{"id":2578,"date":"2020-11-23T22:23:35","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T22:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mp4gain.com\/mp4gain\/?p=2578"},"modified":"2020-11-23T22:23:35","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T22:23:35","slug":"audio-delay-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-happen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mp4gain.com\/mp4gain\/audio-delay-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-happen\/","title":{"rendered":"Audio delay: what is it and how does it happen?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio delay: what is it and how does it happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Audio<\/p>\n

Modern computers are ideal recording devices. They can handle more audio and MIDI tracks than we’ll ever need, and computer control and audio tuning is a leap forward. But it is important to understand that the original task of the PC was not at all to work with sound. There are difficulties that are not inherent in tape recording. The biggest of these problems is latency – the length of time between recorded sound and listening to it through headphones or monitors.<\/p>\n

\"Audio<\/p>\n

How the audio delay is formed<\/p>\n

First, let’s find out what happens when a signal is recorded on a computer. The microphone measures changes in air pressure and outputs an electrical signal with corresponding voltage changes. This signal is called analog because changes in electrical potential are analogous to the pressure fluctuations that make up sound.<\/p>\n

A device called an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) measures or samples the oscillating voltage at regular intervals, 44,100 times per second (in the case of CD-quality sound) and reports these measurements as a sequence of numbers.<\/p>\n

The sequence of numbers is packaged in the appropriate format and sent over a power line to the computer. The PC software writes this data to memory and to disk, processes it, and “sends” it back so that it can be converted back into an analog signal. This process is done using a digital to analog converter (DAC).<\/p>\n

This is a fairly complex sequence of actions, depending on the speed and reliability of the signal transmission. The ideal situation looks like this: every sequence received from the ADC is sent to the computer, saved, and sent back to the DAC immediately. But in practice, such a scheme is impossible. Even the slightest delay in sending at least one of the millions of samples in an audio recording can cause signal loss.<\/p>\n

Signal buffer<\/p>\n

To make the system more reliable, each sample is not recorded or played back as soon as it arrives. Instead, the computer waits several tens or hundreds of samples before proceeding to process them. The same happens at the exit. This process is called buffering, and it makes the system more resistant to unexpected failures. The buffer acts as a protective net: even if the flow of data is momentarily interrupted, it is capable of generating a continuous sequence of samples.<\/p>\n

The larger the buffer size, the greater the system’s ability to deal with unexpected situations and the less time will be spent on processing. But there is also a downside associated with a large buffer size: the buffering process takes longer, and at a certain point, the signal coming out of the computer begins to lag noticeably behind the sound source being used. recording. In some situations this is not a problem, but in many scenarios it is definitely the case. When musicians listen to themselves or their colleagues while recording or performing, it is very important that the delay is never audible.<\/p>\n

The delay becomes audible at intervals of a few milliseconds.<\/p>\n

Important: There are several factors that affect latency, but the buffer size is (generally) the most important and the only one that can be adjusted by the user.<\/p>\n

Buffer size settings<\/p>\n

Buffer size is generally measured in number of samples, although some interfaces offer millisecond settings. The options are usually doubled: a typical sound card can offer configurations of 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024 and 2048 samples.<\/p>\n

You can calculate the theoretical latency for a specific buffer size variation by doubling that number (to reflect input and output processing) and dividing the result by the sample rate. So for example, with a standard sample rate of 44.1 kHz and a buffer size of 32 samples, the latency will be 1.45 ms.<\/p>\n

(32 x 2) \/ 44100 = 1.45<\/p>\n

This delay would be almost imperceptible in practice, but unfortunately it is not possible. First, there are other factors that contribute to latency and some of them are unavoidable. Second, some sound card manufacturers “cheat” by using additional hidden buffers that are beyond the control of the user. As a result, the claimed low latency values \u200b\u200bare not achieved. Another important aspect is that reducing the buffer size forces the computer to allocate more power to support I \/ O.<\/p>\n

One of the key concerns when designing an audio interface is allowing small buffers. There are several options for how manufacturers approach this task, but now it is not about that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Audio delay: what is it and how does it happen? Modern computers are ideal recording devices. They can handle more audio and MIDI tracks than we’ll ever need, and computer control and audio tuning is a leap forward. But it is important to understand that the original task of the PC was not at all … Continue reading “Audio delay: what is it and how does it happen?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[53215,53214,53219,53218,43173,53220,53221,53222,53224,53226,53228,53223,53225,53227,53213,53234,53216,53229,53232,53231,53230,53235,53236,53233,53217,53237],"class_list":["post-2578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio-video","tag-do-audio-interfaces-help-with-latency","tag-do-audio-interfaces-reduce-latency","tag-does-audio-interface-affect-latency","tag-does-audio-interface-reduce-latency","tag-does-bluetooth-audio-have-latency","tag-does-ram-affect-audio-latency","tag-how-much-audio-latency-can-a-human-detect","tag-how-much-audio-latency-is-good-for-gaming","tag-how-to-fix-audio-latency","tag-how-to-fix-audio-latency-android","tag-how-to-measure-audio-latency","tag-how-to-reduce-audio-latency","tag-how-to-reduce-audio-latency-windows-10","tag-how-to-test-audio-latency","tag-is-audio-latency-good","tag-what-causes-audio-latency","tag-what-does-audio-latency-mean","tag-what-is-audio-latency","tag-what-is-audio-latency-in-ios","tag-what-is-audio-latency-in-prototype","tag-what-is-audio-latency-ppsspp","tag-what-is-good-audio-latency","tag-what-is-low-latency-audio","tag-which-audio-latency-is-best","tag-why-does-audio-latency-matter","tag-will-audio-interface-reduce-latency"],"yoast_head":"\nAudio delay: what is it and how does it happen? - mp4gain.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mp4gain.com\/mp4gain\/audio-delay-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-happen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Audio delay: what is it and how does it happen? - mp4gain.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Audio delay: what is it and how does it happen? 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