After trying every suggestion people have made...

strhessed · Post by **strhessed** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 10:18 pm

I am wondering if it could have something to do with how I have my guitar hooked up to my PC. I am running out of the line-out from my amp into the microphone jack on the back...could this be a problem and if so, what do I need to do ??

strhessed · Post by **strhessed** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 10:34 pm

I just realized that there is a slight pause from when I pluck a string and when I actually hear it come through my computer monitors....I'm kinda new to all this ...PLEASE HELP !!

strhessed · Post by **strhessed** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 10:58 pm

And now i've been reading and apparently, it's latency ? Any suggestions on how to fix it ? I'm not sure if it's my computer or what...I have 512 mb ram and a 2.8 ghz Pentium 4 if that means anything...

Gman · Post by **Gman** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 7:31 am

Actually, you should be running to the line-in of your sound card as the line-out out of your amp is a preamped source which is usually not compatible with the mic input of a sound card.

The amount of latency you are hearing is huge. Is Mixcraft set to record from your sound card (check the settings in Mixcraft)?

strhessed · Post by **strhessed** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 2:16 pm

I just realized that the 1/4 to 1/8 adapter I have is mono. Would that make a difference ? Also, when using the line-in, the levels are not very high. Still getting the latency though

Post by **Acoustica Eric** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 3:51 pm

Mono is what you want, use a microphone to mic the amp, and plug it into the mic input of the sound card. The latency problem may go away after this because you would then not be using the pc speakers to hear your guitar, you would be using the amp which has no latency from speaker to ear.

strhessed · Post by **strhessed** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 7:05 pm

strhessed · Post by **strhessed** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 7:47 pm

Tried all that...The biggest issue which no one can seem to figure out is not so much the latency, but the pitch. I connected my microphone and sang a line. Then I overdubbed the exact same verse and the 2nd one is a bit slower and the pitch is a bit lower...this is the same problem I have been having when trying to record guitar harmonies. I am questioning if I am just not going to be able to use this,

Post by **Acoustica Eric** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 2:33 pm

Don't give up, it's well worth it when you get it working

Try going into Mixcrafts preferences and setting the devices to your specific sound card, not "default wave device".

also, change the sample rate and bit depth to 44100 and 16 bit in both the recording and playback tabs.

Also make sure the stereo button is selected in these tabs.

See if that helps.

strhessed · Post by **strhessed** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 5:05 pm

Can any of those setting changes help with latency though ?

Post by **Acoustica Eric** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 5:46 pm

They may, if you use 16 bit instead of 24, your pc does not have to work so hard and your latency may go away.
Mixcraft is not the cause of the latency problem, it is more likely your computer or soundcard.

Can you list your pc specs for me?

strhessed · Post by **strhessed** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 7:35 pm

I figured it was my soundcard and not the program... I have 512 mb of RAM a Pentium 4 2.8 ghz processor and a SonudMAX soundcard...intergrated. I think it's pretty bottom of the barrell.

strhessed · Post by **strhessed** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 1:15 pm

OK, I just experienced the craziest thing ! I took the bit depth down to 8bits and the sample rate to 32000. I recorded a guitar track and then overdubbed a harmony on top of it. It played back in perfect sync. I then imported a drum pattern and then layed a guitar track over that and wouldn't you know, out of sync again. Now if I record the 2 guitar tracks again, the 2nd one will play back at almost half the speed of the first...this is soooo frustrating !!!

nemasis · Post by **nemasis** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 6:45 pm

Your right your issue is latency. Latency can be reduced but almost never eliminated. Mixcraft is comunicating with your sound card via the standard driver. Generally what is used for audio production are ASIO drivers. They are specifically designed for audio software and hardware communication to reduce latency. I don't know the complete technical explanation, but someone here may. However the current version of Mixcraft does not support ASIO drivers. From what i have been reading 3.0 will.

Some things you can do:

Purchase a dedicated sound card. Doesn't have to be fancy, anything is better than onboard audio.

More Ram

Terminate all unecessary processi's, do this via Ctrl+Alt+Delete

More Ram

Change bit and sample to 16 and 44.1 repectively. 24/96 sounds nice but if your burning a CD it all gets downsampled to 16/44.1. Downsampling can introduce anomalies.

And if i haven't mentioned yet, More Ram. You can never have too much.

Hope this helps.

Nemasis