GuitarHero/RockBand fans... side project anyone?

[John Colvin]

On Friday, 13 December 2013 at 03:13:16 UTC, Manu wrote:
> On 13 December 2013 04:52, John Colvin 
> <john.loughran.colvin at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> On Thursday, 12 December 2013 at 18:31:58 UTC, Joseph Rushton 
>> Wakeling
>> wrote:
>>
>>> On 12/12/13 19:15, Iain Buclaw wrote:
>>>
>>>> You know, I've never had that... but then again I haven't 
>>>> had the
>>>> fortune of being in a band where distance between the first 
>>>> and back
>>>> musicians is > 200 metres.  (Because sound doesn't travel 
>>>> *that* slow
>>>> ;)
>>>>
>>>
>>> Well, it's not _just_ about the speed of sound, there are 
>>> also things
>>> like the speed of attack of different instruments and so on.
>>>
>>> Then again, ever been to a performance of one of those pieces 
>>> that ask
>>> for some musicians to be placed in different locations round 
>>> the back of
>>> the concert hall for spatial effects?  Things can get fun 
>>> with that ... :-)
>>>
>>>
>>>  Only in the recording studio - if the time it takes for 
>>> sound to leave
>>>> your instrument, into the microphone, through the walls into 
>>>> the
>>>> studio booth, into the mixer (and assuming digital) from the 
>>>> mixer to
>>>> the sound card, to the DAW software mixer which is taking the
>>>> recording and mixing it in with the playing tracks (optional 
>>>> live
>>>> effects processing being done) back to the sound card, to 
>>>> the mixer,
>>>> through the walls into the studio room, into the headphones 
>>>> of the
>>>> receiver playing the instrument...  is greater than 22ms, 
>>>> then the
>>>> person playing experiences a delay in the time he plays to 
>>>> the time he
>>>> hears himself in the song.  If that happens, you are not in 
>>>> a good
>>>> situation. =)
>>>>
>>>
>>> So, if your latency is 22ms, think of how that corresponds to 
>>> sound
>>> travelling in space: you only need to be separated by about 
>>> 7.5m for that
>>> kind of delay to kick in.
>>>
>>
>> Delay between people isn't really the problem, it's delay in 
>> hearing
>> yourself that's the killer. Although 22ms is the normally 
>> quoted limit for
>> noticing the latency, it actually depends on frequency. Even 
>> regardless of
>> frequency, i typically find that anything less than 64ms is 
>> ok, less than
>> 128ms is just about bearable and anything more is a serious 
>> problem for
>> recording a tight-sounding performance.
>>
>
> Latency between recording musicians has a strange effect of 
> gradually
> slowing the tempo down. Ie, if both musicians are playing with 
> headphone
> monitors or something, and there is a small latency in the 
> system.
> If you are playing together, but then you feel a 20ms latency 
> between you
> and the other musician, you tend to perceive yourself as 
> playing slightly
> too fast, and then adjust by slowing a fraction, the same thing 
> happens in
> the other direction, so you're both constantly slowing by a 
> fraction to
> maintain perception of synchronisation, and the tempo gradually 
> slows.
> It's almost an unconscious psychological response, quite hard 
> to control in
> the studio.


Interesting. This isn't a phenomena that I've experienced to be 
honest, generally people's tendency to speed up has dominated 
most sessions that are without click.

Also, 20ms round-trip latency? That's unusually small.