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I decided to use my handsfree as a happy microphone, despite its utter junk 8000Hz quality. It attaches to the labium of my alto recorder and it looks quite fascinating. Now I can playback the sound from my speaker set, adding some effects and enhancements and expect no U sounds. And play in a room, while people listening to it in another.

The problem appears when I play in the same room as the speaker set. Evidently the ASIO driver can not handle the bluetooth audio drivers, which results in latency. It isn't a lot latency.. but it is enough to undermine just everything. The diagnostics are : Latency: input: 96smp output: 200smp, output + plugins: 10200smp (463ms)

I am using the most recent ASIO driver. The bluetooth audio driver however, is a bit ancient, it's from 2011 I believe, but I've installed it from my OEM. The newer update, which I can only get from Intel installs but behaves improperly.

Is there anything I can do to reduce this unhealthy latency ? I have VAC installed and I can route the ASIO signals to Line 1 internally using voxengo.. but I don't think that the problematic latency is in the output.

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    Doesn't Bluetooth itself have noticeable latency no matter what driver one uses? Looks like it's anywhere from 40 to 150 ms at best. I can't tolerate more than about 5 ms so I suspect there is no driver that will help you with low latency Bluetooth.
    – Todd Wilcox
    Commented Dec 17, 2015 at 2:36
  • Very likely that the driver itself has a lot of latency, I will check it with DPC later today and see what happens.
    – Malina
    Commented Dec 17, 2015 at 6:35
  • @ToddWilcox Latency: input: 96smp output: 200smp, output + plugins: 10200smp (463ms)
    – Malina
    Commented Dec 17, 2015 at 9:57
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    So your problem is the plugins. Get rid of that convolution reverb and/or the look ahead peak limiter.
    – Todd Wilcox
    Commented Dec 17, 2015 at 11:50
  • I wouldn't get rid of the reverb though, as it is too important. It is an enhancement that the whole thing must worth it. Also isn't the Peak Controller one of the many internal controllers and it is used to automate targets in response to the volume envelope of an input sound and/or its own intenal LFO generator ? Why the volume matters ?
    – Malina
    Commented Dec 17, 2015 at 11:53

1 Answer 1

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Short answer: no. Bluetooth was not designed for live sound.

Bluetooth audio latency is in the region of 150 ms. If you happen to have an apt-X-enabled bluethooth device the latency is 30-40 ms, which from what I understand is as low as you can get. This might be acceptable for watching video, although just barely. For live sound (PA) use it is completely unacceptable, as you have noticed.

In your case, as your diagnostics tell us, and as was pointed out in the comments, this is made even worse by the fact that the plugins you are using obviously were not designed for realtime use. The bluetooth latency is completely swamped by your plugin latency!

In fact, even a "regular" wireless microphone has latency, at least the digital kind, though not as bad as a bluetooth mic. If you want to rid yourself of latency, get an analog wireless mic or a regular corded mic!

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  • Finding small / professional studio / wireless mic for a good price here in Bulgaria makes you look stupid.
    – Malina
    Commented Dec 17, 2015 at 20:11
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    Note that earbud headphones can be plugged into the mic jack and work as a microphone in some circumstances (you might need to adjust the microphone jack gain a little). This would be poor quality, but might be able to compete with the no-budget + 8kHz sample rate quoted. As for real-time effects, look into VSTHOST (freeware) and free VST reverb plugins.
    – Yorik
    Commented Dec 18, 2015 at 22:13

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