Agreed, latency is the bane of analog to digital conversion. It simply takes time to do that conversion, and again to convert back from digital to analog so it can be played over your monitors/headphones. But there are ways to minimize latency:
- some interfaces tout very low latency. RME in particular prides itself on the low latency of their interfaces.
- keeping your drivers up to date, and always using the manufacturer's ASIO drivers (or ASIO4ALL if there are no manufacturer's ASIO drivers) will drastically affect latency
- adjusting your interface's buffer settings (usually in the ASIO control panel that installs with your interface's drivers). Smaller buffer = lower latency, but more strain on the CPU. Larger buffer = higher latency, but less strain on the CPU.
- use direct monitoring when possible, instead of monitoring through your DAW software while tracking
- read your DAW's user manual and learn about what features it has for delay compensation or latency compensation
- some VST effect plugins add latency, so try to use little or no VST effects while tracking. If you need "comfort" reverb or compression while tracking, find an interface that has these effects built in and allows them to be heard but not recorded.
- Use input/output offset compensation for VSTi plugins
Computer-based recording has always struggled with latency, but it's been around long enough that people have found ways to deal with it. There'll always be a little latency in your computer based setup, even if you have it streamlined, lean and mean. But you can get it down to such short amounts of time, that it's similar to standing across the room from your guitar amp while strumming...barely noticeable. If I remember correctly, sound travels through the air at about 1 foot per millisecond. So latencies of 10 or 20 milliseconds are happening every time a band plays together on a stage, and they can hold it together just fine
