GuitarHero/RockBand fans... side project anyone?

[David Nadlinger]

On Friday, 13 December 2013 at 03:13:16 UTC, Manu wrote:
> On 13 December 2013 04:52, John Colvin
>>
>> 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.
>>
>
> […]
>
> Man, my day job works in quantities of 16ms (1 frame), and I 
> have spent
> many hours resolving inter-frame synchronisation issues (16ms 
> out of
> synch). Maybe I'm just hyper-sensitive, but 64ms is extremely 
> noticeable to
> me. 128ms is like an eternity!
> Consider, 16th notes at 120bpm (not unusual in metal, I assure 
> you), are
> only 125ms apart, that more than an entire note out.
> Around 4ms is what professional recording setups aim for.

Yep, I'd be quite surprised if a professional musician (at least 
one playing a somewhat percussive instrument) wouldn't notice a 
20ms delay, given how obvious small delays are for me when e.g. 
playing a VST instrument when the audio interface buffer size is 
too large or a plugin is slowing down the whole system due to 
delay compensation in the host software. In digital (live) pro 
audio, latencies in the low single-digit microseconds are usually 
considered acceptable, with more it depends on the circumstances.

Of course, the threshold for being able to play in sync in 
relation to other musicians is quite a bit higher, and what I've 
seen some singers do on big opera stages (think e.g. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bregenzer_Festspiele) is nothing 
short of amazing.

David