No delay but Bluetooth audio? Is that that even possible?
I use Bluetooth audio a lot when only listening to media but try and use Bluetooth headphones while playing a MIDI instrument. For me I struggle when I try to do that.
My headphones are Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT. They support Bluetooth 5.0
https://www.audio-technica.com/en-gb/ath-m50xbt
I’ve been using them with a wire connection to my MPC X when doing music but a couple of days ago I used my MPC X in controller mode connected to my 2018 MacBook Air, and used Bluetooth Audio to see what that’d be like. As mentioned I found the delay to be too high. I tried to lower the sample buffer size in the MPC X software on the computer but with lower settings I got popping and clicking sounds.
Besides, the buffer size settings in the MPC software were not the main contributor to the delay AFAICT. The default setting of 512 samples, when used at 48kHz will mean 10.67 ms of delay, which according to some sources online is at about the upper limit of what you’d want when playing an instrument. And some sources say that for sounds with a steep attack (e.g. drums) you’d preferably actually have sub 6-7 ms delay.
But Bluetooth 5.0 adds a minimum of 32 ms of delay according to what I read online, and they also say that more likely it will be as much as a couple of hundred ms delay.
All I know for sure is that when I tried to play instruments through Bluetooth audio using the headphones I mentioned and the MPC X connected in controller mode to my computer with the MPC software, the delay was sufficiently high that it became difficult to play.
Whereas with a cable connection to my MPC X in standalone mode with the same headphones the delay is low enough that I personally don’t notice it, even when doing drum sounds.