Guitar sound delay

[martiran]

Hi everyone, I have installed Rocksmith on the new PC and I experience substantial delay between the actual guitar strokes and the guitar sound coming from the PC. Any ideas what can cause an issue and what could be a solution?

[Cataleya22 (⁠ᵔ⁠ᴥ⁠ᵔ)]

Depending on your setup there can be a few things to check. If you use wireless speakers or headset, that will create delay (latency or lag) for sure. So its better to use wired speakers, and wired headset without surround and other enhancements on.

in game you can align sound and screen matching each other. The latter being if the screen is showing the chords quicker or slower then the sound is when you hit the string.
The most common lag can be solved by changing the latency buffer. You can do that in game and through the Rocksmith.ini in the main directory.

In game, click on Tools, then on Options, then Audio Engine Settings, where you can change the number 1 to 4 and see if that already helps out. You might have to restart to let it take to effect. Default might be 4, I'm mostly using 2. You go out of the settings using ESC button.

If the screen isn't matching you can change that also in the Options, then Visual Settings, and Display Lag Settings ( there you see a moving bar with sound, find the right setting there for your setup. Depending on your pc, you can disable the screen effects to have less memory used.

If above isnt working enough there's two settings in the Rocksmith.ini to experiment with. Here's my settings working for me;

MaxOutputBufferSize=0
Win32UltraLowLatencyMode=1

he Win32 option can be 0 for Off and 1 for On. If it was 0, try changing that first and start the game to see if that works for you.
If not, the Buffer size can be changed in increments of 32, like 32, 64, 96, and so on.
That is in most cases only needed for having different hardware and mods in use. Here also restart is needed. The sound can be really distorted or choppy when a wrong setting is chosen.

Hope that helps

[martiran]

Originally posted by Cataleya22 (⁠ᵔ⁠ᴥ⁠ᵔ):

Depending on your setup there can be a few things to check. If you use wireless speakers or headset, that will create delay (latency or lag) for sure. So its better to use wired speakers, and wired headset without surround and other enhancements on.

in game you can align sound and screen matching each other. The latter being if the screen is showing the chords quicker or slower then the sound is when you hit the string.
The most common lag can be solved by changing the latency buffer. You can do that in game and through the Rocksmith.ini in the main directory.

In game, click on Tools, then on Options, then Audio Engine Settings, where you can change the number 1 to 4 and see if that already helps out. You might have to restart to let it take to effect. Default might be 4, I'm mostly using 2. You go out of the settings using ESC button.

If the screen isn't matching you can change that also in the Options, then Visual Settings, and Display Lag Settings ( there you see a moving bar with sound, find the right setting there for your setup. Depending on your pc, you can disable the screen effects to have less memory used.

If above isnt working enough there's two settings in the Rocksmith.ini to experiment with. Here's my settings working for me;

MaxOutputBufferSize=0
Win32UltraLowLatencyMode=1

he Win32 option can be 0 for Off and 1 for On. If it was 0, try changing that first and start the game to see if that works for you.
If not, the Buffer size can be changed in increments of 32, like 32, 64, 96, and so on.
That is in most cases only needed for having different hardware and mods in use. Here also restart is needed. The sound can be really distorted or choppy when a wrong setting is chosen.

Hope that helps

So far no luck. The pest setting is LatencyBuffer=2 (aka Audio Engine Settings), MaxOutputBufferSize=0, Win32UltraLowLatencyMode=1. The delay is shorter now but still I can hear it. On Audio Engine 1 sound gets glitchy for me.

I use integrated speakers or wired headphones.

I am curious if it could happen on the level of USB/Cable?...

[Cataleya22 (⁠ᵔ⁠ᴥ⁠ᵔ)]

The official RT cable should be working fine, unless you use something different. You haven't tried the MaxOutputBufferSize yet?

[martiran]

Originally posted by Cataleya22 (⁠ᵔ⁠ᴥ⁠ᵔ):

The official RT cable should be working fine, unless you use something different. You haven't tried the MaxOutputBufferSize yet?

Anything but 0 result in no sound at all for me.

Yes, I still carry around the cable with me, which I got back in 2014 with the game disc :)

[martiran]

Originally posted by M4st0d0n:

There's a tool to investigate if a system is able to do low latency audio properly, that I used on Win10. If one of the meters goes in the red, check the message displayed, it could help pinpoint if a driver is lagging for example.
https://resplendence.com/latencymon

You could also try the ASIO route and use RS_ASIO to mod Rocksmith and use it with a proper interface. https://github.com/mdias/rs_asio
There's also a proper option to set buffer with ASIO that you wont have on win drivers soundcard that would help you work with the minimal latency.

If all fails, maybe try your luck with other softwares like guitar pro or tonelib jam. They're still actively developped and supported.

Thanks for the tip. It's all good.

I really tend to believe it happens on the level of USB/Cable. I am especially suspicious given that UbiSoft troubleshooting suggest to switch to USB 2.0. https://www.ubisoft.com/en-gb/help/purchases-and-rewards/article/installing-the-real-tone-cable-driver-for-rocksmith-games-on-pc/000063908

Well guess what, I don't have USB 2.0

[Cataleya22 (⁠ᵔ⁠ᴥ⁠ᵔ)]

Originally posted by martiran:

Thanks for the tip. It's all good.

