Latency when using fx

[Stubby03]

I am still learning about using a interface. When I record with no effects I have no latency. I have direct monitoring switched on in the interface. I want to use distortion, but cannot hear it unless I hit the direct monitoring in mixcraft, creating latency. Am I doing something wrong? Its not a lot, but I thought with an interface, I would have none.

[Vibrant Audio]

Here's what is happening: when you direct monitor from the interface you hear just what you are putting into it without going into your pc and back out; when you use fx and monitor Mixcraft's output your pc has to process the sound in between - thus latency.

You'll want to lower the latency through Mixcraft prefs as much as possible. You may find you can get it low enough to work for you. To avoid glitches when you lower the latency, here are some ideas on what you can do:
- Freeze some of your other tracks
- Use fewer tracks playing back when you record
- Mix down a reference track and import that as your sole reference track
- Remove as many fx on other tracks (including the master track) as you can

The idea is to lower as much as possible how much your pc has to process. Some fx just have a good bit of latency.

Hope that helps!

[Stubby03]

Thanks. That helps.

[aquataur]

If you want to play distorted, this is what you can do:

Distortion and compression both influence your intonation, in other words, you play different as opposed to playing clean. For instance, with a dry tone, you don´t hear those long sustained tails.

To circumvent this "dry playing" people basically use a Y-cable (splitter) and play over some device that approximates the tone they like roughly, just to have the right "feel", but what is recorded is the dry tone.

By doing this you have the luxury to manipulate the signal any which way you want afterwards. If you record the "wet" signal and don´t like it - that´s it.

Note: I found that amp and speaker simulations all have a common flaw: they are usually replayed through a full range system. This will most certainly sound different than a guitar rig which has a treble- and bass deficient speaker. Take that into account.

You could even go as far as re-amping (re-playing the dry signal through some fancy amp and re-record it).

For the recording phase, from the technical point of view, you want as little processing on your signal as possible. Embellishment may be distracting. In fact, you probably want as few tracks playing as possible. Just as my predecessor said. But again from an artistic way of view, you may want some "band feeling" as well. So if you are desperate for a track, freeze it. Hard disk streaming puts little burdon on the CPU - but beware of the antivirus program.

However, cut down all effects, that is true. Even reverbs - out.

have fun,

-helmut

[Brian S]

If you have not done so already, check out the "Optimizing your PC for Mixcraft" thread here, there are some really good tips throughout.

[Vibrant Audio]

If you have not done so already, check out the "Optimizing your PC for Mixcraft" thread here, there are some really good tips throughout.

Ah, yes! I forgot about that.

It's a sticky thread at the top of the Mixcraft forum, but here's a direct link to that thread. And here's a direct link to the Acoustica video on PC Optimization.