So what causes time delay issues when recording multiple tracks?

Antique_Guitars

So what causes a delay when recording a second track on a DAW?

Is it crap computer hardware or something else and how can i get rid of it or do I just have to just move it into place manually until it is in time?

Danny1969

Well 15 years ago I sometimes had to manually move tracks but not now!

What DAW is it such as Cubase ? 

Have you got decent low latency drivers for you audio hardware ?

Antique_Guitars

Danny1969 said:

Well 15 years ago I sometimes had to manually move tracks but not now!

What DAW is it such as Cubase ? 

Have you got decent low latency drivers for you audio hardware ?

Its Reaper but I havent got and special audio hardware or drivers jst my cheap Lenovo laptop, should I buy an audio interface and run everything through that?

randomhandclaps

Personally I would bet on it being soundcard latency.  I would try and get a USB interface if and when you can.

Antique_Guitars

randomhandclaps said:

Personally I would bet on it being soundcard latency.  I would try and get a USB interface if and when you can.

Ah ok i guess that would do all the sound processing then and get rid of latency comedy?

randomhandclaps

Yes, because you haven't got the computer trying to run and connect both the DAW and soundcard software at the same time.

Danny1969

A proper audio interface would be nice but in the meantime try the free ASIO for all drivers, they should be a lot better. 

A trick I had to do in the old days to help line tracks was to record a sharp stacco note at the beginning of each take and then I could use that to align the audio like the film guys used to use the clapperboard to align the audio to the film

Antique_Guitars

Cool thanks guys, I'm in no mega rush to record so I will buy an audio interface when I get paid.

Thanks!

Fretwired

As has been stated you need an audio interface with hardware monitoring. Checkout Steinberg's new interface which can be had for under £100 - I just bought a Steinberg interface and it's rock solid, has excellent Yamaha designed mic pres and other components plus latency free hardware monitoring. It also comes with a DAW, although I see you use Reaper.

http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/audio_interfaces/ur_serie/modelle/ur12.html

mike257

If you just want cheap and cheerful to get you going you can grab an M Audio FastTrak for £20-30 used. One mic input, one guitar input, phono out for monitoring or headphone output on the unit. Does me for throwing quick tracks down on the laptop.

spark240

Latency seems to be around on all DAW software, its usually ok with just audio, its VST's that kill it, Im strugglimg a bit with now so looking for a decent PC.

ecc83

Latency is a complex issue but you should be able to reduce it to manageably low levels.

Download Dpclat from www.thesycon.de and rum that for ten mins' or so. That will tell you if your computer is capable (as it stands) of running click free, low latency audio.

If the results are bad start looking at programs you do not need (at all or starting up) Naturally uninstall redundant stuff but if for instance you have an Office progg' go to "Start>run>cmd and type MSCONFIG then see what is starting up. ONLY stop those things you are dead bang sure of! (like an office progg) .

Many cleaner programs start and stay. Just clean when you need to. Anti-V? I use Msoft SE for all W7 PCs, very low presence and nay bother in 5 years.

Disable any wireless internet kit (this does not apply to things like wireless kbs and mice).

You don't need a powerful computer to run a few audio tracks. A 2G + processor and 2G of ram should be adequate. Reaper has a multitrack demo in it, if you can run that you should be fine.

The AI and VERY MUCH its drivers influence latency the most. The little M-Track is probably ok because M-A were very good with drivers.

Dave.

Drew_TNBD

ecc83 said:

Latency is a complex issue but you should be able to reduce it to manageably low levels.

Download Dpclat from www.thesycon.de and rum that for ten mins' or so. That will tell you if your computer is capable (as it stands) of running click free, low latency audio.

Just to expand on this: DPClat measures deferred procedure calls, which is quite a different type of latency to the one that Antique Guitars is experiencing. DPClat will tell you if there are any bandwidth problems in your system, which you can get regardless of decent ASIO drivers. Network drivers can sometimes cause huge red spikes in the DPClat application; in fact my machine gets them, which is why I disabled all of the onboard wifi networking and use an external wifi adapter to get around the problem.

In the main though Sheldon, you need a decent audio interface with low-latency ASIO drivers.

Heartfeltdawn

Yes to the call to get an external soundcard. The Steinberg UR12 drivers should match the quality of the UR22 on my laptop and will sort out some of the latency. 

Other elements that will affect it:

-power settings. Set the laptop to maximum performance. Made a huge difference on my Asus laptop when I stripped it down, installed Windows 7 from scratch and got everything up for audio. 

-wireless internet settings as ecc83 said. Huge difference. Even on my desktop where I don't use wi-fi and stay with a hardwired connection, I found that I needed to upgrade the CMOS on the motherboard as the network doodahs were causing a visible latency spike. One simple upgrade changed all of that. 

Heartfeltdawn

Drew_fx said:

Just to expand on this: DPClat measures deferred procedure calls, which is quite a different type of latency to the one that Antique Guitars is experiencing. DPClat will tell you if there are any bandwidth problems in your system, which you can get regardless of decent ASIO drivers. Network drivers can sometimes cause huge red spikes in the DPClat application; in fact my machine gets them, which is why I disabled all of the onboard wifi networking and use an external wifi adapter to get around the problem.

@Drew_fx What adapter did you go for? I'm musing on a big upgrade, sticking the current motherboard and FX6300 into a seocnd computer and going with a new Asus motherboard and i7 4770k processor. The Asus board I was looking at has wi-fi and I had a suspicion I might need to go with an external adapter if I didn't keep my existing hardwired connection going. 

Drew_TNBD

Heartfeltdawn said:

Drew_fx said:

Just to expand on this: DPClat measures deferred procedure calls, which is quite a different type of latency to the one that Antique Guitars is experiencing. DPClat will tell you if there are any bandwidth problems in your system, which you can get regardless of decent ASIO drivers. Network drivers can sometimes cause huge red spikes in the DPClat application; in fact my machine gets them, which is why I disabled all of the onboard wifi networking and use an external wifi adapter to get around the problem.

@Drew_fx What adapter did you go for? I'm musing on a big upgrade, sticking the current motherboard and FX6300 into a seocnd computer and going with a new Asus motherboard and i7 4770k processor. The Asus board I was looking at has wi-fi and I had a suspicion I might need to go with an external adapter if I didn't keep my existing hardwired connection going. 

Just got some Netgear ethernet to wifi adapter jobby. This is the one I got: http://www.netstoredirect.com/netgear-network-cards-adapters/37111-netgear-universal-wifi-internet-adapter-0606449069471.html?gclid=CjwKEAiA8_KlBRD9z_jl_fKBhQkSJABDKqiXbEnj1LHcOGyx1agqhmpgrznzfDP5CLeJptqkRkanExoCTrXw_wcB

wave100

But as posted above, give asio4all a try - it's free, what have you got to lose?

xmrchi

+1 for asio4all, does the job and its free!

Fretwired

Asio4 won't do much with a basic motherboard-based audio chip.

wave100

Hey Fretwired, ASIO4ALL is a universal ASIO driver whose main purpose is to provide ASIO latencies for on board chipsets. I used it successfully for a number of years on an old Dell dual core laptop. Of course it won't sound as good as a dedicated interface, but for no money it might get the OP the results he needs. I had to use it with a wee soundcraft mixer for conditioning the input signal, but I needed that anyway as the sound card on my main PC (maudio 24/96) only had phono inputs. It was fine for a bit of guitar rig/ virtual instrument use!

Antique_Guitars

Cheers everyone for your help on this, I finally got into the real world and bought a Roland Quad Capture Interface and a Rode NT1A and I am now in business and in time!