Buffer Size when Mixing

[wayneol]

What is the best buffer setting when mixing? I understand when tracking the smaller the better for latency but when I am mixing is there any best setting? I was getting some glitches when I was set to 512 so I went up to 1024 and they stopped. Any reason why I should or should not go higher than 1024 for mixing…. Advantages or Disadvantages? Should I just set it at the highest value when mixing and forget it?

[nachoestasborracho]

I understand that in most cases DSP performance should be enhanced when working with higher buffer settings.
It might get a little annoying when you click Play and it delays a little bit, or when adjusting effects, but you can learn to live with this little latency if your session has surpassed the lower buffer's capabilities.

Lately I've been starting with 512 or 1024 and if glitches start happening I move to a higher one.

In regards with some EQ plugins that have adjustable latency, they can get noticeable better sounding filters when using the highest buffers. (for example Izotope Ozone)

[Tim@Harrison]

I typically use a buffer size of 1024 when mixing. The drivers will sometimes also play a part in performance. An old RME interface that I had outperformed anything I've owned since based on drivers alone.

Best,

Tim

[Brett McCoy]

I keep the buffers at 1024 for general use also (especially mixing). I use hardware-based monitoring for my system (RME HDSP), so that really helps take the load off the CPU for some things.

[Qualitymix]

During composing, I'm recording in Ardour 3 with a buffer of 128 usually, sometimes 64. However, once I've gotten a good idea down, I'll create another bus channel in Ardour (usually called 'Mixbus mix'), pipe the audio from Ardour into Mixbus, then back from Mixbus into my new 'Mixbus mix' channel. For this I always set my buffers to 2046.

I will be interested to see how performance is in Mixbus 3. By default Mixbus uses DSP just idling, so I'm really hoping for a 'freeze' option that will free up DSP. This is a feature that has been requested in Ardour 3 that hasn't been realized yet, but I'm secretly hoping Harrison has put some consideration into it.

The ability to offline render ('freeze') tracks is invaluable to so many tight-budget operations.

[Tassy]

In MB right click on the track header and de-tick "active" works like 'freez' since it frees up DSP.

[Qualitymix]

Yes, you can currently deactivate tracks in Mixbus.
But I'm not talking about the current version of Mixbus.
Deactivating a track misses the point (because it mutes the audio as well).
An offline freeze would process the plugin effects on any given channel, temporarily print the audio, and disable the plugin bin freeing up any DSP used by the plugins.

A brief conversation with Harrison a while back revealed that it would be very difficult to freeze a track and then disable the Harrison DSP in that channel. So I'm hoping for, at the very least, the ability to offline render plugin bins, because this would also print the result of VSTi midi tracks (which can use massive amounts of DSP)

Anyway, this thread is about buffer size when mixing.

Like I said before, I use 2048 when mixing, simply because any latency I have when mixing doesn't bother me at all.

[Brett McCoy]

Ardour3 has a feature "bounce with processing" which will render the track with all effects and automation into another track. I think that's what you are looking for. Hopefully this will be in MB3

[Qualitymix]

Unfortunately that feature in Ardour doesn't render midi
Sent from my HTC6990LVW using Tapatalk

[Subbase Dnb Crossbreed]

Ardour3 has a feature "bounce with processing" which will render the track with all effects and automation into another track. I think that's what you are looking for. Hopefully this will be in MB3

that would be AWESOME if this will be available in MB3