Recording nightmare: Zoom H6, Reaper, ASIO4ALL, Thinkpad Thunderbolt Dock Pro

Snags

I think this boils down to asking "Does anyone have a good guide on configuring latency compensation?" but I'm not sure.

Old system was Reaper on a Surface Pro 4 via a Surface Dock. Absolutely no technical problems with recording, everything worked fine. ASIO4ALL with 6 in from the H6, and 2 out to the speakers/phones via the dock. No problem.

Surface Pro 4 died, so I've replicated the above with a ThinkPad P15v and a Thinkpad Thunderbolt 3 Workstation Dock Gen 2.

Trouble is, there's a definite delay on playback, which means recording additional tracks whilst listening to the existing tracks via 'phones is functionally impossible. Everything ends up a fraction of a second out.

I've played around with the latency and buffering, but don't really know what I'm doing, and to date haven't found the magic combination.

I've also tried changing the routing in ASIO config so that everything bypasses the dock (H6 direct into laptop, 'phones into laptop headphone out) but that generates an awful buzz on playback which is also unworkable. This is with the dock connected, because disconnecting the dock and re-rigging is a bit of a pain (the dock supplies power, and the link to the dual video monitors etc.) and will also piss me off in principle, although I fear that latter may have to fall by the wayside.

Anyone got any insights, either in tweaking the config to allow for the playback latency via the dock, or for removing the static buzz if AIO4ALL has the outs set to either the internal card or to the H6?

Legionreturns

My only observation would be that ASIO4ALL is a pile of donkey scrotum scrapings, and a specific driver is always better. Without fail. Is there not one available? 

sxard

I found this guide helpful: https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=48884

Snags

@Legionreturns no specific driver that does what I want, or works as well (historically at any rate).

@sxard thanks, I'll digest that. 

I've also just twigged it might be worth looking at the other way round, and have discovered audio latency is a known thing with that dock, which also gives me some avenues to investigate. Such fun!

mrkb

The H6 has an asio driver - are you trying to use two devices in ASIO? That never seems to work.
Zoom H6 Downloads | Zoom

Have you tried WASAPI - thats meant to be good in windows OS.

Snags

I have the Zoom driver, it's kinda horrid. WSAPI is buzzy like a bee.

I've retired before grumpiness sets in. Looks like I'll have to just run lots of combos for testing, including ditching the dock. 

Worst comes to the worst I'll just build a dedicated PC for it and leave the work laptop for work. Just too lazy:)

siremoon

Legionreturns said:

My only observation would be that ASIO4ALL is a pile of donkey scrotum scrapings, and a specific driver is always better. Without fail. Is there not one available? 

Indeed.  A wise man once told me that the only question to which ASIO4ALL was the answer was "what should you never use for anything ever if you want it to work?"

fastonebaz

Are you using 64 bit reaper?  That will help with performance overall. Maybe not directly latency but general performance. 

Snags

Yup, 64-bit. Overnight and early morning digging would seem to indicate that the (not cheap) Thunderbolt 3 Gen 2 dock is a bit of an utter bastard for audio latency on the output, not the input, side.

Next job is to rig everything up without the dock connected. If that works OK I'll have a workable, if annoying, situation, and will raise an arsey ticket with Lenovo.

Snags

And confirmed. It's the interaction with the dock that's the problem.

Bollocks

Yearofthegoat

Was just going to post that I use my H6 with Reaper without issue, and the latency is tolerably low, at least low enough for keyboards - haven't run my guitars through it as yet.

Zoom released new drivers around a year ago (IIRC) which changed the USB method from synchronous to asynchronous and that (seems to have) cured large latency when the unit wasn't record-armed. If you haven't updated your H6 for a while, I'd recommend doing that.

As for the dock, yeah, bollocks as you said. Hope you get it sorted.