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This one has me foxed. I'm guessing a driver issue, but what do you think?

Cubase 10 - tried and tested interface (a Tascam 1641 on the latest driver - worked perfectly with Cubase Pro 9.5 and below. Latency values are pretty good - never an issue, and they have not changed in the various displays - but sometimes, the audio lags behind the screen by maybe two seconds - fader adjustments take the same time, so there's just a huge lag between when the screen says is happening and actually hearing it.

If I power down the interface and power up again, normal operation is restored but after any period of inactivity, the long delay re-appears. Never did it until a few days back - maybe a week? Had 10 running fine for quite a while now. I'm going to re-download the driver, just in case - but it seems a bit weird! Very annoying pressing stop and the music carries on for a couple of seconds.

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paulears Wed, 12/26/2018 - 14:12

Ah - yes I get you. It's Windows 10, which has always been solid with it. It loads up OK, but I have noticed that even though it loads the Tascam driver and the in and out routing, the old files I load in - from perhaps 8 or so years ago have re-titled the sound output faders as Soundscape - which would have been a PCI audio multitrack sound card from maybe 15 years back? No idea where it suddenly picked up this name. I wonder if this could be part of the problem - it says Tascam in the audio menus, but Cubase thinks some projects are using a multi-track driver - they also have 4 master faders, for the 8 channels, even though the routing just sends 1-2 to the Tascam, and the other Soundscape channels are greyed out?

I'll check the rest when I go in tomorrow.

pcrecord Thu, 12/27/2018 - 04:59

paulears, post: 460010, member: 47782 wrote: If I power down the interface and power up again, normal operation is restored but after any period of inactivity, the long delay re-appears.

It makes me think of a power saving feature that needs to be deactivated.
Go in the control pannel, Power options and choose best performance (might be hidden)
Then go into device manager, on each usb controlers and hubs, deactivate any power saving option
Also, make sure it's not an antivirus scan with a delayed start..
You could also deactivate the network interface, in case it's an update check.

Hope this helps.

paulears Thu, 12/27/2018 - 05:04

The actual info in Cubase 10 is as follows:
input latency 2.653ms
output latency 9.342ms
but then ASIO-guard latency (not sure what this actually is) 22.222ms
32 bit floating at 44.1KHz - this is my normal working latency as many projects include archive material recorded at CD bitrate spec.

Loading Cubase 9.5 produces exactly the same reported data, but worryingly also exactly the same delay before it pops out the speakers, so this suggests to me a Windows problem. I removed the existing driver and re-installed the latest one (2016) from the Tascam website.

Version 2.5.4 now on my system, dated 2014 - after installing the 2016 update 2.07?

input latency now 4.44ms and output latency 21.542ms! So even worse. The ASIO-guard figure up to 23.220ms, so after updating the driver I'm worse off. How strange.

After re-starting, I'm now back to 2.993/14.989ms which I can live with, and there is an even lower setting available.

However - the upshot is the delay is still there - roughly a second and a bit if you prod a key ion say, a VSTi - the meters jump, and a second or so later you hear the sound. Very odd!

paulears Thu, 12/27/2018 - 05:50

This has got me thinking - the Tascam isn't supported any longer, so no more drivers. I quite like it, and the preamps are pretty noise free for my use. I'm wondering if now is the time to upgrade to something else - and there are some fine culprits out there - but as I already have a Behringer X32 I use live, I'm wondering if I should buy an X32 rack and use that as an interface, as it could also be controlled by Cubase, and could be useful when combined with the other X32? At the very least it's 16 preamps, and I have to say I rather like what the X32 sounds like - I could buy a Presonus or Focusrite 1U rack interface, but the X32 rack is only just over £600? What do you think? I have no real desire to go upmarket in the audio quality stakes - just not needed for what I do and I doubt my hearing would make 'posh' preamps jump up my excited by list - but the X32 rack seems attractive as it wins on the interconnectablilty and facility level - on it's own, let alone when I connect to to the rest of the live kit!

pcrecord Thu, 12/27/2018 - 06:46

It's sad that the Tascam do not have Adat outputs. You could have use it as a stand alone preamp unit.. Some of focusrite interfaces can do that.

I think only you can decide if the X32 preamps are good enough for the jobs you do in studio. Since you already know them... and know the x32 engine.
Personnaly I aimed at highend preamps a few years ago, so having an interface with direct to converters and ADAT inputs was a priority.
Looking at the x32 rack, those return AUX might be just that direct to converters.
I'd be curious to know if you can use the internal track level effects / comp / eq when mixing down from the DAW..

I still have your FF800 you know.. works like a charm but at some point I'd like to upgrade to a newer one like the Fireface UFX+

paulears Thu, 12/27/2018 - 08:06

I think I have fixed it. On the Tascam EU site, not the .com one, there is an older version 2.05, not 2.07, which has a different installer, that also seems to have a control panel. Uninstalling 07 and sticking on the older one also makes windows 10 offer the tascam as an option for system sounds and be controlled by the toolbar icon slider . The newer one just doesn't work properly with windows 10 it seems, and it could be that Windows in a recent update might have found the newer driver and installed it - wrecking the perfectly working one.

latency now shows as 4.44/13.5ms and instant response with no delay.

Well worth remembering this one. I can get latency down to 9.3 by tweaking but that's not really necessary for me.

Tony Carpenter Thu, 12/27/2018 - 08:13

The sad reality of relying on software interface I/O, the chance it will become obsolete :-/ happened to me badly when Aadvark (well that was hardware too of course) went away. I love my Apollo Quad from UAD, but, I know one day it's likely to bite me, along with my huge investment in virtual analog.... I can only hope they give us a break and make whatever comes next backward compatible....