UR28M Extreme Latency Guitar Amp Plugins

[AC]

Hi All,

I really love this interface because of the excellent pres/converters. If I am recording with mics, I can record in direct mode in any DAW with little to no issues as long as I am not recording too many sources at once.

But with guitar plugins, I am finding this to be practically unusable. My setup: I5, 8gb, Windows 8 with the latest drivers released in December 2012. I use three different DAWS - Tracktion, Saw, and Samplitude. Sorry I will not use Cubase but I love the Steinberg hardware for its sound. All buffer sizes were tried to no avail with 128 and 256 being the optimal so far.

In all of these DAWS, they have an option for Direct Monitoring (I use then when recording with mics) or Tape style monitoring (I use this when recording with vst so I can actually hear the guitar amp plugins while recorded). But when the Tape Style Monitoring is engaged, all I hear is bad phasey latency. That seems to be the only way as far as I know to hear the plugins when you are playing. Anybody else have advice on this? No, I will not use Cubase. This is a question about the hardware. Can this Control Room feature I hear about be used in other DAWS to fix the latency? Is anybody else having these problems and what is your solution?

Maybe I'm SOL with using USB. I never had these issues with my old Mackie Firewire but that doesn't sound as good as this unit. I'm sure somebody here has to record with vst plugins?

Thanks in advance for the help.

[BriHar]

Unless your DAW of choice offers Delay compensation restraining, you may indeed be SOL.
I personally use a HW based effect chain (Line 6 POD - but there are others) so the plugins use HW based effects which are external to and prior to the DAW, but this may not be a viable alternative for you.
Another possibility might be Re-Amping (or perhaps Post Processing would be a better name in this scenario). This would have you record dry and apply effect plugins afterward.
Just a couple of ideas.

[AC]

Thanks BriHar,

I thought that might be the case. Unfortunately, its disappointing that the latency for USB is so bad. Otherwise, the unit is fantastic.

I do have one DAW that I use that has latency compensation but its not very good to be quite honest. At this point, your suggestion of recording a dry signal and applying the effects seems like the best one.

I wonder if I buy a PCI express soundcard if I can bypass the conversion on the UR28m and just use the preamps? If anybody has an idea, I would love to know if someone knows.

Thanks again for the response.

AC

[AC]

Hello everyone,

I am posting this for anybody that will see. The extreme latency was caused by me having the monitoring of the UR28 and the DAW engaged at the same time.

It was giving off a phasey sound. I was a knucklehead for not noticing but I think I fixed it by installing the mixer software and muting the analog inputs.