USB latency... any suggestions on lowering it?

[Virgil.]

I just purchased a Peavey Vypyr Tube 60 yesterday, and it includes a USB output.

You see... i'm experiencing WAYYYYYY too much latency -- as I feared would happen. It came with an eval. version of Reaper, but for some reason when I go into the Preferences>Audio/Device I only had the option of choosing either "DirectSound", "WDM Kernel Streaming", "WaveOut", and "Dummy Audio" as my audio system. All of these systems gave me the "USB" option under my "input device" when I had my amped plugged in, but there was WAYYYY too much Latency. I tried adjusting the buffers (default is 8x1024 - 185ms latency) and lowering it from an 8 to a 1, but there was way too much choppyness going on. 8 seemed to be the only safe number to be on.

I read somewhere that I need an ASIO driver selected as my sound system. I installed ASIO4ALL v2, and I was able to select my USB device from the list of audio inputs; however, since I don't have an external sound system (realtime monitors) I need to have my output range still selected to use my built-in PC soundcard. But when I have ASIO selected, that option goes out the window for audio output... it only gives me ASIO options. Sooooooooo.... if I can't hear what i'm playing, or hear what i'm trying to play over, latency doesn't really matter. Haha. It would seem I have bigger problems now. I guess I want the best of both worlds it would seem. I want to be able to hear what i'm recording along with my other backing tracks, without having to deal w/ the severe latency issue.

So, it would seem i'm stuck. :-\ Any suggestions? I'm sure i'm not the only one that has had problems trying to get rid of latency using a USB recording interface.

I'm assuming that because my computer's internal soundcard is trying to process the sound from my USB, and trying to playback through the same soundcard, that is what's causing the delay. Am i right? I also assume that if I switch to a firewire external soundcard device, and record into and playback from that device, my latency will be resolved. Is that correct? Since i am low on funds, i'm trying to make it work with just my internal soundcard. uhhhggg. this is so frustrating.
Please help!!

Thank you!

(I asked this same question in my previous thread regarding the Peavey amp, but I thought that since i'm asking about my USB latency issue specifically now, I would change topics)

 

[John_C]

the asio4all should show up all the possible inputs and outputs on your system.
make sure all the ones you want are activated in asio4all and then select them in reaper using the inputs and outputs drop down menus

 

[Nectar-and-Fuel]

Look up your soundcard's model and see if ASIO drivers exist for it. Then Reaper will have something like "Soundcard ASIO" in the options.

 

[Virgil.]

the asio4all should show up all the possible inputs and outputs on your system.
make sure all the ones you want are activated in asio4all and then select them in reaper using the inputs and outputs drop down menus

The ASIO4ALL does show up in the possible inputs, and it works fine for recording; however, since I don't have an external soundcard or monitors, there's nothing to select for the output. I've tested this by switching to ASIO, recording, and then switching back to my SigmaTel Audio internal soundcard to hear what I just recorded. The problem is that if i'm jamming over a chord progression or a drum track i've already recorded, I can't hear it to jam over it while I have ASIO selected. LOL. Does that make sense?

Look up your soundcard's model and see if ASIO drivers exist for it. Then Reaper will have something like "Soundcard ASIO" in the options.

This is a DELL laptop, and they come with pretty shitty internal soundcards... it's a SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC basically. It doesn't look like they have any ASIO drivers.

I'm wondering if i'm going to have to save up for some sort of external soundcard.

 

[AudioGeekZine]

if you don't have a real interface there's not much you can do