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Remove delay when using line in?

P

psychot|K

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 16, 2005
Messages
358
I have a X-Fi platinum with the rear card and front input panel. I'm using the line-in on the front with my pod XT live so that I can use my computer speakers for my electric guitar. However, when I play a note there's a very slight delay between the note being struck and the sound coming out of my Z-5500 speakers. Is there a way to get rid of this delay? It's slight but, if you've ever played guitar, it's crucial to remove.

Thanks guys.
 
Wow, i have the EXACT same problem. podxt live into x-fi, and i get just a slight delay. Has anyone figured out how to solve this? I would really love any advice!

~jt
 
has anybody else had problems with a slight delay on the input? I removed all software, and just reinstalled the drivers, so i know it's not a software setting.
 
my guess is it takes a fraction of a second to process the line in, and maybe its just like a few milisecs off?
 
turn off all sound processing? maybe try music creation mode?
 
hey guys, thanks for the responses.

I actually had tried all the audio creation mode (with all the extras turned on, then off), tried the gaming mode and entertainment mode as well. now i just have the drivers installed with no software, so i know it's not a setting in the creative menu. I tried uninstalling my video driver as well, with no luck. Perhaps it is taking a few miliseconds to process the line in, but i've had $20 sound cards that didn't need to do that. Bottom line is that when you are recording, those few miliseconds can really mess you up. it sounds more like a quick delay of what i'm playing.
please let me know if you have any more ideas, they are greatly appreciated!

~joetink
 
hmm... try the line in directly on the back of the card? Also.. does the podxt have digital outputs? If so.. you can try the digital inputs on the xfi. Is there any processing set on the pod for the z5500's?
 
i think i just read theres an option for a lil delay on the x-fi, check the drivers, but im not 100%
 
Hey, sorry for bumping a month-old thread, but I'm really interested in this issue as well. I don't have an X-fi yet, but I plan to pick it up in a week or so when I upgrade my comp. I also want to get an electric guitar and planned to use the X-fi front panel input so that I don't have to bother with a stand-alone guitar amplifier. My bro, who is a guitar player, warned me about the delay issue, and a search returned this thread.

So, can the X-fi delay be cured?

If not, what other card should I look at that has (preferably) a front panel with a nice headphone amplification, a line-in without delay, and decent 3D sound support for games? I was willing to forsake Linux support and get an X-fi, but the delay issue kills the deal. Before anyone recommends Auzentech, their cards do not have a front panel AFAIK, and I don't really care about DDL as I only have a stereo setup (and it will stay so for a long while).

EDIT: forgot to mention that my budget for a soundcard is $150-200 tops, and the cheaper the better as long as it's reasonably better than my current AV-710.
 
Easy answer. You're monitoring the output of the sound card, after it's gone through the entire processing chain, and not monitoring the input to the processing chain. On a tape machine, you can think of this as monitoring the repro head, instead of monitoring the sync head. It takes a certain amount of time for the recorded domains on the tape to move from the sync head to the repro head, so there is an inevitable delay. Same deal here, but now we're talking about signal in the digital realm, in which latency is a beast.

The only answer I can give you is to monitor the output of the pod, not the guitar. Certainly those things have some sort of headphone jack.
 
phide,

it's clear that ADA conversion takes some time. The problem is that X-fi, despite its many strengths in other areas, seems to be too slow at this particular task. My brother uses a $200 M-Audio usb sound card, which is not high-end by any means, and yet there is no noticeable delay. I seriously doubt that podXT introduces the delay--no guitarist would bother with it then. The question remains, is the X-fi delay a "feature" of the card or a consequence of some unfortunate driver setting?

Maybe I just should narrow the list of things I want the soundcard to be good at :) I'll research some more.
 
I can't say for sure, but the M-Audio card may be set up in a different manner, and it might "switch" to certain modes for certain purposes. It may have a discrete path in which it simply takes the line input and immediately shoots it to a monitor path for zero-latency (or minute latency) monitoring. Conversion is still taking place, but that path is not placed into the monitor path, so you don't hear the output of the conversion. The consequence of this is that you cannot accurately monitor what is happening at the conversion stage, so it's crucial that you are not inputting an excessively high or excessively low signal (which is why the M-Audio cards have a much more robust, low-latency monitoring system than the X-Fi). The benefit of the X-Fi, despite the delay, is that you are certain that what you are recording is at a correct level.

I don't think the pods introduce delay either, certainly none that I've ever heard, but I'm not terribly familiar with them anyway.

Regardless, I'm a tape man, so I'll just tell you to track to tape anyway. Throw away that X-Fi and grab an Otari MX-5050 :)
 
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