SQ5+ Dante Latency

SQ SQ General Discussions
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Hello everyone,

I know this topic has already been discussed in the past, but I’m currently looking for the most straightforward and compact solution to reduce the latency when processing some plug-ins in real time within a Cubase session (live guitar and bass sounds).

After a lot of testing and research, the only native solution I’ve found that seems capable of providing low latency would be to use an RME Digiface Dante together with an SQ Dante card.

Based on what I’ve read so far, this setup should allow me to go from my current 10 ms round-trip latency via USB (with a buffer size of 128 samples) down to around 4–5 ms. Does anyone have experience with similar setups?

When switching from 96 kHz to 48 kHz, I measured approximately 5 ms of additional latency via USB, presumably due to sample rate conversion (SRC). Would the same thing happen with the Digiface, or would the increase in latency be less significant?

ps: Waves + Server is not an option

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I would think 128 samples at 48k would take twice as long as 128 samples at 96k.

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Your processing latency at 96khz will be half of the latency at 48khz. This is because the frame size is now half as long. Ideally you would have your DAW at 96khz to take advantage of this.

the Digiface Dante is a good solution, that is what I use. If you don’t need Dante for other things then a MADI card for the SQ and a madiface etc. would probably be even lower latency, but maybe only by a couple of ms.

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I am using SQ5+ with Dante and Cubase as part of a mobile rig. My configuration uses an RME AoX-D Dante PCIe card in a Sonnet Echo II DV T5 Thunderbolt 5 enclosure.

This is a pricey solution (over $3K) but absolutely rock solid with “near zero” latency, perhaps down to the fact that I typically rig it to a MacBook with TB5. In the second PCIe slot I have an NVME SSD for recording so I don’t need to touch my laptop HDD.

I use a couple of these RME cards in the studio and I think it is the probably the best Dante PCIe card on the market feature wise and with RME’s extremely reliable drivers.

Just giving you another potential solution since it appears that you are wanting the ultimate in speed and latency mitigation (as do I).

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