Optimizing Latency

[DMM]

Hi Jesse,  I have been using Sonobus from the moment it came out and love the program but I am still having issues with latency. Most of the musicians I connect with are 100 miles away and while the sound quality in Sonobus is excellent, I can't seem to reduce the latency  enough so that we can actually play together. 

My default send quality is usually set to PCM 32 bit Float at 48000 Hz and 64 buffers.

I am using cable internet with 400 down/25 up  yet I usually see 50 to 80 seconds of latency when one other person connects with the numbers increasing when more people join the session..

Also, I've installed Sonobus on all platforms Mac, Windows and Linux (on a Raspberry Pi and on a Ubuntu Studio desktop computer so if you prefer a specific platform, please let me know that as well!

Thank you for creating this amazing program and please let me know your thoughts.

[Jesse Chappell]

With your setup what is likely happening is that the jitter buffers
are adjusting themselves larger for various reasons. A screenshot of
an example session is often very helpful to send when troubleshooting
this kind of thing.

I don't recommend you use PCM 32 bit, it's usually overkill unless you
are really doing hardcore remote session recording... using PCM 16bit
will save you half the bandwidth, and might help with the latency
issue in case they are network related.

Jesse

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SonoBus Users" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sonobus-user...@googlegroups.com.
> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sonobus-users/80d079a5-74ad-48a1-ac11-12264dec3d30n%40googlegroups.com.

[Kirke Godfrey]

Yeah, can i second Jessie here¬ i realised that for a Client to Monitor a send there is NO point in sending a 32 or even 24 bit file if its for monitoring, (totally diff if its a File transfer) 

if ya doing remote sessions the only stream that counts is the Remote on Back to the main session. 

we are still dealing with REAL WORLD limitations! 

[DMM]

Thank you all for your responses. I just had another session where I did as was suggested and lowered my bit rate from 32 bit to 16 bits. I've also tried 44100 and 48000 and in both cases the latency was still very high. So, my next question is: If I were to increase my Internet provider's speed from 400 down/ 25 up to 1000 down/35 up) would that help? 

The reason I ask is because in the past I've connected with musicians using a Fiber Optic connection and while their latency is always low,  I don't know if it's because of the fiber optic cable itself or because of the actual speed that the connection offers.  Implying that even on copper wires, the latency can be low as long as the speed is fast enough.

And finally, would it help if I were to have the other person connect to my Sonobus client directly by giving them my I.P. address and bypassing the server?

Let me know your thoughts and thanks in advance!!

[Jesse Chappell]

On Thu, Apr 1, 2021 at 3:24 PM DMM <dennismac...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Thank you all for your responses. I just had another session where I did as was suggested and lowered my bit rate from 32 bit to 16 bits. I've also tried 44100 and 48000 and in both cases the latency was still very high. So, my next question is: If I were to increase my Internet provider's speed from 400 down/ 25 up to 1000 down/35 up) would that help?

Just to clarify terminology, the PCM 16bit is the sample format, not
"bitrate". The PCM choices are uncompressed and use the most
bandwidth, but have slightly less latency (2.5ms each way). The opus
compressed choices (the ones with kbps/ch) use much less bandwidth.
I'm guessing that you are seeing large latencies that dwarf this
difference and that your issues are elsewhere.

> The reason I ask is because in the past I've connected with musicians using a Fiber Optic connection and while their latency is always low, I don't know if it's because of the fiber optic cable itself or because of the actual speed that the connection offers. Implying that even on copper wires, the latency can be low as long as the speed is fast enough.

Sometimes, the higher bandwidth internet services can improve latency
as well as bandwidth, and also have less jitter. In general it doesn't
hurt to upgrade your service, but it isn't guaranteed to help either.

> And finally, would it help if I were to have the other person connect to my Sonobus client directly by giving them my I.P. address and bypassing the server?

No, the 'server' in SonoBus is just used to match up groups and users,
no audio goes through it, that is all directly peer-to-peer with no
server involved.

> Let me know your thoughts and thanks in advance!!

As I mentioned before, without more details about the sessions you
have tried, with full screenshots of the SonoBus window while you are
connected, there's not much I can do. There are too many variables to
try to communicate otherwise. Send some screenshots!

Thanks,
Jesse