QC as a USB interface latency

Quad Cortex
1

I’ve tried to use some plugins with the QC as a USB interface (ASIO), but I’ve noticed there is something wrong compared to playing directly through QC or using plugins over my usual audio interface.

I’ve used RTL utility to measure roundtrip latency and without using any blocks (just jumping OUT3 and INPUT1) it measured 11.7ms of latency! For comparison doing the same, with my UAD Volt 4 interface it measured 5.5ms (same settings).

I have quite performant system (i7, 32GB RAM, Windows 11) and I usually have no problems running any apps or using my DAW.

Is this amount of latency to be expected with the QC or is something wrong on my end? I could almost swear this wasn’t a problem with some older versions of CorOS, but I haven’t used it this way for some time.

2

I am guessing it’s a configuration issue somewhere. Have you downloaded and installed the QC NDSP ASIO driver?

3

Personally I’ve found it doesn’t perform as good as any of my other interfaces… if your using there own asio driver untick safe mode in the driver application… you should get better results but it mite have issues

4

Of course, I’m using the latest driver from NDSP.

Did you try to measure latency on your QC?

5

Yeah, if I disable Safe mode, it lowers latency by ~2ms, but it is still too bad.

6

I will run rtl later on and see what results I get and let you know

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7

Apple user here as well, running all macOS applications. Whether it’s on my my i5 (32gb RAM) or m2 (16gb ram)… when I’m using the Archetype: Nolly plugin in Logic with the QC/NC as the interface, I have no issues with latency. Nigh instantaneous, so there’s never been an issue. I’d be curious to know the buffer size you’re running on the plugin.

8

I tried buffer settings from 32 to 256. The tests (resulting in 11.7ms latency) were done with 32 buffer size.

9

Getting 8.7ms on the QC safe mode off, and 4.8ms on my regular audient interface… 48khz 32samples

The other thing is these rtl tests are not completely accurate and now I will test both out as interface and see if I can hear the difference or feel the extra latency which I’m very sensitive to. Not exact science but if I don’t sense extra latency it wouldn’t bother me…

10

So it is comparable to my results.

I decided to measure it, because I could feel the responsiveness wasn’t the same as when playing QC directly or when using my usual audio interface.

12

Are you using blocks on the QC? The blocks you’re using or the way the signal is routed will affect the latency. Also you’ll definitely have some more latency on the QC compared to a basic audio interface because it has at least one DSP chip in the signal chain regardless if you’re processing the DI with the QC. Makes sense there is inherently slightly more latency with the QC.

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14

Just to update what I wrote iv actually had a a bad port that QC was plugged into coco worked but there was a slight issue that went under my radar…Maybe check your USB drivers or the port to make sure all is OK there… I have since fixed the port and QC runs the sane as my other interfaces reporting same or very similar latencies..I will also withdraw what I said about the QC… it really is a great machine and hopefully it just keeps getting better even if it is slow moving…

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