Wave's Native vs Soundgrid

[Jay]

So i’m new to live audio – I currently use wave’s products in studio so i’m familiar with them. I’d like to implement them into our live setting now that we’ve installed our new SQ7. I’m looking for thoughts on the two options and then i have some follow up questions as well. (I run an SQ7 with Digital snake)

Obviously in terms of latency SoundGrid is better – but i’m not looking to pack the rack’s with TONS of plugins – probably EQ/Comp/Reverb on Kick, Snare, Vocals (a little delay here maybe), maybe something like a EQ/Comp on drum/Vocal bus and final comp on Main Bus so not a ton of processing. (i get there may be better ways to do this so i’m open to suggestions but this is just off my head)

that said would native ran on a GOOD laptop be sufficient? and not cause so much latency that it would be noticeable? Or would i still NEED the SoundGrid? Cost is a factor but i also want it to sound good w/o latency issues so i’d like to throw it all on the table at first.

any pros out there that can help i thank you!

PS I’m not a pro by any means but enjoy this very much and would like to get better!

[Art]

I think you’d find latency to be too high in a native environment. However, you can try it. You can download Multirack Native and demo it free for 1 week.

[Jay]

Thanks for the response – I’ve seen mixed reviews in different places some say there is too much latency and others rave bout how its not noticeable – maybe it depends on room size? i’d think you’re probably right. i didnt know about the demo i’ll have to give that a shot.

FOllow up on Native/SQ7 most everything i see they want you to buy the M-Waves Card however my understanding is that the USB on the back of the SQ7 can be used to connect to the laptop running native? and this should work? The SQ7 documentation makes it seem like this is possible w/o the M-Waves card installed?

thanks again!

[SteffenR]

it should be possible, but the USB connection has a much higher latency then the soundgrid

[Sebastien]

Hi,
Soundgrid add « only » 0.8 ms of latency (mean a total of 1.5ms with an sq) . This is totally acceptable in a live setup, BUT with native, and through the integrated usb soundcard of an SQ, you will get at best latency settings, 2ms more at 96khz.
Note that 96khz native processing need more power to the cpu… you have to take in account in live, as dropouts can not happen !!
The buffer should then be adjusted …

In live 5 ms of latency is noticable and not confortable by a pro singer in his wedge … but on FOH, this is negligible

[Sebastien]

Hint: it’s ok to deal in native in some case, as with some plugins, it’s not a problem :
Exemple, with a reverb, that latency is like playing with pre-delay parameter 😉

[ianhind]

Native:
Ok for mixing FoH
I would advise against using it for monitoring duties.
Completely unusable for IEM mixes.

SoundGrid:
FoH, monitors, IEM’s are all fine. SoundGrid only ads 0.8ms of latency.

[Jay]

Thank you all for your comments – this has been very helpful. can’t wait to test out the system. As far as not using native for monitoring duties – i can just send the monitors a dry signal w/o going through the processing i assume that way they’re not getting any delay?

[Sebastien]

This way will not add delay to your monitors, you will need maybe to duplicate , or use the new tie lines …

[Author]

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