What Is the Best Buffer Size if You Don't Need to Monitor Audio When Recording?

[Chaps]

I'm trying to optimize Cakewalk for BandLab on a new system. I never record MIDI using a controller and only use the PRV to enter notes. I don't need to monitor my microphone or guitar using Cakewalk when recording audio because I can monitor them other ways. The only time I enable MIDI Echo on a track is if I'm using a tuner plug-in to tune my guitar. For years I was on a slower system and I always moved the Buffer Size slider all the way to Safe and didn't change the default Buffers in Playback Queue set at 2. I'm using a 44.1 sampling rate at 24 bit depth.

My questions are, are there any drawbacks to using the largest buffer size and would changing to a smaller buffer size offer any increase in performance.

[Promidi]

There is no "best" value.

Try different buffer sizes and see which value works best for you and your workflow. 

For my particular workflow, mine is set to 256 samples. 

[Robert Bone]

When I track, on my desktop, which uses a Yamaha Steinberg UR22 audio interface, or my Presonus Audiobox 1818 VSL, I have my ASIO Buffer Size set to 128 samples, and for mixing, I change it to 2048 samples.

For my laptop, which has a Thunderbolt 3 port, and I have a UAD Arrow Thunderbolt 3 audio interface, I track at 32 samples, and mix at either 1024 or 2048 samples,

Bob Bone

[Chaps]

5 minutes ago, Robert Bone said:

When I track, on my desktop, which uses a Yamaha Steinberg UR22 audio interface,

 

How do you like that interface? I'm thinking of getting a Steinberg UR24C when I can put the funds together. I probably won't experiment with my buffer settings until I can put that in place.

[Robert Bone]

4 hours ago, Chappel said:

How do you like that interface? I'm thinking of getting a Steinberg UR24C when I can put the funds together. I probably won't experiment with my buffer settings until I can put that in place.

Well, I love it - I have a bigger interface, with 8-ports, and its companion expansion unit that gives me an additional 8 ports, but I only bother with hooking all that up unless I am recording drums, where having 16 inputs is just a happy thing.  Most of the time, though, I just rely on my little UR-22.  Never have had any issues with it, whatsoever, it just does its job - sampling at 48K and quietly working perfectly.

My laptop has the killer little interface - UAD Arrow - it is a Thunderbolt 3 interface, and it is SMOKING fast.  But, my desktop will never be able to have a Thunderbolt port, so I use the UAD Arrow for playing out live (I am a keyboard player, and use all soft-synths for live performance, running through a VST Host program to allow me to layer up zillions of combinations of sound from different soft synths).

When you are recording, just make sure your ASIO Buffer Size is small enough to where you don't have a lag between playing notes and hearing them back, because that is a nightmare for trying to sync up to other tracks.  I use 128 because it is low enough to not have any audible lag, and yet it is not so small a buffer size that it makes the CPU work too hard either - a nice compromise that works fine.

Bob Bone