Not your typical latency question

[Tweaked]

Ok, I have done some searching, but have not found my specific question. All the latency questions I have seen involve the latency between two different tracks. For instance, you record one track and then play it back while recording a different track. This however is not my question. My question is how can I listen real time to the track I am recording with absolutely no delay between when I play something on my guitar, and when It comes out my speakers. I do not have, nor wish to use headphones plugged into my guitar pedal for monitoring. Please help me with this.

[steve]

How are you recording the guitar?

[Tweaked]

I am using the Vox Tonelab ST with USB interface.

[kozikowski]

<<<USB interface.>>>

I think you're pretty much out of luck. If you were on a computer with an analog Line-In, there's a possibility you could configure the Windows Control Panels to feed the input sound immediately out the headphone port for monitoring. That, the External Mixer, and the composite microphone are the ways to get near-zero delay.

Not so the USB. Because the sound is digital, the computer is required to think about it 100% of the time. The playback (or foldback) will always be late by one computer worth of delay.

It's not written in stone that every computer can do this. Most can't. The forum is full of people experiencing one or more of the delays that computers have. Audacity 1.3 can "tune out" one of the delays -- classic latency. You can adjust how far ahead or behind the hard drive plays your old track so you can play to yourself. You can not adjust the real-time foldback delay other than change the hardware.

Koz

[Tweaked]

That's unfortunate. I used to have a mac (hate them) that could do that using garage band. It was a simple setting within Garage band that allowed it.

[kozikowski]

Those hateful Macs have fixed hardware so the software can reliably do almost whatever it needs to. Did it do that with USB? That's surprising. They have the same USB problems that PCs do.

Koz

[steve]

I do not have, nor wish to use headphones plugged into my guitar pedal for monitoring.

That's a shame. The headphone socket is provided specifically to deal with this problem - it's the only way to get zero latency from a USB device.
However, if you prefer I think you can connect the audio output from the Vox Tonelab ST to an amp rather than headphones (as the recording is via USB you don't need to worry about overspill into microphones because you aren't using any).

It was a simple setting within Garage band that allowed it.

As with Audacity Garage Band has a setting to adjust latency between tracks.

[Tweaked]

I do not have, nor wish to use headphones plugged into my guitar pedal for monitoring.

That's a shame. The headphone socket is provided specifically to deal with this problem - it's the only way to get zero latency from a USB device.
However, if you prefer I think you can connect the audio output from the Vox Tonelab ST to an amp rather than headphones (as the recording is via USB you don't need to worry about overspill into microphones because you aren't using any).

It was a simple setting within Garage band that allowed it.

As with Audacity Garage Band has a setting to adjust latency between tracks.

I suppose if that's the only way, then I'll have to. I do have an amp, but my amp I leave it at the church so I don't have to lug it around every Sunday morning. The reason I did not want to use headphones is two fold. One I don't have any good ones for reference listening, the other reason, is that I wanted to hear the tone of my guitar exactly as it will be on the recording coming out of my Mackie's.

[steve]

How are your Mackie's connected to the computer?
Can you route the direct out from the Tonelab to your Mackies?

[kozikowski]

We need to stop throwing around the term "Latency" as if it were a single item. The delay between the playback track and the recorded track is settable with the 'latency' control within Audacity and there have been postings on how to reduce that error to smallest possible. That's the ability to play to yourself with perfect beat matching. Many other audio programs have that as well. That's a juggling act between the record and playback services on the hard drive. Entirely under software control.

That's different from the ability to hear yourself in real time. That's much more serious and generally only changed with application of credit card, checkbook, and screwdriver. The delay is generally burned into the computer/hardware.

This is where the external mixing desk comes in. You want to listen to yourself before the computer gets the sound, and the original tracks after the computer provides the playback.

Some sound cards will allow you to do this mix while the signal is still analog and you don't need the mixing desk, but USB services will always have slight delay. The signal has to become USB and then has to become sound again -- slight delay each step -- much worse if the audio program has to manage it. On some machines Audacity provides "Software Playthrough" where Audacity manages the real time performance. You can drive to Tesco for a coffee waiting for the delay.

Koz