Sync issues on extreme long-distance session (NYC ↔ Australia) — is this a physics floor?
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Greetings! We’re looking for input from the community and team.
My songwriting partner and I have been using FarPlay for real-time sessions, but we’re consistently out of sync when he plays and I sing together. Setup on both ends:
• NYC ↔ Australia (about as far apart as it gets)
• Wired Ethernet, no WiFi
• Headphones, good mics
• Following the recommended low-latency setup stepsHas anyone else played across a similarly extreme distance? Curious whether:
• This is basically hitting the speed-of-light/routing floor for a distance this large, and there’s no further optimization possible
• Others have found settings tweaks that help even at this range
• People have workarounds for playing “together” when true rhythmic sync isn’t physically achievable (e.g., call-and-response style, one person recording to a click and the other overdubbing, etc.)Would love to hear what’s worked for others in similar long-haul setups. Thanks!
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Dear Rachel,
Thanks for your message.
- You hit the nail on the head. The main limitation is the speed-of-light/routing you asked about. I’d expect musicians with optimal setups in NYC and Sydney, for example, to get 115 ms (rough ballpark) of one-way latency.
- If you’re getting noticeably higher latency than that, see whether both ends can use fiber internet (fiber has lower latency than cable), wired audio equipment (no Bluetooth), and low-latency audio drivers. Macs (and typically Linux PCs) use low-latency drivers “out of the box”. To get similar low latency, Windows users need to use an audio device with manufacturer-supplied ASIO drivers (example: iRig Stream Mic USB). Dragging each latency slider as far to the left as you can (without making crackling unacceptable) and then pressing the “Auto” button to turn Automatic latency adjustment off is also recommended for getting the lowest, most stable delay possible (check out our latency-slider video tutorial). For more suggestions on reducing latency, visit our Troubleshooting guide, click the “Change computer” and “Change audio” buttons as needed, and browse the “Latency is too high” section.
- Yes, call-and-response and record-to-click-and-overdub are both great workarounds when latency is too high to play together in rhythmic sync. FarPlay’s Standard+ and For Teachers subscriptions include Broadcast Output, a feature that makes it easy to do the record-to-click-then-overdub method using a DAW. Say you’re on a Mac. Install the 16-channel version of BlackHole and send audio from your partner and yourself on separate channels from FarPlay’s Broadcast Output through BlackHole 16ch to your DAW, like Logic (check out these instructions). Install the 2-channel version of BlackHole and send audio from your DAW through BlackHole 2ch into a track in FarPlay’s Input Mixer. Now you two can take turns recording to a click-track provided by your DAW and immediately review your work together. Another workaround for high latency is to play free improvisational styles where rhythmic sync is not important. To see an example recorded between Brooklyn and Japan, check out the “Free improvisation” section at our blog post here.
Thank you,
David Liao
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