I am new to the recording world. when I record with my headphones on, there is a delay from what I say/sing to what I hear in my headphones. a friend of mine tried adjusting the latency numbers but it did not work - maybe he was putting in the wrong numbers? please help
Please see this article in the manual: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Latency_Test
In short, the latency correction in Audacity is for use in overdubbing. What you are hearing is the time it takes the computer to process the signal from your microphone, send it to Audacity, then for Audacity to send it back to the operating system, then for the operating system to convert it back to analog and into your headphones. There is no way to get rid of this delay.
The solution is to not use the computer for monitoring. Get yourself a mixer or some other device that amplifies the microphone signal and sends that signal to your headphone before the signal gets to the computer.
This tutorial is about overdubbing, but the devices described will allow you to hear yourself without the delay.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Tutorial_-_Recording_Multi-track_Overdubs
– Bill
Thank you for your quick response Bill. Forgive me in advance for not knowing terminology well, as I said I’m still learning, so I hope I can explain everything appropriately. So, I guess you are saying that there is no way to hear myself without a delay in my headphones as I am recording my vocals unless I use additional equipment, is that correct? A friend of mine fixed the problem using the software that came with my interface. I use a line6 interface with the software that came with it which is called Pod Farm - ToneDirect Monitoring. This has fixed the problem, but I just wanted to know if there was an adjustment in Audacity we could do that would allow me not to get the delay without using this software. Just wondering if there was an Audio to Buffer number and Latency Correction number that would be the magic numbers to get rid of the delay, but I see that the answer is no without using something in addtion to such as the Line6 software that I have, which seems to work well, so that is fine. I dont’ have a problem when recording with Garageband - no delay with garageband. why is that? thank you
I’m not familiar with the Line 6 products so can’t comment there. If it has fixed the problem then good.
Again, there are no adjustments in Audacity that will allow you to use the computer for monitoring your input without delay.
I don’t know how GarageBand does it, but that’s an Apple program so it may have access to system resources that “normal” third party programs don’t have.
– Bill