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An update on Android's audio latency

android-developers.googleblog.com

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Re: An update on Android's audio latency

#11

Post by Daho0n »

Naac wrote: post #6
karlding wrote: post #4

Andrew Huang recently made a YouTube video [0] that provides some insight from the perspective of a music producer and someone who recently created a music production app. It's not overly technical, but it highlights some of the challenges one might face. As the article says, there is room for improvement, so I guess it's good to see that the long term goal is 10ms round trip. [0] https://youtube.com/watch?v=-sPbcTcU…

That was a strange video. It seemed like he started talking about latency between Android and IOS devices, which makes sense given that this article talks about response time of just under 40 ms like you said. The article says this is "well within the range required for real-time applications" if you define real-time applications as non-pro-audio stuff. If you're playing an instrument and it takes 40 ms for you to he…

>"I haven't seen any professional producers use anything except macs" as its main argument.

Yeah that is both totally irrelevant to the topic at hand and also a bit strange. I have only seen PCs in the pro studios I have used but that doesn't make me believe nothing else is used.

Re: An update on Android's audio latency

#13

Post by ubercow13 »

Naac wrote: post #6
karlding wrote: post #4

Andrew Huang recently made a YouTube video [0] that provides some insight from the perspective of a music producer and someone who recently created a music production app. It's not overly technical, but it highlights some of the challenges one might face. As the article says, there is room for improvement, so I guess it's good to see that the long term goal is 10ms round trip. [0] https://youtube.com/watch?v=-sPbcTcU…

That was a strange video. It seemed like he started talking about latency between Android and IOS devices, which makes sense given that this article talks about response time of just under 40 ms like you said. The article says this is "well within the range required for real-time applications" if you define real-time applications as non-pro-audio stuff. If you're playing an instrument and it takes 40 ms for you to he…

Linux audio can be real bad but the one thing that could possibly make it worse is taking anything from Android. Android is the only computing platform I have ever used that was unable to play a simple audio file through without the audio dropping out at least once (I had the same experience on multiple devices, 5+ years apart).

Have you looked at Pipewire?

Re: An update on Android's audio latency

#14

Post by apecat »

nkozyra wrote: post #12
apecat wrote: post #9

Can't wait for Roland, Yamaha et al. to build awful Android-based touchscreen UIs for all upscale music gear with built-in control dashboards

Versus the bad custom linux flavors & UIs they currently use? I'll take it.

You have a point, but my main concern is just the inevitable internet-connected app ecosystem for expensive and cool devices that are going to have a security patch lifecycle of 18-36 months with an expected lifespan of 15 years for second and third owners

Re: An update on Android's audio latency

#16

Post by Drakim »

Jeff_Brown wrote: post #10

The figure of most interest to someone playing an electronic instrument is "tap-to-touch latency". The article indicates a minimum of 43 ms for that (28 round trip latency - 5 audio input latency + 20 touch latency). That's like ten times what you'd hope for.

Emulators of old retro games also care about audio latency, as the emulated audio is generated on the fly by a turning machine, which makes it very hard to match visuals to audio if there is inherent audio latency.

Re: An update on Android's audio latency

#17

Post by jefftk »

This is way better than it used to be (I measured half a second latency in 2012: https://www.jefftk.com/p/android-sound-synthesis-and-latency) but it is still too high to let you use an Android device as a musical instrument. This is something iPhones have always been able to do, and one of my biggest disappointments with Android.

(Disclosure: I work for Google, speaking only for myself)

Re: An update on Android's audio latency

#18

Post by AdmiralAsshat »

Too little, too late, I'm afraid.

The improvement is great, but I think the audio professionals jumped ship long ago to Apple, and they're not going back. I know of several music professionals plugging into their Macbooks or iPads as part of the pre-amp, but I don't know if any using Android. Google sat on this for way too long while Apple courted the creative professionals, and for any that have already made the upfront buy-in for Apple hardware, I don't see them taking the risk of switching ecosystems to save a few dollars for performance that still won't match what they're used to.

Re: An update on Android's audio latency

#19

Post by smoldesu »

Daho0n wrote: post #11
Naac wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was a strange video. It seemed like he started talking about latency between Android and IOS devices, which makes sense given that this article talks about response time of just under 40 ms like you said. The article says this is "well within the range required for real-time applications" if you define real-time applications as non-pro-audio stuff. If you're playing an instrument and it takes 40 ms for you to he…

>"I haven't seen any professional producers use anything except macs" as its main argument. Yeah that is both totally irrelevant to the topic at hand and also a bit strange. I have only seen PCs in the pro studios I have used but that doesn't make me believe nothing else is used.

Same here. I've even seen an increased number of Linux-based studios, oftentimes running Bitwig or Reaper. I don't doubt that audio latency can be a little high on some workflows, but I've honestly had a less laggy experience with Pulse than Coreaudio. Out of the box, Bitwig has a latency of ~8ms on my (Linux) machine, as opposed to 20ms on my Macbook.
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