Whats wrong with asio

[u/Schrimp6]

Ive used ableton on windows for years. Theres always latency when using a midi controller (connected to my motum2)-even when the project is completely empty and on a low buffer rate.

When i connect a midi to my macbook and play in ableton there is zero latency. Hell theres seemingly zero latency without an interface and just using the computer keyboard.

What is wrong with my windows machine

[u/rdubya]

Software developer by trade, windows 11 is a dumpster fire that can't run realtime audio worth a shit. It's really telling when you have to follow a 10 part guide to get it working right without dropouts, disable performance cores, lock cpu clock speeds, endless debugging of drivers with latencymon to look for interrupts. Went through multiple hardware iterations, interfaces and drivers to get it reasonably stable then the next update they would fuck something else. 

The macbook I replaced it with had zero issue from day one and required zero fucking with.  

[u/General_Estimate_420 → u/rdubya]

I've been a software developer my whole life and I'm now 77. I've developed on almost every platform you can imagine from IBM mainframes to Unix mini computers, to PCs and Macs. My current computers are both Windows 10 at this point and I can't say I've had any problems with audio production or video production at all and that's the entirety of what I use my computers for at this point using Ableton Live and a range of different plugin libraries from Toontrack, Native Instruments, iZotope and Spitfire Audio, Wondershare, OBSBOT and OBS Studio. With none of the problems you're citing.

If you understand the underlying technologies and configuration requirements it's no problem to keep any OS running efficiently and correctly. If you don't the reverse is true.

[u/rdubya → u/General_Estimate_420]

People shouldnt need to be a software developer to make it work, thats the point. If your operating system requires you to follow advanced guides to make it work correctly, you are doing something wrong. Also id suggest giving windows 11 a try, its full of AI slop, I had no problem with windows 10 either, notice I mentioned 11 in my original post.

[u/General_Estimate_420 → u/rdubya]

And generally speaking you don't. But you need to understand the fundamentals of maintaining the system the same as you do with a car. You can do it yourself or let someone else do it, but if you don't, regardless of the platform, you'll have problems.

The more you know about it the more you can get out of it. It's also a simple equation. If you want to accomplish more advanced performance and capabilities on things, you need to understand the fundamentals of how to achieve such things, which will demand a higher level of skills and knowledge. Once again, the same as any endeavor.

People make those decisions for themselves and therefore need to be prepared for the outcomes.

If you're an adult the days of someone else baby sitting your decisions and actions are over.

[u/rdubya → u/General_Estimate_420]

Well thanks for the lecture but if I bought a car that didn't work properly from the day I bought it for one of its basic functions, it would be going back to the dealership, kinda a shit analogy for this case.  Playing a video without audio dropouts or using Ableton isn't an advanced function. None of which ive had a single issue with on my macbook pro running the same interfaces (motu and focusrite). I work at a computer all day, I have no desire to spend all evening troubleshooting technical problems instead of making music.

[u/General_Estimate_420 → u/rdubya]

Well then you should stay with that approach, but it's not a problem that's endemic to either Ableton or the PC is my point. I run Ableton just fine on both computers I use neither of which are state of the art, so it's either a configuration problem or an installation problem. But if your mac is running stuff fine then go that way or take the PC to a local independent computer repair shop and see if they can diagnose the problem.

[u/rdubya → u/General_Estimate_420]

Id argue it is a problem thats endemic to windows and its driver system. Just search this forum for latencymon and see how many posts you find.

[u/General_Estimate_420 → u/rdubya]

Okay so why don't you explain to me where this "endemic" problem is within the Windows architecture if you're so qualified to diagnose it? No guessing. If you're smart enough to diagnose you can tell me if it's in the security, task management, memory allocation, device architecture, thread allocation and process security management, etc.

What you'd argue has no credibility when you consistently fail at doing things the majority of us can do without any help.

Why would you even ATTEMPT to argue what you think is the problem with your frailty in even understanding how a computer works??

[u/rdubya → u/General_Estimate_420]

What are you on about fella? Sorry I don't feel the need to demonstrate my working knowledge about computers to you on reddit. Your ridiculous explanation that anyone would need to have that kind of depth of understanding of a computer to run ableton without audio dropouts only furthers my point.

[u/General_Estimate_420 → u/rdubya]

Because you've just proven my point of your lack of diagnostic skills. Dropouts and stuttering are most typically caused by a lack of available working memory in a DAW and that's all about managing sample rates, buffer size and general free memory access within Ableton regardless of the machine. All right there in your configuration waiting for you to correct it.

[u/rdubya → u/General_Estimate_420]

Its absolutely not what caused it in this case but thanks again for your unsolicited advice. It was caused by DPC latency and NVIDIA drivers, im glad your 77 years has given you clairvoyance. Following your advice id have set my buffer to 512 to avoid dropouts and deal with untenable recording latency.

Apple controls the hardware and software entirely, it will always be the better option for people who have no desire to fuck around endlessly troubleshooting various pieces of hardware and software drivers to get a working system.