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Btw, Pascal is actively looking into reported issues particularly on the Windows side -- so, I'd recommend that anyone having problems in any host report the issue over on the Zerobebug forum -- or through the testflight app.
Here is something he just posted:
https://community.zerodebug.com/t/studiomux-5-beta/1820/466
Pascal posted that there is a new version of the Windows server that should address the problems in VST hosts.
The new UI makes me wish the functionality was built into AUM but I ran a few channels from Bitwig to synths on my iPad 6, and it seems to work really well. Audio glitches when switching apps from Studiomux to AUM, but as long as I wasn’t doing that things were fine. Seems smooth.
I am new to both Logic Pro and Studiomux and am testing my new M1 Mini to see what I can do with it in combination with the iPad. So far I have been impressed with this app, sending audio and MIDI between devices and am able to use the effects from my iPad in Logic Pro.
What sort of latencies are people seeing when sending MIDI from an External MIDI track in Logic -> AUM -> AU Instrument -> AUM output port and then receiving the audio back into Logic via Studiomux? For a 120 bpm test where the first note starts at time zero, I see the first recorded note start at the point in time about halfway through the second 1/16th note, which feels like a lot. I thought I had followed the setup in the manual where a soft instrument sends to a bus and you record the bus:
I have made sure there are no effects on any of the tracks to try and minimise any latency that these might have introduced.
If I instead record directly from Input 1 + 2 (presumably this is the IDAM sound source?) using an Audio track then the latency is barely perceptible but this includes all of the audio coming from the iPad and I want to record multiple iPad channels to separate audio tracks.
On my iPad Gen 6 and ancient MacBook Air, my latency is on the order of 20 to 30 ms with 128 buffers on both iPad and Mac.
What do do you have your buffers set to?
You mention iDAM. Do you have iDAM enabled while also trying to use Studiomux?
Can you post screenshots of how you have things set up? I don't have Logic, but in Ableton Live I have minimal latency. I also am only using AUM in those cases where I need to take advantage of AUM's ability to set up complex bussing. If I am doing something straightforward, I use Studiomux to host the AUs.
Hmm, I made sure all sample rates and buffer sizes were the same across Logic, AUM and Studiomux (48k/128) and restarted everything. Now the recorded latency is much better. Not sure if it was the restarting or adjusting the other parameters which fixed it but I'll cautiously start adding more tracks and see if anything changes...
Knew I should not have posted that - it worked that one time then went back to being delayed
Sorry @espiegel123 I had missed that you had replied to me. I have been playing with lots of settings while learning what is possible with this setup so I will try and find some time to test this again. I was using iDAM at the same time, yes, so I will try without that next time.
I struggled with sending live audio from an external source via SM as it does not seem to get on well with mono input, at least for me inside Logic. I spent all evening trying to work out why I could happily send a software instrument to my iPad for FX processing and back again, but every time I tried with my mono Scarlett audio interface guitar input I would either get nothing out or I would get an extremely loud noise (note to self: add a limiter and drag the volume down when playing with this stuff!).
I eventually realised partly by chance that if I set my track input to stereo then everything worked fine. Unfortunately this meant I was stuck with an empty channel as the second is the other (unused) input to my audio interface. I set the input back to mono and inserted a Gain mono->stereo plugin just before the StudiomuxEffect plugin. This let me use the plugin in stereo mode without any problems.
Nice workaround, btw XD
I had the same issue with mono, then when I made a channel stereo the latency was unusable unfortunately (even as a reverb send). It was working well before ios14 so hopefully it will again. For me, it’s a thing that would be nice to have but not essential to my work, so I’ll just keep testing once in a while. When it works it will be a nice bonus.
FWIW, I have no trouble using a mono > @mrufino1 said:
What sort of latency did you have? My round-trip latency with 128 buffers has been consistently between 20 and 30 ms.
There was someone reporting very high latency (more than 100 ms) which went away after deleting StudioMux, hard reset and install. Apparently, old installs leave behind some info that sometimes influence things they shouldn't.
If I used a studiomux plug-in on a send, such as using eos, audio damage plate, or other reverbs, I get a very distinct eighth note or so echo. Definitely not working for me in logic.
Did you delete, hard reset device and reinstall? If not, try it. Someone else reported issues like yours which went away after doing so. If you ever had an older version on that machine, that could well be the issue.
With both Live and Reaper, the delay is around 25ms which is probably an order of magnitude less than what you are experiencing.
Are you using AU or VST version? I've only used the AU.
