Using DAW for real time live performance feasible?

[RockMaster]

I'm playing with the idea of using my DAW (Bitwig with JACK) for effects during live performance, but I'm not sure how big of a problem latency would be.

I have a 24 channel mixer on order, Soundcraft Ui24R that would be serving as an audio interface and mixer. My laptop is pretty beefy - Intel 10th gen Xeon, 64 GB RAM 3200Mhz. My system is optimized, passing all the real time performance checks.

I'd be looking at running at least a guitar modeler (Neural DSP, Helix Native) and vocal harmonizer plugin (like Antares Harmony Engine) at the same time, maybe some other stuff. The fact that most of these plugins run with Wine/yabridge complicates things further performance-wise I guess.

Any ideas if this could be manageable or should I just go for a bunch of dedicated hardware floor units instead?

[Kott]

If the bridged plugin crash during performance, then the latency would be the least problem

[RockMaster]

If the bridged plugin crash during performance, then the latency would be the least problem

Indeed that could be an issue. Although I've been playing my electric guitar with these bridged plugins for quite a while and I don't remember having a crash even once. Of course, in real scenario the load is greater, so a real consideration.

[Kott]

I'd consider a quick crash recovery scenario or a reserve setup for such case

[RockMaster]

I'd consider a quick crash recovery scenario or a reserve setup for such case

Well, Bitwig can sandbox each plugin separately, so if it crashes it shouldn't affect the rest, I think. I don't remember the DAW itself crashing though, although I guess in theory it's still possible.

[eikakot]

With these hw specs you should be fine, so main concern I think can be wine stuff. You need to be prepared, it will crash at the worst time. Set up a simple button in bitwig which restarts plugins and map that to some midi button or prepare some other strategies for handling that

[RockMaster]

With these hw specs you should be fine, so main concern I think can be wine stuff. You need to be prepared, it will crash at the worst time. Set up a simple button in bitwig which restarts plugins and map that to some midi button or prepare some other strategies for handling that

Yep, all things considered a setup like that would be quite fragile. I just watched a video where the midi controller that I was considering buying failed, and that's Morningstar MC8, supposedly the best midi controller on the planet. I'm beginning to understand why seasoned pros rely mostly on dedicated hardware and have two of everything on hand.

[bluzee]

Windows native is not stable enough to use in a live situation. I would not even think about windows plugins in a wine situation.

I use Guitarix live and have never had an issue, but I'm not performing in front of thousands of fans where a crash would be the end of the world either.