jlepore wrote:The significant reduction in latency also helps significantly in cleaning up PA vs. live stage sound. I can't stand the sound of wedges on SAC (and am glad I never have to wear ears on it).
Joe,
I know you've had your share of troubles with SAC, and I'm no stranger to the glitches. My rig froze five times in the last two weeks until I found the cause of the problem (fortunately only for a brief second and maily at times where it really wasn't noticed).
That said... there is far more acoustic latency between the backline and stacks on most stages than SAC introduces. Many times the backline is even delayed in the PA to time align... the 5-7ms that most SAC systems introduce is far less than that distance, so you just delay the backline a little less. As for monitors, there's that much acoustic latency between the wedge and the performer's head. I doubt most performers can tell the difference between 5ms and 12ms in a blind test. Heck... moving forwards and backwards in the sound field introduces a latency variance and many performers move around more than a foot or two during the performance...
SAC definently has an odd sound for monitoring in some instances, I just don't think it comes from overall system latency. I've never taken the time to do zero summing tests on any of my rig, but it would be interesting to see if the different signal paths really are seeing the same latency, or if some are experiencing latency or phase shifting. I do know that if VST plug are used in the signal chain, they can introduce latency even if they report none. The ReaPlugs introduce measurable latency on my system, some as much as 10-15ms. 20ms of total latency in a monitor chain is certainly audible, so I was never able to get VSTs to work. Bob's plugs have always been fine, though.
Have you done any measurement on latency or phase in AMP?