logoalt Hacker News

weberer • today at 5:51 AM • 1 reply • view on HN

How is the latency? Whenever there's a FPGA driven pedal, like the Hatsune Miku one, everyone always complains about the delay it adds.


Replies

atoav • today at 8:06 AM

IMO this is a total non-issue. I have never had a digital pedal that had any latency issue. The only latency issues I ever had was when I used a shitty 50 bucks audio interface on an inadequate PC ca 2006.

And I am a very rhythmically educated guitarist/bassist and a DSP programmer, that means I am likely more aware of this than the average person.

Also: you know what else has latency? Sound. 1 millisecond per 33 cm. That means from striking a string on an acoustic guitar till hearing it you also got latency, first it takes a moment for the string to vibrate, then the sound needs to travel to your ears. In big orchestras that latency is a thing great musicians account for.

And every halfway decent musician can do this by just hitting the note slightly early to compensate.

Latency is IMO the biggest issue with vocalists and speakers, because the delayed signal mixes with the original signal you hear in your head, depending on the latency this can either lead to weird comb filtering or irritating doubling. But if your instrument is only heard through the electric chain a lot is acceptable before it starts to get really unusuable. And modern DSPs don't really have latency issues if used correctly.