Question about Virtual AUX ASIO

[Banana Bread]

I am not well versed in this whole area, so I don't have the best understanding of many concepts in audio.

I have connected my piano via MIDI cable to my PC and then use Native Instrument's Kontakt to use their virtual pianos. At the moment I just use it for general playing and don't need to record anything.

Because I wasn't fully satisfied with ASIO4ALL, I recently purchased a small audio interface (ESI U24 XL) to be able to use the ASIO driver for low latency. Now I also want to be able to send the audio signal from Kontakt together with my mic (USB) to Skype, Discord, etc. but I am not quite sure if I set everything up correctly.

I use Voicemeeter Banana and have my ASIO Interface selected as A1. My microphone is set as a hardware input and in Kontakt I have Voicemeeter AUX Virtual ASIO selected. So far everythings seems to function quite good except for a the rare occurence of a quick crackle (Maybe I need to increase the latency of the Interface a bit? I have it set to 64 at the moment).

Now my question is if using Voicemeeter's Virtual AUX ASIO is the same as I would just use my audio interface's ASIO driver in Kontakt? Does it increase the latency?

Another thing I don't quite understand is the latency set in the Virtual IO Panel and the Virtual AUX IO Panel. Currently I have it set to 4096 Samples but I don't know if I should change it or not.

Finally in my audio interface's software I can apart from the latency also set the buffer number but I have no clue what this is and didn't find anything in the manual either. Right now it is set to 5.


I am looking forward to your help!

[Andres]

Hi. There are some posts in this forum which provides useful information.

Now my question is if using Voicemeeter's Virtual AUX ASIO is the same as I would just use my audio interface's ASIO driver in Kontakt?

If you select Voicemeeter Virtual AUX ASIO the audio from Kontakt enters Voicemeeter via AUX Virtual Input, gets mixed with other sources and then goes to your audio interface selected in A1 output using its ASIO driver

Does it increase the latency?

Voicemeeter Virtual ASIO driver adds latency. See these posts by the author:
viewtopic.php?p=1085
viewtopic.php?p=4206

Another thing I don't quite understand is the latency set in the Virtual IO Panel and the Virtual AUX IO Panel. Currently I have it set to 4096 Samples but I don't know if I should change it or not.

As suggested by the author before trying to change anything you should read first https://www.vb-audio.com/Cable/VBCABLE_ ... ttings.pdf.

Finally in my audio interface's software I can apart from the latency also set the buffer number but I have no clue what this is and didn't find anything in the manual either. Right now it is set to 5.

The audio interface manual states: "For recording applications, a typical latency buffer size between 4 and 8ms is standard". ¿Could it be set to 5ms? ¿Could you please provide a screenshot?

[Banana Bread]

Hello. Thank you so much for the useful information!

The audio interface manual states: "For recording applications, a typical latency buffer size between 4 and 8ms is standard". ¿Could it be set to 5ms? ¿Could you please provide a screenshot?

Screenshot_38.png (41.73 KiB) Viewed 5748 times

Screenshot_39.png (43.79 KiB) Viewed 5748 times

I don't quite get what the buffer number is.

[Vincent Burel]

we do not recommend to use latency below 128 smaple with Voicemeeter (especially if you have connected ASIO app to Voicemeeter Virtual ASIO driver). 256 sample is the buffer size to start with ASIO device (128 is considered as optimal but does not always work stable) - 512 sample is the value expected to work in 99.99% of case.

[Banana Bread]

Thanks for the tip! I changed it to 128 and the latency still seems to be very good.

However I still don't get what the BufferNumber in my interface's software is supposed to do.

[Vincent Burel]

normally 2 buffer is enough to manage ASIO interface... you may increase it if getting some discontinuity in the sound of your DAW.