Latency question

[stratovani]

I recently started recording with my rather old equipment. The computer I'm using is a 2006 Dell Latitude D620 running WinXP, the DAW is Cakewalk Home Studio 2002, and the audio interface is a late 2000s Tascam US-144. It works fine for recording a single bass line, and I'm getting more comfortable with the controls on the DAW and the interface. My question is this: on the top left hand side there is a wheel titled Mon Mix, with Input on the left bottom and Computer on the right bottom. Every time I turn the wheel away from the Input side I hear what I can only describe as a slapback echo, which becomes more pronounced the more I turn the wheel. It means that I have to keep the wheel close to the Input side if I don't want to hear this. Is this a latency issue and how do I get rid of it? It doesn't affect the recording but it's very annoying. Also my laptop only has 1 gb of memory, which I plan to increase soon.

 

[Steenamaroo]

Hi Stratovani,
The knob you describe is balancing between hearing your input directly from the hardware and hearing your input after it's been processed in the computer.
Computer processing takes time so setting the balance to 'mix' will always have a latency penalty. You can reduce the latency by reducing the size of the hardware buffer in your recording suite.
The tradeoff here is that the computer has to work harder so in a mix with lots of virtual instruments and/or plugins, or on an older computer, you might find the computer struggles to keep up at lower latencies.

Turning the knob to direct will have no latency at all but it also means you wouldn't be able to hear any effects that are being applied in the computer while you are recording.
No use if you're recording guitar with amp sims, for example.
All effects would be audible on playback, though - The control only affects how you hear your input signal whilst recording.

Hope that's helpful.

 

[stratovani]

Hi Stratovani,
The knob you describe is balancing between hearing your input directly from the hardware and hearing your input after it's been processed in the computer.
Computer processing takes time so setting the balance to 'mix' will always have a latency penalty. You can reduce the latency by reducing the size of the hardware buffer in your recording suite.
The tradeoff here is that the computer has to work harder so in a mix with lots of virtual instruments and/or plugins, or on an older computer, you might find the computer struggles to keep up at lower latencies.

Turning the knob to direct will have no latency at all but it also means you wouldn't be able to hear any effects that are being applied in the computer while you are recording.
No use if you're recording guitar with amp sims, for example.
All effects would be audible on playback, though - The control only affects how you hear your input signal whilst recording.

Hope that's helpful.

Don't know if it will help, but will adding more memory help?

 

[Steenamaroo]

It depends but most likely not.
Like I say, the way to reduce latency is to increase hardware buffer size.
Setting the buffer to 256 or 128 should be totally acceptable but you'd need to try to see how it goes performance wise.

Unless you need to hear digital effects in real time you don't need mix-monitoring. Something to consider.

 

[gecko zzed]

Adding more memory won't help. Latency is determined by a combination of the interface and its drivers and the processng power of the CPU.

One thing that might be useful is to to see if you can turn off software monitoring in Cakewalk. If this is turned on, you will hear two distinct sounds: the direct sound of what you are recording and the recorded sound of what you are recording.

 

[ecc83]

XP! Blimey, might be worth looking in Windows Sounds and Devices to see if there is the equivalent of the Mon Mix shown in the attachment (from W7).

I am presently listening to Radio 3 through my hi fi system and the source is a desktop PC I use in my living room, mainly to host a printer/scanner. I have to have that function defeated or I too get an echo in the sound.

Strictly speaking if you are running ASIO drivers the Windows setting should not matter but, ***t'appen.

More ram? Nah, 'we' ran an XP computer for music with 1G and had no problems...MANY years ago! Push the cash in a tin and save up for a win 10 machine.

Dave.