Improving Gigastudio's Latency

[studioJ]

I\'ve just configured a dedicated gigastudio and I get 160 voices no problem.
1 gig processor
256 RAM
new Asus 133mhz, ATA100
20 gig western digital for apps
60 gig IBM 7200rmp for gigs (75GXP) on separate controller
Echo Gina24
MidiMan portman 2x4 parallel port interface

The latency on this system is definately noticeable to a keyboard player though (7-12 ms after testing using digital Performer). It is not as tight as my other synths and not as consistent, especially with Gigapiano.
Is there a way to shave off some more of the latency bringing it down to 5ms or so?

Thanks for any replys.

[rr]

Hi. I don\'t actually have any suggestions, but I\'m curious as to how you are testing using digital Performer, whcih i thought was only available on Mac. Are you running your sequencer (DP) on a Mac, and GS on a PC?

[Greg Sullivan]

I decided to measure the latency of my setup (I use a SB Vibra 128 for the MIDI interface, and a Delta 66 for the audio output, everything else is *similar* specs). I drove Gigastudio and a Kawai MP9000 digital piano with a 3rd MIDI controller, playing a single note only. One audio channel from the digital piano went to one audio channel input on the Delta, and one audio *output* of Gigastudio (also on the Delta) was looped back to another audio input on the Delta. I recorded the two audio inputs as a stereo pair using Cool Edit 2000. (C.E running on same PC as Giga) In this config, Gigastudio is consistent 10ms slower than the MP9000, which surprised me a little - I thought it would be faster. The extra latency doesn\'t bother me when I play at all - it feels really tight and crisp. In any case, Gigastudio is at least doing a pretty damn good job I think.

FWIW.

Greg.
p.s I realise this isn\'t *actually* measuring the latency of Gigastudio, but I thought it interesting to compare the latency of Gigastudio to a good quality digital piano.

[studioJ]

To measure Giga\'s latency I step recorded quarter note hits and sent them to giga,
using a hi hat sound. Then I routed giga\'s audio out to an audio track in
DP, and let it record for a while. I then opened the audio graphic editor in DP
and set it to view time as real time and bars and beats. I looked at the
front edge of each recorded hit, compared it to the top of each MIDI note, noting the time delay following each
quarter note delineation.