4 Mandala's > 1 Computer = Latency?

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The Concertina Effect

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Dec 1, 2009, 9:16:28 AM12/1/09
to Synesthesia Mandala Drums
Hi all

I've had one USB Mandala on my kit running through Battery 3 for ages,
with no problems at all.

I have recently added three more and hooked them up in exactly the
same way. Everything works fine as in, my computer recognises all the
zones on all the pads. On top of that 90% of the time when I hit the
pads the response is immediate.

It's the other 10% that’s bothering me.. When i play something a
little faster I start experiencing latency. It effects other programs
like Windows Media Player, Reason, Ableton... Basically anything that
uses the sound card.

I'm hoping I can just upgrade the RAM to sort it but, if any one
thinks it may be the sound card (I’m using an Edirol FA-66) or
something else I’d appreciate the heads up as it could save me a bit
of cash!

Thanks
Tom.

turnkee

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Dec 6, 2009, 11:34:12 AM12/6/09
to Synesthesia Mandala Drums
It would be interesting to know if the Virtual Brain would do the same
thing as the other programs you mention because it gives you the
special settings in its driver window to adjust things like signal
vector size, interrupt and overdrive. Those may be the fine tuning
points for your very situation. They allow you to get the most from
your specific machine and its capabilities. Maybe the other programs
were never meant to be triggered so fast from so many different
devices and they didn't leave that kind of fine tuning in there for
the user. Possibility.

Also, in Battery have you tried selecting all cells and clicking the
DFD button so not as much RAM is required? It doesn't add noticeable
latency as far as I could tell and it allows many samples to be loaded
without weighing down RAM.

Another possibility is that the programs are doing everything properly
but the choke point is your interface, or even the capabilities of
your machine buffering the tidal wave of audio on its way out to the
interface. Try ASIO4ALL as a driver for your Edirol instead of the
driver it came with.

At least you can narrow down the possibilities with those things I
mentioned.

skin richards

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Dec 9, 2009, 12:00:19 AM12/9/09
to mandal...@googlegroups.com
Ya same thing here, the mandala's have issues, at least the basic electronic kits don't have all this baggage, let's face it, they made those for tool and his has custon out jacks we don't, there product is not really catching on in a live setting, I see no one playin them, there a recording tool at best

--- On Sun, 12/6/09, turnkee <tur...@hotmail.com> wrote:

snick21

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Dec 9, 2009, 2:01:51 AM12/9/09
to Synesthesia Mandala Drums
it's the machines and interfaces you guys are running. pc's aren't
made for the level of professional music you are trying to use them
for unless you fine tune them just right, including pro level audio
interfaces and no other peripherals, which can kill the windows MIDI
driver's capabilities. on tour pat mastelotto consistently uses 3
mandalas connected to a macbook running battery, live and the virtual
brain with no external interface and he never has any latency or
missed notes.


On Dec 8, 9:00 pm, skin richards <skinricha...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Ya same thing here, the mandala's have issues, at least the basic electronic kits don't have all this baggage, let's face it, they made those for tool and his has custon out jacks we don't, there product is not really catching on in a live setting, I see no one playin them, there a recording tool at best
>
> --- On Sun, 12/6/09, turnkee <turn...@hotmail.com> wrote:

skin richards

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Dec 9, 2009, 2:17:07 PM12/9/09
to mandal...@googlegroups.com
I'm on an imac, core 2 duo, pretty fast. I can get by in live with say three audio tracks running with the mandala in record mode, but any more tracks than that, it becomes unplayable even using the inter mac out soundcard. Also, my interface is a profire lightbridge firewire, it should be fast enough. I don't know, it just seems like all the gear has to be super high end, or things don't work right. I can just use the mandala brain for playback without much issue, but recording into a program with the same computer is rough

--- On Tue, 12/8/09, snick21 <sni...@yahoo.com> wrote:
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