super bad latency to headphones

[mentalpygmie]

I am experiencing really bad latency when monitoring while playing a new track. How do I stop this. There is about 1/4 second delay back into the headphones making it close to impossible to listen to what I am recording when laying down new tracks. My computer is fairly current, 2.8Mhz 512ram lots of gigs of storage too. I was going direct into mic on my computer sound card(not going through mapper)originally and pretty bad. Turned the rate down to 16 bit still bad. read that going through the usb could negate this and bought a Behringer 202 usb port using it as the sound card. Problem still as bad. Is there something I am missing that may negate this situation. I really want to start doing some serious recording, but the delay to headphones is so bad it is really hard to do. HELP!!! thank you very much!!

[kozikowski]

The words are escaping my lips, "Stop using a computer instead of a field recorder which doesn't do that."

Yes you have a rock-crusher machine with sun-kissed highlights, but how much of that horsepower is devoted to the audio system? I'm betting not much. Nobody goes out to buy a computer to listen to Doom III.

Latency happens when the computer thinks it OK to take its time processing the bitstream. Generally, there's very little you can do about it.

USB services add to the problem because they have the USB overhead to contend with even before the sound services can get their hands on the data. Even worse if you're listening to a USB thing while you're recording through one. I'm guessin' you want to listen to the guitar track while you record the companion drum set. I know people who do that, but I don't know how. I also know people posting on here with the same problem you have. I suspect that's more normal.

Here. Here's the guy that's performing live and I think is doing what you want to do. He has other problems, but sound sync doesn't seem to be one of them.

http://audacityteam.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=930

Koz

[alatham]

mentalpygmie,

Are you monitoring through your sound card driver software? Or do you have "Software Playthrough" selected in Audacity's Edit -> Preferences -> Audio I/O menu?

If you're not sure about that, can you monitor the signal even when Audacity is not yet open?

Direct monitoring through your sound card drivers is vastly superior to the software method. I'm not sure how to set this up as it's specific to each driver (generally). The software that came with your Behringer UCA202 is what you want to work with.

[mentalpygmie]

Thanks, so if I uncheck "software playthrough"in Audacity preferences and set up the Behringer as both input and output driver I will still be able to monitor my new track while laying it over the previous ones...I hope I am reading into that correctly? I may cut down on the latency by a lot? again hope I am understanding correctly..if so i will have to grab the mic, guitar, and drum machine and give it another go tomorrow.

[alatham]

Yes, that's correct. You'll cut down on the latency enormously.

[mentalpygmie]

Thank you alatham..it works like a charm and NO detectable latency whatsoever!! On to my next deal though..looks like I am going to have to buy a preamp being there is none in the behringer unit. My drum machine worked great pluged straight into the interface, but I could not get any discernable vocal without boosting the signal...I mean ZERO. Being I do not have a mic preamp I (very carefully)used the lineout of my practice amp to boost the signal just to check it out and it worked fine...albeit noisy as sin! I am thinking of getting a ART MP preamp to boost the mic, so as soon as i do that I should be in business...although come to think of it a Behringer V-amp 2 would be nice for the guitar as well...so many toys to buy so little time. thanks again for your help!!

[kozikowski]

<<<ART MP preamp>>>

That robust, warm tube sound. Do you have any other vacuum tube equipment? Have you priced replacement tubes? Who is still making 12AX7s?

You know you can't drop these things, right, they're glass and they're in friction sockets? They take a while to warm up after you turn them on, and they age, lose gain, and get microphonic and noisy.

Don't take the case apart. The operating voltage of a 12AX7 is +250V, over twice the voltage coming out of your wall socket. If you leave it on for a while, I bet it gets seriously warm to the touch, which could impact the rest of the solid-state amplifiers in there. Oh, yes, the advertising keeps pushing the 70dB microphone gain number (quite good actually), and the presence of the tube, but I can't find the noise specification and no 12AX7 I ever met would do that kind of amplification, so most of the heavy lifting is handled by solid state electronics and the tube is in there just for the slight distortion.

If you leave it in the garage for a year, the tube will get gassy and start to distort when you finally do use it again.

Vacuum tubes aren't just amplifiers, they're pets. They have to be loved, watered, walked......

Koz

[mentalpygmie]

Hmmm...I wasnt aware of all of those minuses...No, the rest of my equipment is indeed solid state. I have read nothing but good reviews on line for them and they are cheap as heck. Any solid state models that you could suggest that are a little more robust and quiet that I may want to look at? While I have your attention, is it normal that I could use my mic through the mic port on the back of the computer with at least minimal results(very low volume)but through the usb interface absolutely no volume with out amplification? It is a shure 8800 dynamic mic(POS) not a condensor or high end. thanks for your help!

[kozikowski]

<<<I have read nothing but good reviews on line for them and they are cheap as heck.>>>

It's possible to design vacuum tube circuitry that is well behaved and stable, but the "cheap as heck" part doesn't give me a good feeling. You can certainly just use it until it starts doing funny things, throw the whole thing away.

<<<Any solid state models that you could suggest that are a little more robust and quiet that I may want to look at?>>>

The stuff I use tends to be part of larger audio mixers, not a separate MicPre.MicPres are a little magic. Few people make middle of the road ones. They're either dirt cheap or thousands.

<<<through the usb interface absolutely no volume>>>

Does the USB interface claim to have a microphone input?

I can't find that microphone.... What is it, again? 8800?

Koz

[mentalpygmie]

Thanks Koz, I went ahead and purchased the ART tube MP and it turns out to be more than I hoped for. Great vocal warmth, even makes the guitar sound better. It definitely took care of my vocal level problem as well as I get a very strong signal now with very little noise. I researched the tubes and they can be had for between 9-12 dollars and are readilly available so thats not so bad. Next toy is the Behringer V-amp2 guitar amp modeler very cheap but sounds great, definitely enough for what I am doing. Thanks for your input

Glenn