Hi,
I am having a real hard time getting a ASIO driver to work with my Cantabile Performer. My laptop is:
Dell Vostro 7500
Windows 10
I-7-1075H CPU @2.60Ghz
RAM 24GB
I have attached a picture of my Sound Drivers and configuration. This computer has RealTech drivers and no onboard ASIO. I installed ASIO4ALL v2 and am still having issues. Either it works and then degrades, is distorted or doesn’t work at all. I can restart and it temporarily works sometimes. I get red question marks after it degrades in the control panel of the ASIO4ALL v2. I had a Novation 2 x 4 hooked up but the latency was too slow. Can anyone help find a driver I can use or suggest a device that has less than 10ms latency?
I am using an Arturia Keylab keyboard plugged into the laptop with a USB cable and a Roland PK-5A midi pedal controller plugged into the Laptop with an MAudio midisport Uno.
I am pretty sure you won’t get there without buying a dedicated ASIO USB or Thunderbolt (if your PC has it) interface. On the affordable end of the scale I recommend the Behringer UMC 202 or 204. I am running at 128 samples buffer on a 2.6 MHz i7 (4 core) so the latency is running under the 10 mS limit you described. I also can recommend RME products but they are more pricey. I use a BabyFace Pro and it has been very solid. I also assume you have looked at Glitch Free (Brad’s Guide) to help tune your PC for live music.
Yes it would but in my experience ASIO4ALL doesn’t always help on latency because it still has to use the WDM driver. FWIW so does WASAPI. It was used a lot because some DAWs didn’t allow WASAPI and required ASIO. On my machine ASIO4ALL has the same latency as WASAPI. Both can run at 512 samples no sweat but crater below that whereas the UMC driver goes to 128 samples no sweat. Anyway that’s my experience with it. The OP may have configuration needs if he is seeing gradual failure like he described, it’s usually something else hogging resources that causes it.
Hi there,
As you can see from our responses above, it should work but there can be performance hits depending on several factors. Have you checked out Brad’s ‘Glitch Free’ handbook, which can be downloaded at from the link at the top of this page?
those Realtek audio drivers can be made to work, but not really with stable low-latency performance.
First thing I’d do is - as @Ade suggested - make all the optimization settings in @brad’s excellent eBook. Then try to use the WASAPI OUT - Realtek Speakers audio driver for your audio output; ignore ASIO for the moment. If you can get them to run without issues at a 256 samples buffer size, you have at least a workable configuration.
Sometimes changing the sample rate from 44.1 to 48 kHz (or vice versa) helps when things go wrong, but no guarantees…
You only need ASIO drivers with Realtek sound chips if you want to process audio input, since WASAPI only gives you output. So if WASAPI works for you, you can safely forget about ASIO4All.
If you want to upgrade your overall experience, do yourself a favor and get a dedicated external USB audio interface - the Behringer UPhorias are a good starting point. If you’re ready to spend a bit more, the Zoom UAC-2 has proven itself an excellent low-latency interface for my live work. You can still buy it, although it is being superseded by the new UAC-232 (which I haven’t been able to test for low-latency yet).
OK,
I just went through Brad’s book and changed as many things as I could. Since that is Windows 7and mine is Windows 10 there were some differences like there is not a a high performance power option on this Dell. The registry changes didn’t seem to work out, but most things were done.
My computer does have one of those lightning ports but I am not quite sure how to use it. I am looking into the Zoom UAC-2 as suggested above. I assume this has a usable ASIO driver etc? I like the fact that you said it is low latency as well. If anyone has any other suggestions, please send them. It appears that my computer should be equipped enough to handle Cantabile and two instruments being used simultaneously at most. The harddrive is a 1 terrabyte sold state. Thank you for all your help.
Yes, the Zoom ASIO driver is one of the better ones on the market. BTW: the UAC-2 also has MIDI ports on board, so you won’t need your midisport Uno anymore. Reduces the mess on stage
The Zoom UAC-2 has an in and out midi port. How do I use two midi devices (outs) through one midi input? The Arturia keyboard has either a midi out or USB out, but the Zoom does not have an input USB port and that one on the back (out) goes to the laptop. The Roland PK-5A only has Midi in, out and thru. Will this zoom device work? I have a Novation 2 x 4 that has three USB inputs on the front and a USB out on the back. This is why I had the M-Audio Duo, both instruments went in through USB. The Novation works but its too slow (latency).! Neither one of my instruments a has an XLR or 1/4" input.
Also,
Assuming I buy a low latency interface that has only one pair of Midi 5-pin in/out ports…if I daisy chain my two midi keyboard controllers…Arturia keyboard out - >Roland Pk-5A IN - > Roland PK-5A out - > Interface input. Will Cantabile be able to differentiate between the two keyboards while using different vst’s (as opposed to plugging them in separately)?
I realize there are several parallel issues bubbling here, but I thought I would address Power Plans under Win10 (which I found to be really important on my 2 laptop-based performance systems).
[Win]+R => “powercfg.cpl”
(which is equivalent to: Control Panel [View by Category] => Hardware and Sound => Power Options)
Only Balanced and Eco showed up, but then:
[Create a Power Plan]
Here I could select High Performance and named it “Clint High Performance”.
Settings: On Battery / Plugged In
Turn off display: 20 minutes / 5 hours
Put computer to sleep: 45 minutes / Never
[Change advanced power settings] => many settings … generally self-explanatory and many of them were correctly set based on the the initial selection of High Performance.
Set the Cantabile option to select the new power plan on launch (as of Cantabile v4056):
Tools => Options (Ctrl-Shift-O)
Audio Engine => Audio Engine => Switch to Power Plan: “Clint High Performance”
Easiest solution: connect your Arturia keyboard to your laptop via USB and the PK-5A with a DIN Midi cable from its output to the MIDI In of the Zoom UAC-2. Now you have two separate MIDI hardware devices that you can assign to separate logical Cantabile MIDI ports - no need for any funky MIDI merging or channel acrobatics
