Problem with latency...

Discussion in 'Computer Forum' started by harmonizer, Jul 6, 2011.

  1. alpha1

    alpha1 I BLUES!

    Harmony, I was talking about latency from soundcard in a recording scenario.
    Which happens mainly because of Analog to Digital conversion, Digital to analog conversion, and the digital signal processing inside the card.

    The soundcard latency, when audibly perceivable, is in the order of 100ms.

    And the end result of such latency is the following scenario:
    1. I record track A with drums.
    2. I wish to record rhythm guitars on top.
    3. So I arm the track B for recording, while track A plays the drum beats.
    4. I play the guitar very tight on drum beat, however, when I play track A and track B together - the track B lags considerably.
    I am sure I did not screw up my guitar playing - so what I did wrong?

    Nothing. Its just that the signal getting recorded on your PC took long, and though you played right, it took your hardware+software 100ms more to actually record on the hard disk or RAM. Which results in a time lag of 100ms of track B.

    This can be corrected easily by the software (automatic time shift of recorded track).


    If we were to go buy how much lag is induced by CPU and RAM and cache and the bus - that will be really miniscule compared to the soundcard induced latency.


    Anyway - re reading your first post - I believe you are actually talking about Analog-digital-analog latency - where software cannot play any role to correct.
    Apologies for dragging the thread this long :)
     

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