Ableton + Traktor latency issues

Hi guys,

I'm having some very strange latency issue running Ableton, Traktor and a Xone K2+nanopad.

I'm trying out this new setup. Traktor runs 2 decks + 2 sample decks. Ableton takes in all 4 channels.

I use JackRouter to route audio into Ableton. I use the K2 Knobs and faders mapped to Ableton and just use Traktor for general track management as I find Ableton pretty unintuitive in that sense. Nanopad, I just use the 8 pads for triggering samples. I have some really awesome fx chains that I run with delays and filter sweeps and stuff - like one knob instant build up and one knob fade out, all post fader of course. As for the sample decks, deck 3 sidechains the rest of the tracks for kicks and snares, and deck 4 has some reverb for highs, noise shots and stuff like that.

Most of the time this works great! But as I'm drumming along, there's pretty huge latency changes at times. So I'll be triggering a hi-hat, and it's on time 9 times out of 10, and the 10th time, there's a massive delay between when I hit the pad.

I've tried making sure all programs are closed, and my CPU is running around 28% on a 2009 Macbook Pro with SSD and 8GB DDR3 memory. I've only got two outputs for Cue and Master from the Xone K2. Can't really figure out if it really is my laptop. I've also tried plugging in the nanopad and the K2 to differnt USB ports (although the K2 is running off a hub with usb drives and a couple of other stuff. Anyone have any ideas?

Have you tried SoundFlower? It's free, and only takes a second to set up.

I hate sound flower

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although the K2 is running off a hub with usb drives and a couple of other stuff. Anyone have any ideas?

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This may well be your problem

• Its a Multi TT hub I hope?
  
• I'd never run My Soundcard on the same hub as another high data transfer device like a Hard Drive - there's only so much bandwidth and if your hard drive is transferring information at the same time as midi and audio its asking for trouble. Try the K2 on its own independent port.
  
• I had issues Running Jack for some unknown reason and uninstalled it, Soundflower has remained 100% stable for me - whats your reason for "Hating it" ?

I hate it cause there's no noob friendly alternative like it on windows. And dont you dare mention Jack because my key word was noob friendly.

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Originally Posted by Reveren Kamakaze

I hate it cause there's no noob friendly alternative like it on windows. And dont you dare mention Jack because my key word was noob friendly.

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Muhahahaha ...well that explains it "I hate that software because it works really easy if I had the right OS" :p

And I have a similar hatred of Jack - so there ya go ;)

Haha. Right, so actually took a pretty bold move and took it out to a club to play on. Worked great for about the first half hour or so. Then as soon as I hit "load track" on one of the other deck, the deck that was playing started playing up - like INSTANTLY, there was crackle noise everywhere. I was like.. whaaaaat the hell!!!!

So yeah, switched to CDs straight away and shut the laptop down. haha. Damn!! I think i may just be brave enough to try again after solidying this setup a little bit more. haha. But yeah, i might switch over to soundflower and see how I go.

As for the USB thing - when I tried today, the K2 was plugged into one port (top port closer to the power port) and the nanopad was plugged into the bottom (towards the SD card). The latency was again pretty much random. Sometimes it's spot on, but sometimes i'd just be having a pattern going and the 8th hit would be delayed for no reason.

Another thing I also noticed was that running Jack router - it doesn't let me change buffer size in traktor to anything other than 512. Could this be it? Maybe soundflower might fix it.

Any thoughts now?

Definitely try soundflower!