Sound delay 78.5 ms

I'm currently doing a clean install into a new Mac Studio (M2 Max, 32GB RAM, OS13.4), had to leave my Hauptwerk5 behind and have loaded the trial of v. 8 which I will register in due course... IF I can solve this problem. I'm getting unacceptable (as in: unplayable) latency. This happens whether I play on the keyboard (Roland C180) or with the mouse on the screen, so I doubt it was the MOTU FastLane which served well on the 2015 imac for v. 5. And it happens both through the Edifier computer speakers and through headphones directly into the CPU. I'm only using 1-3 stops on the St. Anne. There is 27.5 GB of memory free.

What I've done so far: I'm at 48K sample rate, 0128 single buffer. This shaved about 10ms off (it WAS ca. 86), following the instructions in the manual. I expected this to work like a dream with so much more computer. What do I need to do to make this functional?

[mdyde]

Hello Jeffery,

I've never heard of a latency problem on a Mac previously (unless using BlueTooth audio or similar)-- macOS' audio usually works and performs very well (as long as one doesn't over-fill the RAM, in which case it may become silent).

There are no differences at all between Hauptwerk v5 and v8 with regard to audio output/drivers, except that v8 is compiled using a newer version of Apple's libraries (for better compatibility with later macOS versions). Hence I think you would find the same behaviour even if you were using v5 on that Mac.

I don't think anybody on this forum has mentioned using an M2-based Mac Studio, but I know that other Hauptwerk users use the M1-based Mac Studio, and other M2-based Macs (including the laptop I have here) have no problems with latency.

Please try:

- Apply all available macOS 13 updates (via macOS' "System Settings | General | Software Update"), so as to update the Mac to the current version of macOS 13, which is 13.6.1 or 13.6.2.

- Reboot.

- Download and (re-)install the latest version of the drivers for your MOTU FastLane MIDI interface: https://motu.com/en-us/download/#category=2&product=20 . During installation, macOS may give a warning message that it has blocked installing MOTU's system extension. If so, choose the option to go to System Settings, and select the option to allow the extension to be installed (which may not be obvious -- if I recall correctly it appeared part way down on the "Security and Privacy" tab when I installed my MOTU Express 128). Then reboot, then install the driver again, and hopefully it should install properly the second time. Finally reboot again.

- Now launch Hauptwerk v8 and go to "General settings | Audio device ...". Select the following options for now:
---- Audio output device = <the Mac Studio's built-in speakers>. (Those should perform reliably at low latency.)
---- Sample rate = 48 kHz
---- Audio buffer size = 1024
---- Number of audio buffers = 1
OK the screen.

- Load St. Anne's.

- Open the "Audio, MIDI and Performance" large control panel ("View | Large ... control panels ...").

What value does it show for "Sound delay ms"? On the Mac Mini I have here (Intel, 2018, macOS 13.6.1, Hauptwerk v8) I get 31.2ms with the above audio device settings. [A smaller buffer size would reduce the value further.]

If your value is significantly higher than that, please use "Help | View activity log" and copy/paste the last "INF:5197 CoreAudio device ... started ..." line into a forum reply.

Thank you for your dedicated and thorough workthrough. I'd installed a new MOTU driver practically first thing, and the OS was updated as could be without going Sonoma (which I can't do until Finale 27.4 comes out). The problem turned out to be the Bluetooth speakers. I physically wired them and we went down to 23ms and sounding good, (I've not done a lot with Bluetooth, but I have a severe lack of useful connections, until I find a way to use those 4 Lightning ports.)

[mdyde]

Ah! Thanks, Jeffrey. Excellent.

I've got one of these:

https://www.caldigit.com/ts3-plus/

They are pricey, but it is pretty great. Rock solid with Hauptwerk.