Audacity Forum

I have read that if I want too have low latency recording, I need an ASIO supported soundcard. . Mine doesn't, however, I downloaded asio4all and I'm not sure it did anything, as the tracks still lag behind each other when I record. Could anyone explain how to set this up for audacity? Does DirectSound have anything to do with my problem?

Audacity does not support ASIO due to licensing restrictions, however to get round this, Audacity implements "latency correction". In Audacity 1.2.6, this is fully automatic, and usually does a pretty reasonable job, though some sound cards seem to work a lot better at some sample rates than at others, so it is worth setting the default sample rate to different settings to see which works best. You can set the default sample rate in "Edit > Preferences > Quality".

In Audacity 1.3.x, there is also manual adjustment (in the "Audio I/O" tab of the preferences. If you do a forum search for "latency correction" there are a couple of detailed descriptions of how to set that up in Audacity 1.3.x.

thanks for the reply.

i have tried multiple samples, but still cannot get this problem solved.

i have a track i am recording vocals over, and audacity seems to work great for the first 15 or so seconds and then the sync will become off. i really dont think it's my soundcard, as it is new. i have tried closing down other applications as well. anyone know why this would happen? any information would help. thanks.

If the sync is drifting (as opposed to being a consistent amount out all the time), then I'm afraid it is a sound card issue.
This can usually be resolved, or at least improved a lot, by using a different sample rate for your recording.

To set the default sample rate, go to the Edit menu and select Preferences. In the Quality tab, select either 44100 or 48000 Hz (if you are currently using one of those, try the other).