Fine tuning latency

General Discussion
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Brand new user – just had my first JackTrip session.

I have all the recommended stats: the sound card, ASIO drivers, wired headphones and mic. The latency on my end was measure between 5 ms and 12 ms. My teacher, who also lives in Brooklyn NY (I think he’s about 11 miles away), had similar latency, but he uses a mac.

The session was pretty cool, and I love the features of JackTrip. The metronome is awesome. I need to educate myself on my Behringer soundcard and maybe electronic audio in general.

One thing that could’ve been better is the consistency of latency. It wasn’t bad. My teacher has pretty high standards and patience for this sort of thing, and was satisfied with the results, but the consistency could’ve been better. The latency drifted a little bit here and there.

We did clapping exercises to a metronome whether ascertaining if we could have a lesson on JackTrip. It was mostly good, but occasionally the latency would drift a little bit and the clapping/metronome wasn’t spot on for a second or two before correcting itself.

Now that I have a functional studio that works, how do I fine tune things to make them even better? I saw a post that mentioned different buffer sizes. How do I set those? Is there a document that explains what things can be fiddled with to improve latency?

We’re willing to sacrifice (a lot of) quality for latency.

1 Like
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Congratulations @peter ! Thank you very much for your detailed feedback. You say that the latency drifted and was inconsistent, and that is typical of a WIFI connection versus wired ethernet connections, which is what we recommend. Were you both using wired ethernet? And did you make sure that you were using the desktop app and not the web app. Those two - wifi vs ethernet and desktop app vs webapp would make a huge difference.

I have a feeling that you might be using the webapp and connecting to the studio rather than running the app installed on your computer.

Also, this is a very busy time of day - everybody is online after work and the kids are playing games which means that the network is like the freeway at rush hour.

Some settings you could play with are the Buffer Size and the Net Queue. Take the buffer size on your server and in the app down as far as you can. That will give you the lowest latency. If you get noise, you can fine tune with the Net Queue.

The buffer size for your studio is in the settings tab/window. The settings for the buffer size in the app that each of you has is in the Advanced settings, as is the Net Queue.

When you change these settings, do it one at a time, and wait a few seconds for the app to catch up.

I would be glad to do a live session with you to test some of this out. And I am pinging @miked for more suggestions.

Very happy to have you here!

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Another thought I have is: even when connected to a wired ethernet connection, if WIFI is on, it can interfere with the ethernet connection. It is good idea to turn off WIFI on the computer running JackTrip with wired ethernet.

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Hi Synthia!

It was only slightly inconsistent. As a rough estimate, in a 60 minute session, it might have drifted ~5 times, and by drift, I mean it wasn’t BAD. The desync only lasted maybe 3 or 4 seconds before it righted itself. And even the desynchronization wasn’t awful. It was small enough that I wondered if the problem was my timing, before realizing it was probably latency.

We did some clapping / snapping tests and were impressed. We started the lesson and were playing together. It was great!

If it were up to me, I’d trade sound quality over latency. But you said in your first response that JT was (I forget your exact words but it was something like) a journey. It’s not a simple turnkey system, and requires work to make it function optimally. So, for a first attempt, I think it was a resounding success!

I absolutely LOVED the metronome. The recording feature was TERRIFIC. There’s going to be a learning curve – we spent a considerable amount of time getting everyone’s volume level correct. It was a bit confusing because my teacher had access to volume settings, but I also had master control over his settings too, so it was a bit of a back-and-forth thing, trying to get everything just right.

We were both using wired ethernet. You know? I THINK he might have been using the web app. I’ll ask. I was definitely using the app.

Some settings you could play with are the Buffer Size and the Net Queue. Take the buffer size on your server and in the app down as far as you can. That will give you the lowest latency. If you get noise, you can fine tune with the Net Queue.

Roger that! We’re going to play again this Wednesday (I think). I will definitely follow this advice! I took the buffer down to 16 (MB, I assume). I also changed the buffer strategy from Loss Concealment to Stable Latency. It sounded right. I don’t see Net Queue on the interface – is that part of the bleeding edge JT release?

We usually play Wed and 3pm. Would you recommend maybe earlier in the day?

I would love to take you up on the offer of a live session. I usually work from home full time, so I have a really wide open schedule. Thank you so much for the offer!

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Wow, I am delighted to hear about your successful progress! It will be
interesting to learn more about the latency drift. And I am impressed
that you were able to get the buffer down to 16. Did you set the buffer
to 16 on your server or on the app or both?

Using the web app does not require installation of the software on the
computer, so yeah that would make a huge difference.

Net Queue setting is only available in the Studio settings (screenshot
attached).

Bleeding Edge is called “Edge” now - and I think it is what is coming up

  • I have to check because things change frequently.

Sure! I would love to see your workflow and perhaps I can help clarify
processes, etc. On Wednesday, I could schedule beginning at 1pm your
time. I am pretty flexible this week. Considering your 3pm session, if
there is a better time, please let me know.

Thanks for the update. By the way, Mike had a good suggestion about
using the Monitor slider if you just want to hear yourself directly with
no latency. The “Echo” slider is hearing yourself coming back from the
server and gives a good idea of the latency.

Looking forward!

netqueue.jpg
netqueue.jpg1525×496 67.9 KB

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@peter please feel free to email me at synthiapayne@pm.me to schedule a live session.