I finally set up my VPC1 last night, and started playing with it. However I feel like there is a tiny bit of latency; not a lot but I can feel it. Does anything in my setup (below) look like it would cause latency?

Kawai VPC1 -> USB -> PC (Kontakt 5.3.1) -> ASIO4All Driver -> Behringer UCA202 -> RCA to TRS cables -> Studio Monitors

My suspicion is that the cheap USB DAC is causing the latency (or maybe I'm using the wrong drivers.) Will getting an asynchronous USB DAC be better?
Are there other VSTs that are lower latency than Kontakt?

Oh, and my computer hardware should not be causing any issues. I have a fast CPU, I'm running 1600MHz RAM and all the software is on a SSD.

Thanks!

...go into Kontakt/options (you'll find it in the top row of icons)/audio and look at the bottom LH corner field where it shows how many samples latency. What number do you see?

It it's any higher than 64 (and I'm guessing it's way higher) then go to the 'Asio config' tab in that dialogue box and slide Asio4all's buffer to the left till you get a pop/click-free setting.

That's not that much RAM. Is it dual core?

I'm using a Behringer USB mixer as my DAC, and I'm getting very good sound and low latency. My piano software says that it's 2ms., but I know that the round trip latency is probably around 10ms. I've heard that a PCI sound card can deliver slightly lower latency. Good luck, and congratulations on your acquisition of the VPC1.

Larry

Can't you just go straight to the monitors from your computer? I'm setting up something like yours, and I was told it would be ok to go straight out through the headphone jack using a cable like this.....

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cable-Mount...=111XQY40ZFAG2&coliid=I3JM75GSLJY9IN

what if the Behringer Audio interface is the cause of latency?!

Emiliano: Computer-to-monitor means using the computer's internal (cheap) sound card. You choose an external sound card for better sound and lower latency.

Beakybird: The OP was referring to memory **speed** 1600 MHz (which is near the top), not the quantity. Neither are a factor with this problem.

Newbies: You can check for computer speed issues using the freeware called DPC Latency Checker.

The DAC is not the cause of latency. Rather, it's all because sound is buffered in the computer's audio processing chain. A slow computer will need a larger buffer ... but that leads to higher latency. So lower the buffer size as much as possible ... too much lower and you'll get crackles and pops, so you know you've gone too far.

You change the buffer setting in your ASIO control panel. You say you're using ASIO4All? That's where you'll make the changes.

Hi everyone! Thanks for the suggestions; I was able to reach a solution based on the information provided. =]
I ended up installing the Behringer's 64-bit ASIO driver. In Kontakt -> Audio Options -> ASIO config, I maxed everything out. This gives me a 48KHz sample rate and an overall round trip of 5.9ms, and the latency is definitely not noticeable anymore.

Now I just need to play around with the piano options and figure out what sounds I like the best.

Once my setup is finalized I will post a picture for everyone to see!

MacMacMac, I have a 17" 2009 Macbook Pro with SSD and 3.06 Ghz processor and 8Gb Ram, do you think it has a good enough sound card? What brand and model should I look for in case I need to get an external one?

Thanx

Another note in case someone is referencing this in the future. Although kontakt had no trouble playing piano samples with the smallest buffer size, my mp3s were definitely crackling a little, and flac files were crackling a lot. I ended up changing the buffer size to the next lowest setting after "normal" and now I don't have crackle and pop for any applications. Round trip latency is 24ms for the piano, which is not noticeable at all to me.