Mixbus 7 is out and I’ll be exploring the new feature(s) in the next 4 posts.

I’ve heard that Mixbus 7 might have better latency, so let’s start it off with the elephant in the room: Mixbus latency.

Other parts in this series:

• Latency
• Recorder and TapeX

Contents

• Introduction
• Results
• Mixbus 6
  • Mixbus 6, 64 Sample Buffer
  • Mixbus 6, 256 Sample Buffer
  • Mixbus 6, 1024 Sample Buffer
• Mixbus 6, Limiter On
  • Mixbus Limiter6, 64 Sample Buffer
  • Mixbus Limiter6, 256 Sample Buffer
  • Mixbus Limiter6, 1024 Sample Buffer
• Mixbus 7
  • Mixbus 7, 64 Sample Buffer
  • Mixbus 7, 256 Sample Buffer
  • Mixbus 7, 1024 Sample Buffer
• Mixbus 7, Limiter On
  • Mixbus Limiter7, 64 Sample Buffer
  • Mixbus Limiter7, 256 Sample Buffer
  • Mixbus Limiter7, 1024 Sample Buffer
• Data
• Conclusion
• Meta
• Disclaimer

Introduction

Read the introduction post. Hardware is unchanged.

Read the original testing of Mixbus 6.

For this round I used MSoundFactory’s Drum Sampler. VST version. Kontakt will no longer run on my machine and I have no interest in debugging it.

Previous tests were done with Limiter On, because that is the default state of Mixbus when you open a project. I have added additional testing without the limiter this round.

REMEMBER - These numbers only mean something relative to each other on my system. Your audio device and system may have different latency numbers. If you want to see how each DAW stacks up relative to each other, please check the other articles in this series for a relative comparison.

Reminder, don’t trust dweebs on the internet. Do the tests yourself, or at least double check my data.

Results

All tests run at 48,000hz sample rate.

Let’s start with the results so you can get back to what you were doing.

• 64 Samples without Limiter engaged (reports 1.3ms latency)
  • Mixbus 6.1.22 - 5.37ms (257, 261, 258 samples)
  • Mixbus 7.0 - 2.77ms (131, 132, 131 samples)
• 256 Samples without Limiter engaged (reports 5.3ms latency)
  • Mixbus 6.1.22 - 18.45ms (886, 885, 885 samples)
  • Mixbus 7.0 - 18.77ms (902, 903, 900 samples)
• 1024 Samples without Limiter engaged (reports 21.3ms latency)
  • Mixbus 6.1.22 - ~66.4ms (3185, 3185, 3187 samples)
  • Mixbus 7.0 - 66.74ms (3203, 3204, 3204 samples)
• 64 Samples with Limiter engaged (reports 1.3ms latency)
  • Mixbus 6.1.22 - ~8.15ms (391, 391, 391 samples)
  • Mixbus 7.0 - 8.34ms (400, 399, 399 samples)
• 256 Samples with Limiter engaged (reports 5.3ms latency)
  • Mixbus 6.1.22 - 24.30ms (1166, 1167, 1167 samples)
  • Mixbus 7.0 - 24.60ms (1183, 1180, 1182 samples)
• 1024 Samples with Limiter engaged (reports 21.3ms latency)
  • Mixbus 6.1.22 - ~72.18ms (3468, 3464, 3468 samples)
  • Mixbus 7.0 - 72.54ms (3483, 3481, 3483 samples)

NOTE - Mixbus 6 seems to have a strange issue with latency. It often drifts when changing buffers (if it doesn’t crash!). This meant that I often needed to restart mixbus and re-run measurements multiple times to confirm. Because of this behaviour, there’s a chance that the measurements may not match previous results.

Mixbus 6

Mixbus 6, 64 Sample Buffer

Mixbus 6, 256 Sample Buffer

Mixbus 6, 1024 Sample Buffer

Mixbus 6, Limiter On

Measurement Data

Mixbus Limiter6, 64 Sample Buffer

Mixbus Limiter6, 256 Sample Buffer

Mixbus Limiter6, 1024 Sample Buffer

Mixbus 7

Measurement Data

Mixbus 7, 64 Sample Buffer

Mixbus 7, 256 Sample Buffer

Mixbus 7, 1024 Sample Buffer

Mixbus 7, Limiter On

Mixbus Limiter7, 64 Sample Buffer

Mixbus Limiter7, 256 Sample Buffer

Mixbus Limiter7, 1024 Sample Buffer

Data

• Mixbus 6 Measurement Data
• Mixbus 7 Measurement Data
• Mixbus 6 w/Limiter Measurement Data
• Mixbus 7 w/Limiter Measurement Data

Conclusion

• Mixbus 7 has reduced latency when the mixer is turned off for the 64 sample buffer size. Latency when the Limiter is on is effectively identical.
• Mixbus 7 still does not have “MIDI Jitter
• Notably for me: Mixbus 6 and 7 crashed frequently during these tests when changing buffer sizes unless I stopped the engine to change, then started the engine back.
• Mixbus 6 was more likely to have drifting latency. (Likely due to underruns). If I ran a test then walked away for an hour, with nothing but Mixbus running on my system, the latency would increase a significant amount.
  • Mixbus 7 did not do this. I do not recall having any increased latency while running Mixbus 7 during these tests.
• As the differences between these results and my prior results varied slightly, I reran tests on Reaper, Pro Tools and Cubase. They all returned practically identical results.
  • The only notable variation is the 64 sample buffer, which was 3ms more latent in the first tests.

I did a quick test at 128 sample buffer.

• Mixbus 6 - 10.44ms
• Mixbus 7 - 10.82ms

This appears to indicate that, on my test setup at least, the lowered latency only appears to be at the 64-sample buffer size.

Meta

This post took:

• 26 hours to run the tests.
  • The tests were run, in full, 3 times.
  • I spot checked multiple tests due to the slipping buffers.
• 12 hours to write the post.

Disclaimer

I chat with Mixbus and Ardour devs often. I was given a license for Mixbus 7 and 32c, however I purchased the product with my own money with intent to use it.

If you feel these circumstances may have coloured the content, please leave a comment below.