Latency issues through headphones

C

cathryn1975

New member
Hi, I have been recording on my laptop for sometime now, and am pretty pleased with the quality I get out of it. My laptop is a Packard Bell Easynote TJ68, and I use Acoustica Mixcraft 5 software and a Samson C01u usb mic which does very well. Despite fiddling with the properties in mixcraft, I am unable to hear myself through the headphones without latency which is very off-putting! I always end up disabling playback because of this, but having a recent session in a proper studio, realised how useful it is to hear oneself properly whilst warbling! I have got it down to a minimum through fiddling, but it is still too much to be 'ignorable'. What should i do to prevent this playback latency? Is it a little mixing console needed, or a new soundcard? Any advice helpful as I am no techno-wizard by any means!
Thanks in advance!
Cathy x
 
Now you know why people use audio interfaces and mics and headphones plugged into them, rather than USB mics and headphones plugged into the computer. With an interface, you 'direct monitor' the input while listening to the previously-recorded tracks from the computer. The 'listening latency' problem goes away.
 
I'm afraid mjbphotos is spot on about this one.

Even if the quality of a USB mic is perfect, monitoring is a problem.

With any decent interface, you can plug you headphones in there and it creates a mix of the mic live plus the playback from the computer. Since the mic isn't doing a round trip through an A to D, the computer, then a D to A, working with this kind of direct monitoring has no latency.

With you USB mic, I assume you plug your headphones into the appropriate jack on your laptop. This means that your voice is doing exactly the round trip I described above.

You MAY be able to reduce the latency with adjustments in your DAW by making the buffer size as small as you can without playback breaking up. If Samson provide ASIO drivers for your mic (unlikely) that will also have shorter latency than the standard Windows ones most USB mics depend on.

But the long term solution is a conventional mic and a separate interface with direct monitoring.
 
It's a case of "you get what you pay for".

If you'll only ever want to record one mic at a time with no other instruments etc, AND if the Blue Yeti suits what you want to record, maybe.

However, if you ever want to get more serious about recording, have a selection of different mics for different styles of recording, etc., then a single interface will be a good base to build on as you buy more/different mics or get more adventurous in your recording techniques, then an interface is a good investment.

I notice the OP is in the UK. There are several interfaces I could recommend for well under £100--and they'd work with any mic he might buy in the future. The Blue Yeti sells there for just under £190. For the same money you could have a decent interface and decent XLR condenser mic.
 
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