"Software Playthrough" unchecked makes the program unusable

[bencassorla]

To all out there...

There's a latency of approx. 398 milliseconds with my system. Through the preferences menu I was able to fix that using the latency correction.
However, when I'm recording I hear whatever I'm recording 398 milliseconds later--it's very disorienting and makes recording difficult.

I tried unchecking "software playthrough" (that's what was mentioned in other posts) to fix this but that somehow stalls the program. Basically if it's unchecked whenever I hit record or playback nothing happens until I stop it (the mouse won't even move).

Thanks for all the help,
Ben

[steve]

There's a latency of approx. 398 milliseconds with my system.

Nearly half a second ! What are you recording with?

[bencassorla]

I've got a zoom h2 that I'm using to record--and using as an audio interface....
It is pretty long but if I could turn off the Playthrough while recording it shouldn't be a problem.

[steve]

I think you will need to give a detailed description of your set-up.

I've just tested my H2 on a Pentium III 500MHz (Ubuntu 8.10) with Audacity 1.3.8 alpha.
Software playthrough is switched off (so the microphone input does not play through the sound card - If I need to monitor the microphone input I can do it directly from the H2).

I can't playback and record through the H2 simultaneously because this computer has only got "USB 1", so attempting to do so causes lots of drop-outs.

I set it to record from the H2 and playback through a SoundBlaster Live Value.
The latency is 91 milliseconds. (audio buffer set to 100 milliseconds).

[bencassorla]

I'll do my best (I'm not too tech savvy):

I've got the H2 acting as the Audio Interface (headphones also plugged in there).
The computer:
An Intel Pentium 4 CPU 1.8 Ghz
512MB of RAM
I've got it set up to record and playback using the H2. My other options for playback (via the Audio !/O screen in Audacity's preferences) are:
MME: Microsoft Sound Mapper
MME: Intel Integrated Audio
Windows DirectSound: Primary Sound Driver
Windows DirectSound: Intel Integrated Audio

When I try those I hear nothing through the headphones (even if I plug the headphones directly into the computer).

The problem arises anytime I try to uncheck the Software Playthroughs switch. if I try to playback or record nothing happens. The only way to get out of it is to hit spacebar again to stop either the playback or record. Then everything goes back to normal.

thanks mr.stevethefiddle

[steve]

You missed out which version of Audacity, and which version of Windows.
Have you tried recording in Audacity with anything other than the H2?
Does your computer have a sound card? If so, do you know what sort it is? Does it work?
Is the computer a laptop?

My guess is that you are using Vista, and the problem is being caused by Vista being confused by the H2. If you are on Vista, and your computer has an internal sound card, enable that sound card in the Windows Control Panel so that Vista knows that it has an available recording source. See here for how to enable recording devices : http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... s_Vista_OS