Software play through delay.

[markp1313]

I am trying to use the software so I can listen as I record. There is a Software play through feature in in options. But it has a 1/2 second delay between speaking into the mike and hearing it out the speakers.

My question is why?

System specs.
Intel dual core 3.4 ghz processor. 4 gb DDR2. Nvidia motherboard with integrated sound.

1. Is this normal?
2. Is my system Junk?
3. Will a audio card help, and if so what recommendations?
I have pci slots.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone might give a newbie.

[kozikowski]

1. Yes.
2. No.
3. Yes. You can't force many PCs into audio production because of this exact problem. Any time the computer has to stop and think about the music, it becomes late. If the computer is insanely busy or choked for resources, it could be very late.

There is a provision of forcing your internal sound card to feed your own audio back to you by selecting Line-In on the playback side, but then playback of the original work (music track) becomes a problem.

The only certain way to deal with this is an external USB (or FireWire) mixer that supports "fold-back" and management of the sound pathways. It doesn't have to be particularly big, either. This little thing (as an example) will do it.

http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... =20#p81588

The hero control is the knob that fades between the computer rhythm track playback and the live voice. That gives you the match-up tools. Audacity 1.3 latency delay controls will take care of everything else.

Koz

[markp1313]

Thank you very much for your help.
The information was very useful and saved
me money and hours and hours of time.