delay

[dimension10]

hey I'm new to this BB so forgive me if this question has been asked before. I've been recording on my Mac using protools free. I put down a drum track, and I've been attempting to put down bass and guitar over it. The problem I've been having is that as I'm listening to the drum track and playing along there is a delay between each strum on the guitar and when the sound is played back through my headphones.

What I've been doing to work around it is leaving one headphone off, and muting the guitar cue track.

I've never run into this problem recording on 4-tracks. Can anyone recommend the best way to deal with this.

thanks

 

[toyL]

what you are experiencing is called "latency" delay, which is basically the time it takes for your computer to digitally process the live signal...I'm hardly an expert, but maybe I can help...before you hear your guitar through the headphones it goes through an analog to digital converter--this can create several milli-seconds of delay...what you are hearing at this point is a digital replication of your analog signal...I don't know of a cheap way to get around the problem...first, you need professional software...I'm not sure if all of the Pro-Tools products are exactly "pro"...if your mac is fairly new, perhaps it has the FireWire architecture/data bus designed to process video and audio very quickly...if it does, I can highly recommend the MOTU 828--a rack mountable unit which will seriously lessen or eliminate any latency delay problems...it has plenty of INs/OUTs, fiber-optic connectors and s/pdif for linking to a cd burner and DAT....it'll make everything much easier for your computer to handle...someone will come along soon with more help.

 

[dimension10]

Hey thanks, I'm gonna look into the MOTU 828. Any spots that you recommend.