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?

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.

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.

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.

1 Like