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[dmitch77]

I have several questions, probably related.

• In Audio Device settings, one of the Buffering settings is "Hardware". I see three options: Hardware Default, Maximum (power of two), and Maximum. What exactly do these mean? And what is hardware buffering (in this context)? Mine is set to Hardware default. What is that value, and how is it obtained? I'm using CoreAudio, out to a Scarlett 8i6 USB audio interface.
• In the Audio Path display, I see the following for "Delay:": "228.35 ms from converter; 3989.78 ms from input until heard". I'm curious about the second number, almost 4 seconds. Where is that delay coming from? (Back in Device settings, I have Software Buffering set to 100 ms.) 4 seconds seems - and sounds - excessive. This is a MacMini with M2Pro, plenty of RAM.

I'm trying to understand all this stuff in hopes of minimizing the 4-5 second delay I hear when starting playback.

MacOS 15.2, MC 33.0.30.

[bob]

The defaults are provided by the system and vary according to the device.
I don't hear any delay upon track start but up to 6 seconds will buffered as the track plays so the next track is ready to go.
The delay you see in the audio path is mostly the prebuffering set in MC's audio options.

[dmitch77]

The defaults are provided by the system and vary according to the device.

What do "Maximum" and "Maximum (power of 2)" mean?

Do you know where the "hardware buffering" is done? Since MC has a setting for it, I presume that MC has some control over it. Is it out in the audio interface? Somewhere in the computer? How does MC make changes to it?

Anyway, my problem is that I've had this same computer and audio interface for over a year and never had a noticeable delay on startup. Sometime in the last few months, some combination of OS update, MC update, and inadvertent changing of settings on my part induced a noticeable and pesky startup delay. Do you have any suggestions for tracking that delay down and eliminating it?

Thanks!

[dmitch77]

I think I tracked this down to something related to the "Play local file if one that matches Library Server file is found" option. Some background:

The machine on which the 4+ second delay is heard is a client, which loads a library from a server elsewhere on my home net. The media files are on an external disk on the server machine. Sometimes, that external disk is also mounted as an external disk on the client machine. When it is mounted on the client machine, the file names for individual media files are identical on the client and the server.

When the "Play local file if one that matches Library Server file is found" option is true, then when a file is played on the client, it causes the server's media disk to mount locally and plays the file from there. The first time this happens, there is a delay of 6 to 8 seconds. Subsequently - after the server's media disk is already mounted - there is a 3-4 second delay when starting. The difference, 3 to 4 seconds, is the time it takes to mount to remote media disk as a local volume.

The surprising thing is what happens when I turn off "Play local file if one that matches Library Server file is found". In that case, when playing a song, the client still causes the server's media disk to mount locally. This takes 4 or 5 seconds. Subsequent plays occur without delay.

The problem is, with the "Play local file if one that matches Library Server file is found" option disabled, MC is still causing the server's media disk to mount locally the first time I play something, and playback is delayed until the mount happens. I don't think this should be happening. Is there any way to avoid this behavior?