Hey does anyone know why Im getting a delay from my computer

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thegreattailz

thegreattailz

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line in? Im trying to record from my guitar, through my effects and into the computer and Im using audacity to record, and every time I try to play along to an mp3 and record it I get a delay and its not a usable signal. Thanks
 
it's called latency.

you also may have to turn off any HD plug ins, or extra audio enhancements your computer turns on at startup.

realtek HD is a prime contributor to latency.

really, all you want running is the soundcard you are using, with no software underneath it, just your recording software. have your recording software identify the soundcard you are plugging into, or, USB device and you should be good to go. also, it may help if you disable any programs that run under "services" using this guide:

http://www.tweakhound.com/windows7/tweaking/index.html

i use this guide, and go by all his recomendations for the "services" settings. windows 7 and xp stock settings use a LOT of resources by having shit running that doesnt need to be right from startup. you can also turn off unnecessary stuff in msconfig .
 
yeti":1qppkoo2 said:
it's called latency.

you also may have to turn off any HD plug ins, or extra audio enhancements your computer turns on at startup.

realtek HD is a prime contributor to latency.

really, all you want running is the soundcard you are using, with no software underneath it, just your recording software. have your recording software identify the soundcard you are plugging into, or, USB device and you should be good to go. also, it may help if you disable any programs that run under "services" using this guide:

http://www.tweakhound.com/windows7/tweaking/index.html

i use this guide, and go by all his recomendations for the "services" settings. windows 7 and xp stock settings use a LOT of resources by having shit running that doesnt need to be right from startup. you can also turn off unnecessary stuff in msconfig .
Click to expand...

+1 That should fix any problems you are having
 
Too great a bitrate/resolution. The above link will discuss optimal rates that don't max out the work flow.
 
Cool thanks ill try that. Any other suggestions cuz im not all that familiar with turning stuff off in win 7. But I do have a sound blaster audio card
 
I'm using Windows 7 and had the same heavy delay issue (like half a second to a full second off) and ran through a ton of different tweaks / adjustments but nothing worked. I eventually broke down and rebuilt the system into a dual booting XP / 7 setup and just booted to XP if I ever wanted to record ideas or jam to mp3s. After researching some other issues a little later I found that the fix was to install the actual audio drivers / audio management suite of the audio on my motherboard instead of just using the Windows 7 native stuff which has bad latency due to conversions. I adjusted the settings in the Realtek HD Audio Manager application (using that to set the line levels, etc) and the latency issues vanished.
 
thegreattailz":2i93p9kf said:
Cool thanks ill try that. Any other suggestions cuz im not all that familiar with turning stuff off in win 7. But I do have a sound blaster audio card
Click to expand...

Buy a dedicated audio interface/sound card. The sound blaster card is not gonna cut it.
 
I have recorded with Audacity through the stock soundcard (crap) and lately through a L6 UX1 (a bit better), no latency whatsoever when I record.

I had to tweak the playback latency though, to make my guitar track sync with the mp3 I was playing to. But that was a quick fix and been awesome ever since.

AND, my PC is a 2005 (!) Pentium 4 on Windows 7......
 
Buy a RME Babyface it is the only sound card I know which is able to use 32 buffer size (lowest latency, chose it in the sound card panel), RME has the best drivers around.

Be sure to use asio drivers!

If your laptop computer has PC Express (like the Lenovo X200, 201, 220, 230) you could also use the quite cheap Echo Indigo IO, but you have to add a di box to use it with guitar.

The fastest sound card for stationary pc is the RME AIO (, even a hair faster than the babyface (add Di) on it....even kills every mac on latency.
Pc express is the fastest and most reliable connection latency wise on a computer, period.....disadvantage: mostly there is a tiny bit of noise pollution/interference which is caused by nearness of other electrical devices.

A lot of blah and wacky drivers around, tuning the system is not that important any more, only do some things when you encounter problems....low latency is imho absolutely necessary for playing via computer using vstis striving for a realistic feel.

Around 3,5ms latency is possible right now using RME drivers.
http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-soundpath.htm
which is a around 4 Feet hearing distance using headphones, playing guitar via vsti

BTW Using the Ipad with the alesis I-Rack and Garage Band is probably above 20 Feet :thumbsdown: useless for me, crazy feeling.

