Problems with Samson Meteor mic LATENCY!

K

Kei

New member
I know you may be thinking that I'm just a newbie who doesn't know that you have to search for your problem before making a new thread BUT despite everyone talking about latency in USB microphones, I still have some doubts. Sorry.

Okay so I'm the worst when it comes to noticing if my audio track fits the instrumental song. I purchased a Samson Meteor microphone and I didn't notice the latency until someone else did and told me. So... editing tracks is out of question by now...

Searching, I came across a web which said that if you plug the headphones into the microphone and sing that way, the latency problem is fixed! Since you sing while listening to yourself and the track at the same time.

And so I did, but actually it doesn't make sense to me, because I listen to my voice exactly at the same time I'm singing. Shouldn't I be listening to myself with a little latency in the headphones when they're plugged in the microphone so I can fix the problem... manually while singing? Isn't that the point?

And, since I didn't notice my track not fitting the instrumental the first time, I obviously can't make any difference between the two methods (if there's a difference at all...). So, I'ts p lame but I don't really know if this new method is working...... Can someone explain me what should I listen while I sing? Does this really fix the latency problems?

If not... is there a method to solve latency problems in USB microphones?

By the way, I have a laptop with win8.1 and use Audacity to record.
Sorry for my lame english level, I hope that you understood everything allright :o

Thanks for your help...!
 
Plugging the headphones into the mic doesn't solve the recorded latency (if there is one), it solves the playback latency. So you're not hearing your self 100ms later.... or whatever the latency is.

The real question is: Does your vocal track line up with instrumental track? If so, you're good to go. If not, it's probably Audacity, Windows, the mic or all three.

USB mics are not a good solution for recording music. They are for podcasting and Skype calls. They lack ASIO drivers that tell DAW software (not Audacity) what the latency is so it can be compensated.
 
Thank you for your fast reply!

No, my vocal track does not line up with the instrumental. That's the problem.
Anyway it seems that Audacity has a way to manually fix latency, so I'll try with that.

If not a USB microphone, what should I get to record on my computer, then?
 
Audacity is an okay audio editor but not really meant for multitrack recording. Better software may automatically line the tracks up and if not it will let you manually enter a correction value. Once you get that right the tracks should come out lined up every time.

You can try various DAWs for free. Reaper is a common suggestion as it's fully functional as a demo and relatively affordable when you decide to buy it. If a proper DAW solves your track alignment trouble you won't necessarily have to replace the USB mic right away (though you should do it as soon as you can).
 
Okay! Thanks for all the information.

I'll try with reaper, although Audacity has a function to manually calculate and fix latency issues. I think that'll work by now.

Anyway, how does exactly a non USB microphone work to record on the computer?
(Sorry I'm a newbie I don't know much about this :__ I actually purchased an USB microphone because I thought it was the only way to record directly on my laptop...)
 
Kei said:
Anyway, how does exactly a non USB microphone work to record on the computer?
Click to expand...

Typically you'll use a USB interface. Your USB mic has one built in, but there are often compromises when they do that. Using a separate mic/interface setup has advantages, including better controls and being able to try different mics.

But before you spend any money see if adjusting an appropriate setting in Audacity or using Reaper instead solves the problem. Then you can work with what you have until you can justify spending some money on a mic and interface.
 
Oh! I see (sorry for the late reply)

I think I fixed the problem, so I'll stick with the USB microphone for now.
Thank you for all your kind replies!!
 
Oh! I can't really explain accurately but I'll try >< I used Audacity.

You can somewhere manually adjust the amount of ms you want to automatically fix to avoid latency. To discover how many ms of latency you have, you just have to use a rythmic serie of tones, which you can manually create from Audacity. Then you just have to record the sound with your microphone. Then select the difference between the ending of the tone and the beggining of the one you recorded and see how many ms of latency you have. Then you just add that number (with a -) where you manually fix latency.

Sorry, this was really ambiguous, but a friend helped me a lot and I don't actually remember how it was x__x also I can't exactly tell where the features were because my Audacity is in Spanish :_ and it'll be confusing to tell x__x anyway if someone is interested just contact me and I'll ask my friend to explain it again so I can tell you accurately.
 
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