Reaper, recording issues (Timing)

F

Flepit

New member
Alright, here's my problem. I wanted to record a demo for my music but I ran into some problems with possibly latency, possibly something else (probably very basic but this is my first serious project)

What Happened: I made myself a drum track for the whole song, set up my guitar tone, tuned up. My monitoring is on point, no delay whatsoever. I start rockin' out. I'm into it, sounds awesome. I save my track and i listen back to myself. The whole thing sounded wretched, I was RUSHING so bad. At first I thought it was me that sucked, but then i realized it wasn't me when I missed a chord that was supposed to be aligned with a drum hit at the end (I basically played it too late). It was clear as day that I had missed that hit. But when i played back that specific part, the two were almost perfectly aligned. Weiird

All this to say that for some reason my recording is RUSHING when I play it back, even if I play it well. I don't know if it's the playback or the recording that's out time, even when my monitoring is on point.

Thank you !!!
 
Are you using an amp simulator or a mic on an rig?

I am guessing it is an amp sim. If so what are you using? It seems you have a latency issue either way. You are likely hearing a delayed signal while you play.

Please give every detail as to your computer, interface, sofware, etc...
 
I'm using BIAS FX for my guitar tone, EZ drummer for the beat machine, Reaper v5,211 64bit, a Steinberg CI2 as my interface, my computer runs windows 10 64 32G of RAM. It's fairly powerful, it's my dad's old computer, and my dad is a computer nerd with expensive taste and he recently gave it to me because he got a mac, plenty of ram and horsepower. but my monitoring is not delayed (I used to have issues with that), when i play, it feels like im plugged into a real amp, I can hear that the acoustic sound of the string is synced with the what coming out of BIAS

ASIO; Yamaha steinberg USB ASIO, Sample r8: 44100, block size: 256
 
Check your ASIO buffer settings. I would set them around 512, with your computer you could probably go lower, 256, 128 or better (512 works for most people). That will help with live playback when recording.

If you are using EZ drummer and it is not syncing with Reaper, (I think there is a setting to allow the DAW to drive the BPM in EZ, make sure Reaper is driving BPM). Even better, find the drum pattern in EZ and put it on the MIDI track and make sure EZ is not playing a loop. If you hit play it goes into a loop (sometimes) and your drum pattern in Reaper is not as clear.

But I have a gut feeling you don't have something in sync, probably EZ or you have more delay in your DAW based on ASIO settings.

Hope this helps.
 
The problem is (probably) that something is telling Reaper that it has more latency than it actually has, and Reaper's delay compensation is overshooting the mark.

It might be Bias, but I tend to think its more likely your interface. First of all tell me where it was that you've set the sample rate and buffer size. Did you do that in Reaper itself with some box that says "force..." or "request..." somethingsomething checked, or have you actually opened your device's own config utility to set it up? Most of the time, it's best to leave those checkboxes empty in Reaper. The interface is supposed to report those things to the DAW, and as long as it does and tells the truth, Reaper should have no problem going along.
 
I set those in Reaper's preferences, but before i used BIAS i used to have ALOT more delay so it probably BIAS
 
It fixed it! I had the manuel offset at 92ms, and forgot about it hahahaha

---------- Update ----------

It fixed it! I had the manuel offset at 92ms, and forgot about it hahahaha
 
If you get the timing issue resolved, I'd be really grateful if you'd share it with me. I've decreased sampling rates, uninstalled then reinstalled the software, I've tried everything I could think of (I am new to reaper, used to use a Tascam Porta Studio).
Simply, I put down a drum track. Then I put down a guitar track (track 2). When I'm playing everything sounds fine. When I play back, that's when I'd say my guitar and drum beat are off, not by a lot but enough to notice. I've tried three different laptops I own (all have reaper), and two different operating systems.
The end result is always the same. My guitar won't match up in time. I tried trimming time off, but I guess since I'm new, I'm still a computer recording idiot.
I'd love to hear an answer that works. Thanks a bunch!
 
Hey, I read your post above, the one where you suggested to another member that their problem may be their interface. I have a Scarlett 2i2, and on their website they said most issues attributed to their interface are usually the result of some other issue with other equipment/software.
To me that sounds like they're pre loading the notion that it cannot be their hardware. I also had trouble with distortion in playback, and I adjusted the sampling rate, and the block size sample with success. The distortion stopped but still lots of clicks and pops. And the time offset between drum and guitar tracks is as present as before.
I've tried muting the track I was recording into, other possible reason for the phase shift in my guitar track and drum track; suggestions from this site that may have helped (and I am grateful for all the advice).
Recalling your suggestion about the interface maybe being the problem, I ordered a two channel M Audio zero latency interface.
I'll find out in a few days if it's going to resolve my problem. They offer a free software trial that goes with their interface, so if I have to I'll try it and see if I can finally get a clean, properly timed finished product.
If you were talking about the post suggesting going into Reaper Preferences and look for any delay. I didn't put any in, but it's worth looking. I'm going to do that now.
Thanks. Any other suggestions are welcome.
 
I have no manual offset, input or output, both are set to zero.
Starting to look more like the interface. I didn't mention, with the distortion issue, it would be present at night while I was working on something, I'd play it again the next day and it was fine. While it was present, I switched to the laptop speakers and the distortion was gone. Put the audio back to the Scarlett and the distortion returned.
Along with a different interface, I also got a new computer, HP 2.5 GHz i5 dual core processor, 8 GB RAM. Windows 10. So that's one more piece of equipment that can be ruled out.
 
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