Re: Help/advice on RME cards and Linux ALSA

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Bill et al,

On 24/01/07, Bill Unruh <unruh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I may not be up to date, but I would be very doubtful that Linux could
> handle that (or any computer processing). The problem is the latency. Ie,
> sound is read in in chunks, processed and then sent out in chunks. Thus
> there is a time lag between the time the music comes in and goes out. It is
> hard to imagine this as being less than 10 time slices ( eg 1/4000 sec for
> a 44100 rate system) That time lag would mean that the music went out that
> much later, and mixing with the direct sound could produce some interesting
> effects. Now if the speakers were say sufficiently far from the performers,
> then that time lag might be OK. (sound travel time). It would be a tricky
> juggling act however.

I can run up to 40+ channels through a Linux box in real time with a
lag (latency) of less than 20 ms.  20 ms is the acceptable latency
when it comes to syncing sound to a motion picture, because it's at or
below the JND for humans.

That said, a 1024 sample chunk at 48 kHz is about 21 ms, so running
ALSA/Jack with a block size of 512 samples would allow you to do this
kind of processing with a small enough latency.
Run all of your audio through the DSP box and there won't be any
interference with "live" sound.

The monitor speakers won't have to be fed through the DSP system,
they're only for the musicians to hear themselves in time before the
sound from the house system gets to them.  Also, the audience should
be primarily fed the output of your house system.

By the way, 1 ms equals roughly one foot (34 cm) of sound travel. So a
latency of 20 ms would be less than 7 meters.  You would have to think
about time-aligning your house system before worrying about the
latency of your DSP system.

So with that, I'd say you should think about your physical acoustics
(room modes, distance from speakers to listeners, different room
behavior depending on number and location of listeners etc) before
trying to get the latency down.

I don't see audience distance as a big problem.  When you're up front,
you (rightly) expect to hear the instruments or monitor speakers
directly, and you will.  When you're further from the stage, you
expect the nicely mixed, mastered and equalized sound.  You'll get it,
and the delay shouldn't be a problem.

Best regards,
Roman

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