Cheapest:
You could try to use this ASIO for all free driver, it probably will get less latency with on board soundcards, but not on par with RME´s performance. http://download.chip.eu/de/ASIO4ALL_108173.html (the source is reliable)

Kai
 
It's unclear if the OP is using outboard gear for his tone, if so, no new hardware/computer is needed, he just have to figure out how to get input monitoring.
 
Yes, but even then, he plays "through" his computer, most sound cards lack hardware real time monitoring....i.e. the asio driver matters.....

So (cheapest) asio4all asio could be useful

Btw. his computer could be 10 years old, for example with XP and an old RME PCI Card it will beat latency wise every USB and Firewire interface which exists....latency has almost nothing to do with processor power.

Kai
 
Rash":zfgc03e4 said:
Yes, but even then, he plays "through" his computer, most sound cards lack hardware real time monitoring....i.e. the asio driver matters.....

So (cheapest) asio4all asio could be useful

Btw. his computer could be 10 years old, for example with XP and an old RME PCI Card it will beat latency wise every USB and Firewire interface which exists....latency has almost nothing to do with processor power.

Kai
Click to expand...

Yup. My 2005 Pentium 4 even with the built-in soundcard works great, it must have some kind of input monitoring in it maybe, as there's no latency. Using a L6 UX1 also now, no latency there either.
I guess when you start to play through VST amps and stuff it comes into play.
 
If you are not using the ASIO driver as your selected device in your daw, use it. Avoid directsound, MME and anything else. The only exception is wasapi, but it's rarely implemented.

If your card doesn't have ASIO drivers, then download asio4all. Use that as your selected driver in the daw.

In either case, open up your ASIO control panel (native sound card driver or asio4all) and set the buffer size as low as possible. The less samples you set it to, the lower the latency. If you hear clicks/pops, then it is set too low. Set it as low as you can without getting clicks/pops. If 512 samples or lower works then you should be fine without noticing heavy latency.
 
I downloaded asio, but I dont know how to use it. I tried enabling it in audacity and it didnt give me the option. im not sure what a daw is, and all I have is direct sound and mme. I cant use asio with audacity. Maybe theres a better recording program on the pirate bay?
 
When you install asio4all, install it with the advanced options (if it asks) so you get the control panel installed. Then find that in your start menu. There you can set the buffer size which lets you control the latency.

Looks like audacity doesn't support asio. Licensing issues. Try Reaper instead. It supports asio and is cheap in the world of audio programs. $60 buys you the full version, which includes access to all updates for a long time. For recording it is far better than audacity because it handles multitracking. It also supports midi, VSTs, and asio.

For single wave file editing Adobe Auditiion is excellent. But it's expensive at around $300.

Anyway, Reaper should get the job done. The reason asio isn't working is because audacity doesn't support it. It only shows up as a driver option of the application supports it, and of course if the asio driver is installed. Also, in reaper there should be an option to open the asio control panel, which will take you to the above mentioned asio4all panel.
 
The latency seems to be happening straight when I plug my guitar into my computer and not from the software track rendering. Are you sure that the asio will fix this? It might be a hardware issue. I have a soundblaster so it should be decent, i never had an issue like this before.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dl ... OR:US:1123

Like I said, I was going to buy this and hope it fixes my problem. Figure new drivers and hardware should get it, my sb is pretty old I cant even figure out what model it is.
 
I'm quite sure it's a software issue. Non-ASIO drivers (except for WASAPI, which is not yet common) in Windows have high levels of noticeable latency. MME and DirectSound are the biggest culprits. Audacity doesn't support ASIO, so there's no chance of getting good latency with it. Try and ASIO enabled application first (such as Reaper, it's free to try) along with the asio4all driver. Select ASIO as the driver type and adjust the latency down as low as possible.

Depending on what Creative card you have, it may support ASIO already. The X-Fi series does. If that's the case, use the native X-Fi driver in Reaper instead. You'll know what ASIO drivers you have installed once you get an ASIO enabled application on your system and look at the drivers it detects.

I couldn't open the ebay link. But the other option is to buy a known ASIO enabled device. This is a good idea, especially if you get an external (USB or Firewire) device that supports ASIO. If it has mic pre-amps, instrument level inputs, and line level inputs, you'll be all set to do some basic recording from the hardware interface side of things. Focusrite makes some nice ones that are on the lower side of cost along with having good hardware. There are many other options here too.
 
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