Jim Roseberry

It is a bit ironic. 😁

Had a MB Badlander 50. Crunch was fantastic. Onboard Cabclone IR sounded very good The internal fan was LOUD... to the point I couldn't deal with it. Otherwise, it was a fantastic amp... and (compared to Friedman, DR-Z, ec) reasonably priced. Had a DR-Z CAZ-45. It's billed as a high-gain amp. If this makes any sense, it's extremely well built... but... (to me) just didn't have any umph (insert your favorite adjective for "balls"). I'm generally into modded-marshall (gain wise). Wanted to love the CAZ-45... but just didn't care for it. DR-Z is located here in OH, has a great reputation, etc. Wound up with a BE-100 Deluxe, Bogner Shiva, and 20th Bogner Shiva. Of course, this was during the height of Covid. What in the world was I thinking buying 50-60 pound heads? Nothing at all "practical" about them. 🤪

At 96k with 32-sample ASIO buffer size, the round-trip latency is 1ms. It's going to be right about 2ms at half the sample-rate (48k). I've measured this with a loopback test... so it's accurate.

You should get a Thunderbolt cable. 😁

If you've tended to all the details, you can achieve lower round-trip latency with Thunderbolt. Think of Thunderbolt as "external PCIe" Under ideal circumstances, you can achieve PCIe level performance with an external audio interface. The best USB audio interfaces achieve round-trip latency of ~4ms. The best Thunderbolt audio interfaces can achieve round-trip latency of sub 1ms. All USB audio interfaces I've seen/used/tested that connect via USB-C... are actually USB-2 devices. I've been running Thunderbolt audio interfaces on PC for a couple years. UA Apollo, RME UFX+, Presonus Quantum, and Antelope Orion Studio Synergy Core (can they make the name a little longer? 🤪) All have been rock-solid. If you're getting a new machine, be aware that there are currently issues with Thunderbolt-4 controllers. Ironically, TB4 is not working well with Intel based machines... but works just fine on the Asus ProArt B550 Creator (AMD 5950x Vermeer CPU). Ultimately... this will be ironed out.

Single core performance is still extremely important... especially if you're pushing the limits of ultra low latency performance. ie: Let's say you have a Thunderbolt audio interface that yields 1ms total round-trip latency at 96k using a 32-sample ASIO buffer size. With those settings, you can play/monitor thru plugins like Helix Native with 1ms round-trip latency (equal to or better than the Hardware). At those settings (96k/32-sample ASIO buffer), the machine has ~half a millisecond to process the next ASIO buffer and get it in cue for playback. This is not something that lends itself to being heavily multi-threaded (spread across multiple cores). If anything interrupts this process, you'll hear glitches. If you try doing to above with the Threadripper 3970x (~$2000), you'll hear glitches. The 10900k (~$500) can do the above with zero glitches. The new 11900k shows performance improvement in many benchmarks (vs the 10900k), but there were some changes in architecture that make it more latent. If you're pushing the limits at ultra low latency (32-sample ASIO buffer size or smaller), the 11900k is a step backward. The newer Ryzen Vermeer series (5xxx series) has greatly improved low latency performance. The 5950x (~$800) can run the above example glitch-free. Unlike Threadripper (280w TDP), the 5950x is a much more manageable (quiet) 105w TDP.

Covers the new features... but doesn't go into much detail. 🤪

I hadn't heard... 🙁 RIP Bill

Just saw there was an update for Bandlab Assistant. Installed it... and it seems to have resolved this issue. CbB is now installed.

Version that was just released solves the issue some of us were having the past ~48 hours.

Heard back from Morten. They are aware of the issue... and they're working to resolve.

I've contacted Morten. I'll post when I have a response/solution.

