Audacity and latency

[Stormalv]

Audacity is such a great program, especially considering it's free, it's got all the same kinds of cool stuff you have with the pro programs, and sometimes even more. But what it seems to lack is the most fundamental and most important thing in a sound program, priority for the sound card.

My sound card should have absolutely no hearable latency (the equivalent of walking 1 meter further away from a sound source, that little "delay"), but when I record with Audacity, I always have to make the tracks tight with the other tracks manually, because they're always a bit too late.

Even a friend of mine has a very old crappy computer, with just the basic sound card, but he uses Cakewalk, and he doesn't get latency. The program fix it. Or it gives the sound card priority enough, so that latency doesn't happen, I don't know... This is what I've always missed in Audacity.

[steve]

Audacity does not, and in my opinion should not mess with process priorities. People use Audacity on all sorts of computers for all sorts of purposes, not just on dedicated audio/music machines. How a person wants to optimise their computer should be up to them, and not dictated by software vendors.

Having said that, latency should not be a problem when using Audacity. Have you tried setting up the Latency Correction?
http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... tency_Test

[kozikowski]

If your sound card has the ability to hardware manage the speaker and audio inputs, then you can set the Windows Control Panels to give you little or no delay. If Windows management or Audacity has to do it in software, then you're going to get delay as the computer thinks about it.

There doesn't seem to be a tutorial on this. Set Audacity to Play tracks while recording new ones. Turn off all the playthrough options if you have any.

In Windows Control Panel, open up the Play or Output slider for your input device. That should take care of your live delays. That may still not take care of Latency. That's what happens when you record something in perfect time, but it doesn't end up that way in the recording. Audacity 1.3.12 has sliders in Preferences to adjust that one. That one is under Audacity control.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... tency_Test

The down side of this test is the need for Line-In. Note that the pink connection isn't used. Most Windows laptops only have pink and green, no blue Line-In.

Koz

[Stormalv]

Hmmm, I must admit that I am a bit confused.

Okay, to clarify some things. I don't use the line-in at my computer's sound card, I use an external sound card, that I plug to my computer with USB 2. This one if someone is curious: http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/ ... kontrol-1/

I don't get any live latency when, for example, I plug an instrument into the sound card, and my headphones into the sound card, and use them as a monitor. Then I hear everything live. But when I record, I get latency...

Hmmm, that part about the click track seemed a bit smart. If I understood it correctly, if I make a click track, then record the playback of it with my microphone, I can see exactly how much latency I get? And then there is a function in Audacity which automatically corrects the tracks that long back, every time I record?

[steve]

I can see exactly how much latency I get? And then there is a function in Audacity which automatically corrects the tracks that long back, every time I record?

That's about the size of it - and "latency" should cease to be a problem.
Most multi-track audio programs use similar tricks, though it is often done invisibly behind the scenes.

[kozikowski]

<<<And then there is a function in Audacity which automatically corrects the tracks that long back, every time I record?>>>

I don't know how automatic it is. Don't you still have to put the appropriate numbers in the boxes for latency adjust manually? The tests just tell you what numbers to use.

Koz

[steve]

Don't you still have to put the appropriate numbers in the boxes for latency adjust manually?

Yes that's right. The method is covered pretty well in the article. http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... tency_Test
Once it's been set up, then it's automatic assuming that you don't change the recording settings.
Switching from recording mono to stereo should make no difference, but switching to different "Quality" settings may make a difference, and switching to a different recording device will make a difference.

[Stormalv]

Thanks, I think I understand now!