kozikowski wrote:When you play your keyboard, the computer is the sole sound source and minor delays are easy to ignore. When you play the guitar, it makes noise itself and the difference between that and the computer playthrough are right in your face.
This sounds correct, assuming plugging in the cable to the keyboard shuts off its playback. This would normally be the case unless the keyboard has a separate line-out or aux out to connect to the computer.
kozikowski wrote:Recording Latency, hearing the live instrument coming back typically doesn't work on most computers -- the computer sound is always late.
Let's call it "Playthrough latency" or your favourite, "delay".
. Some people call the problem with aligning overdubbed tracks "Recording latency" to distinguish it from "Playthrough latency":
http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Glossary#latency .
"Audio to buffer" in the Audacity Recording Preferences does not affect "Playthrough latency". It should affect it, but Audacity ignores the audio to buffer setting when software playthrough is enabled and instead uses a very unambitious value on Windows.
steve wrote:
I've heard that there can be a small delay on Windows 7, even when things are set up correctly, but I'm not a Win 7 user so I'm not sure why this is or if the system can be tweaked to minimise this delay.
Without compiling Audacity with ASIO support or buying an external recording interface you can plug your headphones into, there are only two Windows ways to hear what you are recording.
- Go to the Playback side of the Windows control panel for sound, and see if you can unmute the input you are recording. This is called "hardware playthrough" and is available on most XP Desktops and some laptops, but almost never available on Windows Vista or 7. Even when available, this option doesn't always produce audio. If it works, it should have little delay.
- Go to the Recording tab of "Sound" in the Windows Vista and 7 control panel, right-click over the input you want to hear > Properties. Then click the "Levels" tab and check "Listen to this device" and the sound device you want to send the input to. This is "software playthrough", but note it is often on by default for an external mic. "Listen" usually has a delay of about 35 - 45 ms - much faster than Audacity's software playthrough, but some will still not find it usable. This feature is not available on XP or before.
Are you using the "Listen" feature, gvverner9?
There is no direct way to control the latency of "Listen to this device" except that with fewer other programs and processes running, it might be a little lower.
With a Sigmatel sound device there is a possible Windows registry hack to enable hardware playthrough on XP and Vista (use entirely at your own risk):
http://forums.techarena.in/vista-hardwa ... 865259.htm
Slightly off-topic: there is a quite common problem on (I guess all) laptops/notebooks/netbooks where the machine has an internal microphone and recordings from sources other than the internal mic pick up noises caught by the internal mic (such as using the keyboard to control the Audacity recording).
Providing you record from the correct input, you should not in my opinion record anything from the internal mic, but there are often reports that keyboard use bleeds into the recording. In this case, you should mute the internal mic on the recording side of the Windows control panel for sound to make sure it does not record.
On some Windows laptops, there is an option in the sound card's own control panel to "Tie up same type of input jacks" or "separate all input jacks as separate input devices". If you "tie up", then only one mic input will ever appear in Windows even if you connect an external mic. If you do connect an external mic, Windows "should" in my opinion record from that instead of the internal mic, even if the internal mic isn't muted, and irrespective of the "tie up" or "separate" choice . But some users state that using the keyboard will bleed into recordings of other sources unless you both mute the internal mic AND choose the "separate" option. I can't reproduce either "bleed" problem on my Win 7 netbook, and to me it feels like a bug in the sound device's drivers or the machine itself.
Gale