Hi, Can any condenser mic get zero latency self monitoring with Audacity? I am planning to buy the Audio Technica AT2020 USB and do some self monitoring in it. Thanks alot!
In most cases, if the mic has a headphone socket built into it, then it can do “zero latency monitoring”.
Mics that have this ability usually say so clearly in their advertising.
Note that if they just say “low latency monitoring” then they probably use ASIO to achieve the low latency, which isn’t supported by the release builds of Audacity. However, on Linux, low latency should be achievable with any USB mic if you use Jack Audio System. “Zero latency monitoring” can only be achieved if the hardware supports it - that is, there is a hard wired signal path from the mic to the headphone socket.
Note all three of the devices I certified for overdubbing/sound-on-sound plug the headphones into the device not the computer exactly because of this problem.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tutorial_recording_multi_track_overdubs.html
Koz
What is ASIO? what is Jack Audio System, Im Using Ubuntu not sure if I can achieve that, too confusing I have 0 ideas about this lol
ASIO is a sound system created by Steinberg. It stands for “Advanced Sound In Out”. It is primarily for Windows, though I think there is also a Mac version. It provides much lower latency than the standard Windows sound system and more signal routing possibilities. It is not available for lInux and it is licensed under terms that are incompatible with the GPL open source license.
Jack Audacity System is an advanced audio system, primarily for Linux, though it can also be used on Windows and Mac OS X. It provides very low latency (as good as or better than ASIO) and has very flexible signal routing built in. It is installed by default on a few Linux distributions that are designed specifically for media production (such as KXStudio, Ubuntu studio, AV Linux and others). For other Linux distributions, Jack Audio System is optional.
Jack can be a bit tricky to set up (it’s an “advanced” option after all), but is highly recommended for serious audio work. It is not required by Audacity, but Audacity can use Jack, and take advantage of the low latency (useful for monitoring USB microphones that don’t support zero latency monitoring) and the advanced signal routing capabilities (useful for using real time effects and/or recording from other audio applications).
All that happens when you depend on the computer to manage the sound. If you let the hardware do it, the hardware (the USB converter in the illustration and example) grabs the sound before the computer has a chance to chew on it and delay it. And it’s built in. No special considerations.
Also see:
Koz
The AT220 USB+ appears to have the monitoring built-in. They have headphone volume and mix controls similar to the G-Track.
Koz