[LAT] To much latency

[Jeremy Jongepier]

On 10/30/2011 12:02 PM, Dave Stikkolorum wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am a musician and programmer.
>
> I use a laptop with an internal soundcard (intel)
> and ubuntu studo.
>
> When I see the qjack control settings window
> I always see a 46.6 ms latency.
>
> On a older Desktop computer with an internal ac97 soundcard
> or an pci sweex (cheap) I have the same problem.
>
> Reducing the sample period to 512 , reduces the latency, but
> always ends up with problems.
>
> My question is how to have a good studio setup
> for recording (and playing midi in the background)?
>
> Is it possible to better the performance with an external soundcard?
> What are your experiences?
>
> I also tried ccma an av linux, but the same problems.
>
> Anyone suggestions?
>
> Regards,
>
> Dave Stikkolorum

Hello Dave,

46.4ms is the default JACK latency (1024 frames / 44100 sample rate * 2 
periods). You can try lowering it by reducing the number of frames. But 
if you get xruns then (buffer errors) then you may need to optimize your 
Ubuntu install. You might want to look here: 
http://wiki.linuxmusicians.com/doku.php?id=system_configuration
And it's possible to get better performance with an external soundcard, 
especially compared to onboard cards and specifically in the case of 
ac97 soundcards. The latter just refuse to work at lower latencies (at 
least for me). There are quite some soundcards available that yield good 
performance and that are compatible with Linux: 
http://wiki.linuxaudio.org/wiki/current_audio_gear

For starters could you run cat /proc/asound/cards in a terminal on the 
laptop with the Intel soundcard?

Best,

Jeremy