For anyone else experiencing this issue: Just installed a new version of the Bandlab Assistant (available today). Same error message upon trying to install CbB

Today I went to load CbB for a client... and got this message (below). Uninstalled CbB from my own machine... and now receive the same error message. I wish there was a dedicated download/installer. Dead-in-the-water... Unhandled Promise Rejection Error: spawn EBUSY at t.<computed> (electron/js2c/asar_bundle.js:5:2208) at C:/Users/Jim Roseberry/AppData/Local/Programs/bandlab-assistant/resources/app.asar/index-win.js:403:7 at new Promise (<anonymous>) at install (C:/Users/Jim Roseberry/AppData/Local/Programs/bandlab-assistant/resources/app.asar/index-win.js:402:12) at queueInstallers (C:/Users/Jim Roseberry/AppData/Local/Programs/bandlab-assistant/resources/app.asar/index-win.js:720:7) at C:/Users/Jim Roseberry/AppData/Local/Programs/bandlab-assistant/resources/app.asar/index-win.js:794:13 at runMicrotasks (<anonymous>)

What audio interface are you using?

Some audio interfaces report their latency accurately... others don't. Take a short high-transient audio spike... and put it on a track in CbB. Re-record this high-transient audio spike on a second track (via an analog input on your audio interface). Zoom-in and measure the difference (in samples) between the two. This is the amount of "Record Offset" (in samples). Preferences>Audio>Sync And Caching>Record Latency Adjustment: Enter the "Record Offset" in the Manual Offset field. Repeat the high-transient spike test used above... and verify there's no offset between the two.

Stream Deck is a great solution for having lots of Hot-Key/Macro functions immediately available. You can custom design icons for all the buttons (each has a LCD). Particularly nice for transport controls, record-arm, etc. You can save different Stream Deck configurations for each of your applications (DAW, Video Editing, etc).

For working at ultra low latency settings, clock-speed is the single most important factor. ie: Some audio interfaces like the Antelope Orion Studio Synergy Core will allow you to run at 96k using a 32-sample ASIO buffer size... resulting in 1ms total round-trip latency. Running amp-sim plugins at these settings isn't something that lends itself to being heavily multi-threaded (spread across multiple cores). More cores is certainly beneficial (especially at higher buffer sizes), but not at the expense of significant clock-speed. In a perfect scenario, you want highest clock-speed... AND the most cores you can get. Tested the 11900k recently. It's a performance improvement (vs the 10900k) in most areas... but not all. There were some changes in the CPU architecture (for Rocket Lake) that are a bit more latent. Working at larger buffer sizes, you'd not notice. If you're trying to run Neural DSP plugins, Helix Native, etc... at 96k using a 32-samples ASIO buffer size (or smaller), you'll hear glitches. That's the one area Rocket Lake is a step backward (ultra low latency audio). For the performance/cost, it's still hard to beat the 10900k.

If you're into AMD, the 5950x is significantly better at low-latency audio (than Threadripper)... and still offers great multi-threaded performance. TDP is a much more manageable 105w.

With 280w TDP, there's no such thing as a truly quiet build (as in near dead silent). Then, you have active-cooled motherboard chipsets... 🤪 Even the Floe Riing RGB 360 TT Premium Edition (one of the quietest closed-loop coolers available) is appreciably louder than something like a Noctua D15. Of course, if you try to use a D15 with Threadripper, it'll thermal-throttle (defeating the whole purpose).

And would you believe a $400 CPU bests it at ultra low latency performance?!?! 😉

FWIW, You'll see *zero* performance difference using an original Quantum 26x32 (Thunderbolt-2) vs. the newer Quantum 2626 (Thunderbolt-3). The Apple Thunderbolt-3 to Thunderbolt-2 adapter ($50) works perfectly. If the original Quantum is a better feature match, I wouldn't give the Thunderbolt-2 connection a second thought. I still have an original Quantum... along with a RME UFX+.

Quantum is a great audio interface. When it comes to round-trip latency, Quantum is an exceptional performer (can achieve sub 1ms). Obviously the machine has to be able to keep up with the load... or you'll hear glitches. Part of the reason why Quantum can achieve such low round-trip latency is there's no onboard DSP. IOW, Quantum doesn't offer hardware based monitoring/mixing/routing/loop-back-recording. All routing/mixing has to be done via software (in your DAW application).

USB-2/USB-3 audio interfaces can't get much below ~4ms total round-trip latency. Thunderbolt audio interfaces can get down below 1ms total round-trip latency. Think of Thunderbolt as "external PCIe".

Yes, Quantum-2 was Thunderbolt-2... but works fine using a Thunderbolt-3 to Thunderbolt-2 adapter. For the same $600, you can now get the Quantum 2626.