Hi there. JL here. I work with Audio Interfaces using Presonus for live events.
Are you using a Mac or a PC? I assume PC.
For us, we have to do the following:
- Do all the Windows tweaks to bring latency down. This has to be first. If you haven't, there are quite a few to do. Get the app LatencyMon to run tests to get real results to go by.
- Do you have a laptop/pc with multiple cores and threads? See if you can make Presonus run on the Performance cores instead of the Efficiency cores if your system is new enough. If not, disable some proprietary apps for the laptop/pc that are running in the background, eating processor time and RAM.
- Get the specs for your 18/24 and ascertain which has lower specs for latency: 44.1, 48, 96?
- Set Presonus to that bit depth to match your 18/24
- Find the right dropout protection setting to get the lowest latency without crackling/dropouts
- Set the Sample rate low enough to speed things up, while not taxing the CPU and getting clipping
Now, in the Presonus Show page for your set:
Note: Unless you have a 2626 or the latest audio interface, you can't get the low latency "Z" feature on the show page, so your pc and audio interface have to do the muscle work.
- Don't put the same effects on multiple channels that you could do 1 send for, ie: Reverb. Have one send channel and route each instrument/mic channel to that send. Multiples of the same effect on channels increase latency ALOT on the Show page
- Turn plugin napping on in Presonus settings. This turns off plugins not in use and lowers latency.
- Do A/B testing for your plugins: Ear test for latency. Don't use plugins that tax latency. We had to stop using several because they are just not fast enough.
- Pre-render any tracks you use as backing tracks as wav files.
- Check your automation in Show Page so that less changes occur during a song, or plugins that don't need to run are shut off during that song.
Hope these tips help. We have yet to get a perfect result using Presonus and our audio interfaces. Wish we could use a 2626, but don't have Thunderbolt on the laptop.
If all fails, start with a new Show page, one track, and add plugins and automation one at a time to test which works ok and which need to be eliminated. Any plugins we use that are common to multiple channels, we use a send for and never double the same plugin on multiple channels.
