What is latency?

[nassa]

could someone please explain what latency is for me? I'm thinking it is something to do with the delay of sound.....warm? close or way off?!

Something else....I am using cubase vst 32, running windows xp on the pc and using a Behringer mixing desk. Here's my problem:

1) record a gtar track/drums....whatever - where am I checking for the correct levels? On the desk? or on the cubase desk?

2) When I listen to the pre recorded track through the headphones so that I can sing to it and record the 2nd track, there is a delay between what is coming out from the headphones and what I am singing.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Love nassa

 

[Laynestaley]

Latency is the time it takes for a signal to be processed from the input of your soundcard, through the electronics and sent to the output. So basically it's the time between the moment you strike the chord or sing in the mic and the moment you actually hear the sound come out. In any recording situation there will be some latency involved, but obviously the latency should be kept as low as possible.

The problems you are having seem to be latency problems indeed. The amount of latency can be changed by changing some soundcard settings however.

First of, in Cubase vst32, go to Options, Audio Setup - System and in the upper right corner of the pop up window, you'll see a place saying "Asio Device". Right underneath you'll find a text saying "Latency XXX Miliseconds". The number in the XXX field should be as little as possible.
Anything lower then 30 ms is acceptable but off course the lower, the better.

Try and choose a different ASIO device and see what happens. Usually the best will be the one saying, "ASIO DirectX....."

Still in the same screen, click on "ASIO Control Panel" and check the top window in the next screen. That's your audio output device. You'll find a small box saying "Buffer Size"... The smaller the Buffer, the shorter latency, but too little a buffer can cause some clicks and pops in your sound, so you should mess with these settings untill you've found the best one for you.

 

[nassa]

Thank You Laynestaley!!