Continually increasingly latency

[pan band]

Hello there. I couldn't find any answer to this in the rest of the forums, I apologize if it's redundant.

I've used a Lexicon Lambda to record into several laptops, all of which have, admittedly, been getting on in years. It's time for a new computer, and I want to get one with the specs I need to rid myself of a reoccurring problem.

I find that when I'm recording my latency keeps increasing, so that by the end of a song the track I'm recording on is noticeably slower on playback than the click (or any other parts).

If I only use the click track, all the parts I'm recording slow at the same rate, which is ok, but still not ideal. What I really want to do, however, is lay down some bass and drums and then go back and improvise over the top of it.

To be sure it isn't just me, I recorded the click coming through the headphones directly into the mic. On playback the slow separation of the two is obvious.

I'm not sure if this is a hardware issue, or if I'm doing something wrong in the recording process, or what. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

m!

 

[Murdersgalore]

What you are describing isn't a latency problem. It's more of a sync problem. And if you are having this same issue with several laptops then the obvious thing to blame first is the one thing that is the same, the lexicon interface. I would start with simple solutions first and see if there are any driver/firmware updates. Also check around the net to see if others have this problem with that unit.

 

[CWatkinsNash]

I haven't used the Lambda, but I've used the Omega and I've got an Alpha right now. With the Omega, I had similar sync issues. Are you using the Lexicon ASIO driver? What DAW are you using? My problems happened back when I was using Bremmers' MTS and the problem was a bitrate mismatch between MTS and the driver. MTS was defaulting new audio tracks to 48K and the Omega was set for 44.1K. (Or vice versa, I honestly don't remember.) Making them match fixed it. You can see the bitrate by accessing the ASIO config from within your DAW's device settings. There should be a slider for the buffer on the left and on the right you should see the bitrate info.

As Murdersgalore stated, definitely check for any updates on the Lexicon site as well.

I have no idea if this is anything related to your issue but I thought I'd bring it up.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

Are you by any chance monitoring from the computer's built in headphone output while recording into the Lambda?

 

[pan band]

Thanks! The reason I'm looking for a new computer is the old one had a complete hard drive failure (I'm on a *very* old work computer), so I can't check any of my settings, but this is definitely something I'll look at once I get a new one.

 

[pan band]

(previous post is @CWatkinsNash)

@bouldersoundguy:
No, monitoring from the Lambda itself, though obviously everything I'm playing back is coming from the computer. Since writing this I've read through some automatically "suggested" articles I didn't find in my first search, where people are warning to stay away from USB connections (opting instead for firewire or an actual soundcard).

@Murdersgalore:
Thanks for the advice. If I hadn't had everything fail on me, I'd certainly try updating the Lambda. When I get a new computer I'll start with the updates before messing around with anything else.

Thank you all. Perhaps I'll reread some of the "getting started" posts and get similar equipment, though please feel free to keep sending me your advice. It's appreciated.