Audio delay running guitar to PC

nbtd245

New member
Running my guitar to my PC as such:

Digitech RP80 > Behringer Eurorack UB502 > PC line-in

Other possibly relevant information about my PC:

Windows 10 Pro
AMD FX-8350 8 core processor
Gigabyte 970A-DS3P motherboard
16GB RAM

I haven't recorded in a while but I finally upgraded and have a PC that can handle it. I hooked everything up the way I used to and there's about a quarter to half second audio delay. It was actually worse than ~0.5sec initially but then I followed a guide to fix Realtek audio driver lag. It's definitely better but distracting enough that I can't play to it or record over it. To be clear, it's not a PC performance issue. I've monitored my performance before, during and after and it doesn't fluctuate based on whether my guitar is hooked up or not. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

P.S. I use Audacity to record
 
Why do you need to listen to the round trip through the computer when you've got the RP80 for your tone and effects? You should be able to configure the UB502 to let you hear the live guitar directly, record it to the computer, and hear the playback, all at the same time.
 
Why do you need to listen to the round trip through the computer when you've got the RP80 for your tone and effects? You should be able to configure the UB502 to let you hear the live guitar directly, record it to the computer, and hear the playback, all at the same time.

I guess I don't understand the question? I hear the guitar with effects live through the PC but it's delayed. As in I strum and hear the guitar with pedal effects about a quarter to a half second later. So it throws me off as I'm playing and when if I record a track and go to record another track on top the audio doesn't sync so the tracks don't line up.
 
The delay is called latency, and it is function of the computer's on-board sound. On-board sound is normally designed for general purpose sound, e.g. games, watching videos, skype and so on. Using basic design and cheap parts, they are not designed for duplex audio, i.e. recording and playback simultaneously. This means you get a delay between input and output.

The way to eliminate this is to avoid the computer's line-in, but to get yourself an audio interface. This is an input and output audio device that is designed specifically for duplex audio, and can reduce latency to a handful of milliseconds.
 
I guess I don't understand the question? I hear the guitar with effects live through the PC but it's delayed. As in I strum and hear the guitar with pedal effects about a quarter to a half second later. So it throws me off as I'm playing and when if I record a track and go to record another track on top the audio doesn't sync so the tracks don't line up.

The delay is latency and can never be zero. However a good Audio Interface with ASIO drivers can reduce it to levels that will not bother you. The Realtech soundcard in the PC is simply not good enough.

There is a shedload of different AIs on the market and virtually all of them are very good but IMO if you want low latency get one from Native Instruments.

N.B. Once you have a good interface you won't need the mixer in the audio chain but keep it, could come in handy.

Ah! Great minds Gecks, great minds!

Dave.
 
My response was going to be the same as the two above, but I first wanted to sort out the issue of using the RP80 and internal effects. I'm not saying it's wrong to do both, I'm just trying to sort out why the OP using computer based effects on the guitar if he's got the RP80. That was going to be my opening to introduce the idea of using a proper recording interface designed specifically to address problems like what the OP describes.
 
My response was going to be the same as the two above, but I first wanted to sort out the issue of using the RP80 and internal effects. I'm not saying it's wrong to do both, I'm just trying to sort out why the OP using computer based effects on the guitar if he's got the RP80. That was going to be my opening to introduce the idea of using a proper recording interface designed specifically to address problems like what the OP describes.

I'm not using any internal effects. Just guitar pedal to mixer to PC.
 
Sounds like I will be looking into an audio interface. 10 years ago when I used the same setup I never had issues with latency so that's a newer thing for me. Thanks everybody.
 
My response was going to be the same as the two above, but I first wanted to sort out the issue of using the RP80 and internal effects. I'm not saying it's wrong to do both, I'm just trying to sort out why the OP using computer based effects on the guitar if he's got the RP80. That was going to be my opening to introduce the idea of using a proper recording interface designed specifically to address problems like what the OP describes.

Yep. I noticed that. However, I also noticed his problem when trying to record along with a pre-recorded track, and I figure that that will be a problem anyway.
 
I'm not using any internal effects. Just guitar pedal to mixer to PC.

By internal effects I meant effects in the computer. I didn't express that clearly. If you aren't using effects from the computer then you don't need to monitor the guitar through the computer, you can monitor it by a more direct path in the mixer.
 
As a matter of curiosity, was that with the same system? And what has happened in the intervening ten years?

Just an old computer with moderately upgraded RAM and video card and running Windows XP. Didn't have this latency issue. Recorded on that for maybe five years and after a while it couldn't handle more than a few tracks without slowing way down and causing the tracks to not line up. Didn't get around to building a solid PC until a little over a year ago.
 
Just install Asio4All, it's the ultimate way for playing the guitar in-line.

A. A proper interface with actual ASIO drivers is better.

B. If he doesn't need effects from the computer then simply looping back through the mixer will have zero latency.
 
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