I’m really missing the 18/2 Audio Device that the previous version of StudioMux created on the Mac. For me I basically didn’t need to mess with the VST’s, and had much more robust audio routing.
Agreed. It was in an earlier server beta but has since been removed.
Yes, I did all of that. I’m using logic, so I just used AU (no vst in logic). The delay shouldn’t be an issue really though, delay compensation should manage it, so maybe it’s not reporting correctly.
I'd recommend posting a screenrecording on the zerodebug forum that amount of latency shouldn't be happening...even with no latency compensation the latency I experience is much much less than what you are experiencing (though I don't have Logic). I can run my guitar (connected to zoom interface which is connected to the Mac) through TH-U and the latency is not bad. Buffer of 128 on both devices.
If you post over there, it might help.
Make sure to use 128 sample buffer on both devices. I had Live 11 on 64 samples and it was doing crazy high latency — changed to 128 and SMUX synced right up.
Ah, could be the issue. When I’m mixing I’m at 1024, which is the highest logic does. Adding DSP from iPad isn’t very helpful if it makes me less able to use my DSP on my Mac. I’m on a 2012 MBP and that situation is not going to be able to change for a while. But I’ll test it on a simple session to see if that helps, then at least I’d know the issue.
Someone posted a tip about using Studiomux with Logic to avoid latency. Apparently for effects you need to load as side chain?
https://community.zerodebug.com/t/studiomux-5-beta/1820/504
(Sorry, the tip is about instruments)
Still, that's a good tip in case I use an instrument, so thanks for posting the link.
So I downloaded the new App Store version, installed the server app but I’m getting a ‘No Device Found’ message in both Logic and Ableton.
The iPad is showing as connected in both the server app and Audio/Midi Control on the Mac and the Studiomux 18/2 is showing too.
I can load Studiomux in an effects slot in Logic but the plugin window states No Device Found.
Running High Sierra and iOS 14.2.
IDAM works as it should but the added benefit of audio both ways would be very useful.
Any ideas ?
Thanks
Are both the little checkboxes (Server/Device Connected) ticked in the plugin on the Mac to show that the plugin is able to communicate? Not sure how to debug further than that I'm afraid. I know that normally I need to wait a few seconds for the plugin to realise that there is a connection available. The receiver part of the plugin realises the iPad is there but the sender part takes a few seconds to catch up.
Thanks for this tip. I tried this setup yesterday and the latency from my guitar routed through TH-U on the iPad improved enough that I was able to follow a beat in Logic without really noticing the latency. I had assumed that smaller == better on the sample front but 128 on both sides worked a lot better.
Between the built-in Logic instruments and this app I don't have any particular yearning for apps on the desktop yet so money well spent.
It’s weird, eh? I don’t understand why 128 works well and 64 doesn’t
I am running the new version with iOS 14.7.1 and High Sierra and it works fine with Live 10 and 11
Did you make sure to delete the old version, hard reset and then install the new version?
Note that iOS 14.2 has some MIDI issues fixed in 14.3.
Sometimes the Mac plugin doesn’t show the connected devices till you click on the menu and close the plug-in window and open it again.
Thanks for your help guys, just had another look and I’d had a previous version of the server app on my Mac, which was still showing up in the DAW, despite being trashed.
The basics seem to be functioning as they should now. I’m sure I’ll find some more anomalies as I dig in further but it looks potentially to be a useful app.
64 is very low.
Could be simply that StudioMux can't keep up with what it needs to do each buffer cycle.
A buffer of 64 can result in crackling and stuff -- but I suspect the latency was related to something else. If you ever had a version (even an earlier beta) of Studiomux on that iDevice, the crazy latency might have been related to that.
I have run Live quite a bit with a buffer of 64 and never have latency issues BUT I do run into the problems of the CPU sometimes not being able to keep up which has resulted in crackling and sometimes loud clicks.
It’s kind of reverse latency — I’m not talking about pops and crackles.
My computer is capable in a general sense of a 64 sample buffer with no issues. Using Studiomux in this situation introduces about 200ms of latency (extremely audible and unplayable) from the iOS side when using the SMUX FX plugin.
Take the pressure off the computer and set the buffer to 128 and everything basically syncs up. The iOS side displays such low latency that it’s barely noticeable — in the order of 20ms according to the DAW.
Studiomux has its own buffer settings with the lowest at 128. But it’s counter intuitive to think that a lowered buffer size on the macOS side would generate additional latency rather than reduce it…so something is going on with Studiomux.
Anyway, 128 is fine with me.