger the notes or functions when you need to for the music to be in sync. As with most aspect of music playing, lack of practice is the problem, not (reasonable) latency. Of course, minimizing latency is a worthy goal, but I wouldn't make it an obsession... just fight it until you can live with it.

* * *
btw, you're thinking of using Live? One way that and other software deal with controller latency is to quantize commands to musically relevant times (1/16th, 1/8th...1 bar). Makes you sound tighter than you actually are. Never mind all that stuff about practicing, just hit buttons. ;)

Sylvain