looking for thrifty setup w/ no latency

[MBL]

hey there. I'm looking for a economically sweet system (i'm quite the thrifty person) that would still be good enough to record w/ out latency.

so, I suppose the two things that would be responsible would be the comp. and the audio interface; any suggestions? I am looking for a pc not mac btw.

The most I would ever record at once would be 2 mics and two guitars w/ maybe a reason song playing in the background?


thanks for the help guys!

 

[Dr Biscuits]

Hmm... no latency for cheap eh? How about a cassette 4-track?
Actually, in home computer HD recording, you will always have some degree of latency so the key is to work around it with various methods. Most software like Cubase, Protools, Sonar automatically corrects for soundcard latency after you record an overdub, so when you play it back it's in sync (although Sonar sometimes has a problem with the accuracy of its re-syncing), so the main issue is monitoring yourself as you record.
A common solution is to monitor your live signal while overdubbing, not the signal after it's gone through the soundcard/software and back. Some setups like Protools MBox make this easy by having a "zero latency monitor" which essentially means you can send your live signal to your headphones via a volume pot on the interface. You can also rig up something like this yourself by running through a mixer first and monitoring your dry signal. The thing that sucks about this is that you are only monitoring the dry signal, so any in-software effects you may be adding won't be heard by you as you play.
There are more expensive systems/cards out there that can handle latency much better, but these cost $$... and will never be 100% perfect (although they can be close enough with nearly undetetible latency).
Whatever you chose, make sure to use the proper drivers (most likely AISO) have as fast a system as you can afford and have as little as possible running on the computer when you record.
Good luck!

 

[dwarf]

Multitrack recorder?