Is a Switch a Router
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My studio is in a small building in the backyard. A cable runs from the primary Router in the main house out to a Switch in the studio, and my Ethernet cable is plugged into the Switch. Is that arrangement increasing latency? I haven’t been able to synch with my friend in CA (I am in MA), though we are both connected to Ethernet cables and our internet speed is good (he has fiber, I have 960 download, 170 upload). Do I have to go back into the house to plug directly into the Router?
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Dear Stephen,
It’s fine to use an Ethernet switch, which adds virtually no latency.
With good connections, Massachusetts and California are close enough to play some styles of music (that aren’t too fast) together. When Oteil Burbridge was in California earlier this month, the sync between him and a drummer in New York was good enough for teaching a jam class. Between New York and Paris, it’s possible to do jazz improvisation like this.
To get the best possible latency, we recommend the following.
- On both computers, make sure Wi-Fi’s off and VPN’s off, if used.
- If someone’s using Windows, have them use an audio device with manufacturer-supplied ASIO drivers (example: iRig Stream Mic USB) and have them choose the device’s ASIO drivers in FarPlay and set their ASIO Buffer size to 64 samples, preferably lower, as shown here.
- As long as the amount of crackling you hear is acceptable, keep dragging the latency slider toward the left.
- Check whether you can get fiber, which can reduce latency by several ms compared with cable.
See our troubleshooting guide for more suggestions (use the “Change computer” and “Change audio” buttons to customize the tips and then look at the “Latency is too high” section).
Thank you,
David Liao
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