I really tend to believe it happens on the level of USB/Cable. I am especially suspicious given that UbiSoft troubleshooting suggest to switch to USB 2.0. https://www.ubisoft.com/en-gb/help/purchases-and-rewards/article/installing-the-real-tone-cable-driver-for-rocksmith-games-on-pc/000063908

Well guess what, I don't have USB 2.0 :rufusscared:

That's not so weird, the game is from 2014, developing stopped after some years and after that the support mostly too. The site articles are mostly from that same era. They are not updated.
That people have newer pc's and different hardware and software is part of the issues that comes up.
Although I never had issues with using usb 3.0 though. It might be more an issue when connecting through an usb hub though. The advice there is to have it at least separately powered.
To add to that, I don't think the current support registers the most common problems and their solutions either. Good or bad, it's their choice, so It's mostly the community that is the collective memory now.

[martiran]

Originally posted by Cataleya22 (⁠ᵔ⁠ᴥ⁠ᵔ):

That's not so weird, the game is from 2014, developing stopped after some years and after that the support mostly too. The site articles are mostly from that same era. They are not updated.
That people have newer pc's and different hardware and software is part of the issues that comes up.
Although I never had issues with using usb 3.0 though. It might be more an issue when connecting through an usb hub though. The advice there is to have it at least separately powered.
To add to that, I don't think the current support registers the most common problems and their solutions either. Good or bad, it's their choice, so It's mostly the community that is the collective memory now.

I tried to play with the different USB ports. I am still not sure it thet's the issue or the audio drivers issue, or the Rocksmith issue but seems I'm out of luck anyway - it doesn't seem like I can solve it at the moment.

[Cataleya22 (⁠ᵔ⁠ᴥ⁠ᵔ)]

The only thing that comes to mind is trying to test on a different pc, either from yourself or a friend. Together with the cable. If it runs better, you might check for the difference in setup. If no change, you can also order a new cable on Amazon for instance to test, and if the issue persists with the new cable you can send it back for refund. If it works better with the new cable you have your answer.
Also the cable has on one end a little breakaway part. You might check this to be properly attached, or maybe clean it a bit.

[martiran]

Originally posted by thejohnnewton:

In that case it could just be the inherent latency in RS and your system. Even on a good PC system there is going to be some latency with 2014. Some people are more sensitive to it than others. MacOS will be a little better with 2014 as their sound sub system is a little faster than Windows but I'd guess you're not willing to change platforms for a small improvement to latency. Good news if you ever try RS Plus. PC using an interface that supports ASIO has fantastic performance with Plus.

I am surprised because I played RS 2014 on at least 3 PCs before and never had such issue. So I blame USB 3.0, Win11 or just the cable got worn out or something.

RS+ is definitely not for me, almost no songs that I would play for a subscription - no, thank you very much.

[Cataleya22 (⁠ᵔ⁠ᴥ⁠ᵔ)]

Originally posted by martiran:

Originally posted by thejohnnewton:

In that case it could just be the inherent latency in RS and your system. Even on a good PC system there is going to be some latency with 2014. Some people are more sensitive to it than others. MacOS will be a little better with 2014 as their sound sub system is a little faster than Windows but I'd guess you're not willing to change platforms for a small improvement to latency. Good news if you ever try RS Plus. PC using an interface that supports ASIO has fantastic performance with Plus.

I am surprised because I played RS 2014 on at least 3 PCs before and never had such issue. So I blame USB 3.0, Win11 or just the cable got worn out or something.

RS+ is definitely not for me, almost no songs that I would play for a subscription - no, thank you very much.

Well I have it running on three different systems, one of being windows 11, without problems, also on usb 3 as previous said I believe. My old cable still works, but nevertheless I ordered a second cable just to have as spare and ease to not having to change cables to much. There's always wear and tear possible. I already gave some options to try. If this problem occurs on all your pc setups it might well be the cable.

If you have the possibility to order a new cable from Amazon, why not go for it. You can test it, and still be able to return it to them if it didn't do the trick. They have a generous return system for 2 weeks until a month even.
And if it works fine, it's solved. It's at least one thing to rule out the easier way?

[martiran]

Originally posted by thejohnnewton:

Oh so you are comparing to prior installs you've had on other windows machines. I didn't realize that. It wouldn't be usb 3.0 or the cable wearing out. Those would either work or not. it's got to be something in the Win11 sound system or some unneeded audio processing that is enabled. As I've never run Windows 11 I couldn't guess specifically what.

That gave me some ideas - I played with the bit rate and sample rates as in here https://www.ubisoft.com/en-au/help/connectivity-and-performance/article/preventing-audio-latency-when-playing-rocksmith-pc/00006349
And with other features of the output device.

Eventually it still didn't help, but it was a decent shot. Probably it is something that is happening in depth of Win11

[Painpal]

Originally posted by martiran:

Hi everyone, I have installed Rocksmith on the new PC and I experience substantial delay between the actual guitar strokes and the guitar sound coming from the PC. Any ideas what can cause an issue and what could be a solution?

Not sure if you have ever used this mod : (Google this name) "The Rocksmith Mods that nobody asked for"

This has a ton of tweaks that help with getting Rocksmith to work for you.

Make sure to read all the way to the bottom of the page for the full manual.