Latency

W

wyastarr

New member
A bit long winded, but here goes:

I'm thinking about spending $3000 (US) on a computer, soundcard, and software set-up to begin doing digital recording.

What I'm concerned about is this issue of "latency." As I understand it, there can be a delay when adding a new track while monitoring whatever's already been recorded. If you're playing a guitar part for the new track, there can be a delay from when you hit a note to when you hear it in the monitor mix. This is something that would depress me and leave me despondent.

I'll probably be recording at most 4 tracks at a time. But I think I'll be doing pieces with lots of tracks in total. I don't want this latency issue to become a problem. I'll probably want to use some effects, but definately not tons of them. If I go with outboard effects (e.g., Lexicon LXP-1) rather than onboard DSP or plug-in effects, does that reduce my latency issues?

The two systems I'm leaning towards are:

PC (PIII, 750, 256 RAM, 2 hard drives (10 gig and 30 gig)
Aardvark Direct Pro, Delta 66 or 1010
Cubase or Logic Gold
Mackie 1202 VLZ Pro

Mac (G4, 400, 192 RAM, 2 hard drives (10 gig and 30 gig)
Digi 001
Mackie 1202 VLZ pro

With the mixer these are probably going to be a bit more that $3000. Which I guess brings up a side question, should I bother with a mixer?

Anyways, any thoughts on which of these will leave me more happy and creative as I lay down track after track of mediocre guitar riffs or unlistenable vocal warbles?

Thanks in advance for your help you may be able to provide.
 
Latency would in all likelyhood not be a concern with the machines you're looking at. In fact, latency is rarely a concern at all unless a) you have a cheapo soundcard b) you have a slow machine. Even then, most recording software can compensate.

I do exactly what you're talking about doing on a Celeron 500, 7200RPM hard drive, 164MB RAM, and a cheap Ensoniq soundcard. My average project will have from 10-20 tracks, no latency problems whatsoever. You'll get similar answers from the majority of the people who record on computers around here. Don't worry about it.

There are more things to be concerned with when choosing a DAW....hard drive speed/controller... memory size... CPU power... can I run the OS of my choice? ... is this soundcard a good choice given the software and OS I'd like to run? ... Can I record 24bit audio? At what sample rate? ... etc etc etc

To summarize: don't worry about it :)

Slackmaster 2000
 
If the soundcard you plan on getting has enough preamps of adequate quality for mics and you plan on mixing and adding effects in the software, you don't need an external mixer.

My present soundcard is the DSP24 with ADC/DAC2000 (aka C-Port) from Hoontech and it has good quality converters but the preamps are crap, and there's only preamps on two of the eight ins. I sold my mixer yesterday and am looking into the DSP24 MKII with the ADCIII breakout box to replace my present setup. The DSP24 MKII with ADCIII would give me 8 ins with good preamps and phantom power and two line out to feed the monitors and headphones, which is all I need. All I need is a box that will let me route the output to either headphones or the monitors. The new setup will cost about US$700 while my present card costed $350 and the mixer $1000.

Just my two cents

/Ola
 
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