Next up in the latency/jitter testing is Studio One!
If you don’t understand what this is, please read the introduction post (This article is being updated if/when changes are made!).
Other parts in this series:
- Daw v Daw 7.2 update, again...
- Pro Tools
- FLStudio
- Live
- Bitwig
- Mixbus
- Ardour
- DP
- Logic
- Reaper
- Waveform
- Cubase
- Conclusions
Contents
Introduction
Read the introduction post. I have updated this post since it was originally published.
For Studio One I used Impact with all processing turned off.
The “dropout protection” settings are known to change the results, so I did all tests with 3 of 5 settings.
Reminder, don’t trust dweebs on the internet. Do the tests yourself, or at least double check my data.
64 sample buffer
Reported Latency in Audio Device settings
- Input - 4.58ms (220 samples)
- Output - 4.35ms (209 samples)
64 sample buffer - Dropout Protection: Minimum
“Monitoring Latency” in Processing settings
- Standard
- Input - 10.3ms (493 samples)
- Output - 5.69ms (273 samples)
64 sample buffer - Dropout Protection: Medium - Standard
- Standard
- Input - 41ms (1965 samples)
- Output - 41ms (1954 samples)
64 sample buffer - Dropout Protection: Medium - Low Latency
- Standard
- Input - 10.3ms (493 samples)
- Output - 5.69ms (273 samples)
64 sample buffer - Dropout Protection: Maximum - Standard
- Standard
- Input - 137ms (6573 samples)
- Output - 137ms (6562 samples)
64 sample buffer - Dropout Protection: Maximum - Low Latency
- Standard
- Input - 10.3ms (493 samples)
- Output - 5.69ms (273 samples)
256 sample buffer
Reported Latency in Audio Device settings
- Input - 8.58ms (412samples)
- Output - 8.35ms (401 samples)
256 sample buffer - Dropout Protection: Minimum
“Monitoring Latency” in Processing settings
- Standard
- Input - 22.3ms (1069 samples)
- Output - 22.0ms (1058 samples)
256 sample buffer - Dropout Protection: Medium - Standard
- Standard
- Input - 49ms (2349 samples)
- Output - 49ms (2333 samples)
256 sample buffer - Dropout Protection: Medium - Low Latency
- Low Latency
- Input - 22.3ms (1069 samples)
- Output - 22.0ms (1058 samples)
256 sample buffer - Dropout Protection: Maximum - Standard
- Standard
- Input - 145ms (6957 samples)
- Output - 145ms (6946 samples)
256 sample buffer - Dropout Protection: Maximum - Low Latency
- Low Latency
- Input - 22.3ms (1069 samples)
- Output - 22.0ms (1058 samples)
1024 sample buffer
Reported Latency
- Input - 24.6ms (1180 samples)
- Output - 24.4ms (1169 samples)
1024 sample buffer - Dropout Protection: Minimum
- Standard
- Input - 70ms (3373 samples)
- Output - 70ms (3362 samples)
1024 sample buffer - Dropout Protection: Medium - Standard
- Standard
- Input - 70ms (3373 samples)
- Output - 70ms (3362 samples)
1024 sample buffer - Dropout Protection: Medium - Low Latency
Low Latency is not available for 1024 buffer on Medium Dropout Protection.
1024 sample buffer - Dropout Protection: Maximum - Standard
- Standard
- Input - 177ms (8393 samples)
- Output - 177ms (8482 samples)
1024 sample buffer - Dropout Protection: Maximum - Low Latency
- Low Latency
- Input - 70ms (3373 samples)
- Output - 70ms (3373 samples)
Data
Here is a csv of all the data, including the config files used to plot it using deltafinder.
Conclusion
- Studio One 5.1 has near-zero jitter.
- Must be a coincidence that they changed how it works after my article :)
- Studio One’s lowest latency is higher than some other DAWs.
- Studio One has the most extensive control over latency and performance.
- Minimum and Medium Dropout Protection on a 1024 buffer were identical.
- Studio One had the most detailed and informative latency information.
- It was also the most accurate on average.
I ended up doing the Studio One tests multiple times to confirm findings.
Excellent result all-around. Thank you to the people at Presonus that listened.
Meta
This post took:
- 7 hours to mess with Studio Ones settings and hunch over my scope. Ouch, my back!
- 2 hours to test.
- 3 hours to write the article.
