Delay on voice in headphones when recording

Audacity 3 Help Forum macOS
1

Audacity 2.3.3 Mac OS Mojave 14.6

I can record but when using the headphones there is a nasty delay of nearly a second. And the mic line is not open to the headphones until actually recording so I cannot set rec levels before punching the red button. Help?

2

You can’t listen to the computer when you’re recording. That pathway will always have a transit delay when the sound goes into Audacity turns around and then comes back out again. Yes, it can be pretty serious. You can listen to your sound mixer or the microphone itself if it has provision to do this.

You can click in the recording meters > Start Monitoring. That will light up the recording pathway without actually recording anything.

Are you overdubbing, singing to a rhythm or backing track? There’s instructions how to do that.

https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tutorial_recording_multi_track_overdubs.html

Koz

3

Thanks Koz, no Im just attempting to record voice for narration, all I want to do is record in real time and hear my voice in my headphones without delay.

4

hear my voice in my headphones without delay.

You still can’t listen to the computer. What’s your microphone? The Desperation Method is cup your hand. You voice goes up your hand to that ear.

This is a Gary Owens spoof of “Ye Olde Time Radio Announcer.”

But that’s based on a real thing. Not all studios had performer fold-back in the booth and that’s the only way you could hear yourself past bone conduction.

There’s another Hollywood in there. Yes, he’s sitting in front of an actual RCA 44BX microphone. but the "real microphone is that little black thing stuck on his left lapel.

If you can’t listen to the microphone itself or the sound mixer or the interface…

… then I think that’s full stop.

Koz

5

There are ways to force the computer to deliver good sound to you such as ASIO software, but Audacity doesn’t support ASIO because it’s Pay To Play only.

Koz