Hi, I don’t have an external audio interface and uses the ports with my computer. Now, I connected a synth to the line-in, and routed it to line-out which connected to a pair of speakers within Cantabile, so the synth and computer can use the speakers at the same time. My question is, if the analog audio signal from the synth directly passes through to the line-out without AD/DA? or is it actually processed AD/DA and introducing some delay?
Thank you!
Hi Da.Vid - and welcome to the forum.
When you route any audio through Cantabile, it needs to be first converted to digital, then routed, then back to analog to pass to the speakers. So yes, there is some conversion and buffering latency involved when you work like this. Actually, AD/DA conversion isn’t the biggest issue regarding latency - it’s rather the handling of audio buffers between your interface and any audio software. AD/DA latency is pretty much neglegible compared to buffering. That’s why most audio interfaces that provide “latency free” monitoring still have AD/DA in the monitoring path (at least the ones that provide internal digital mixing of sources - some cheaper ones really just mix the analog input signal in).
On-board sound chips usually don’t provide facilities for direct (latency-free) routing, so I assume there is no way around this for you unless you either invest in a physical mixing desk to combine the signals from your PC and your synth, or in an audio interface that has some internal latency-free routing capabilities.
Cheers,
Torsten
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That is very clear. As you said, I can’t really tell if I hear any latency, it is good enough for me. And thanks a lot for your detailed explanation that when I going to upgrade I know what to look for.