New to the Digital "wave"

[Nosirrom]

Hello,
I've been playing for quite awhile .. getting by with my PC and "crap" soundcard, my major problem is "latency" in my recodings. My first track is fine (obviously) but each track there-after has a slight "delay" which makes recording a major pain and kills all my motivation to record anymore (trying to line up all the tracks)

I was wondering what i should get to solve this problem, im ready to go buy a Mixer and new Sound Card, im willing to spend some cash to get this going and get rid of all the frustration.

I guess my question is, will a new Sound Card and Mixer get me on the right track ?

Any help or suggestions on what to get is appreciated.

 

[Massive Master]

Software with latency compensation will help, as will hardware with low latency.

If you've got a budget in mind, I'm sure that you'll get a plethora of opinions.

 

[Nosirrom]

hardware with low latency.

Hardware as in, Sound Card?

im using Cool Edit Pro for software at the moment

If you've got a budget in mind, I'm sure that you'll get a plethora of opinions.

$1500-1700 preferably a little less but thats my max.

 

[Rokket]

Hardware as in? I never realized hardware had "latency" issues, as hardware im thinking some sort of Mixer / Ect. (a base to connect all Analog musical insturments to run to the computer)



$1500-1700 preferably a little less but thats my max.

Any time you connect analog to digital there is going to be some latency between when the signal goes out and when the digital reads it. As he said, most of the software made specifically for multi-track recording has built in compensation for this. Remember I said "most", not "all". Before you buy, you need to check into it's specs to be sure it's there.
I'm not going to go into what you should or should not buy. I can't make heads or tails out of those Maudio, Emu or other soundcards that they make out there to get your analog signal to your pc. I do it with digital 8 tracker and transfer the tracks to my pc via usb and mix that way. There are plenty of people on here who do use them that can give you far better advice than I can. I just wanted to clear up the latency question.
I hope I did.

 

[Nosirrom]

most of the software made specifically for multi-track recording has built in compensation for this.

Ive messed around with the setting on Cool Edit and got the "delay" down to a minimum ... but even that is unbearable to the musical ear




I do it with digital 8 tracker and transfer the tracks to my pc via usb and mix that way. [/QUOTE]

I've also considered this aswell ... i've worked with a digital 8 track before and it was quick / easy, which is what i am shooting for.

With recording into a digital 8 track and connecting to USB port you bypass the whole Soundcard latency issue, correct?