Delay delay delay delay

[almann1979]

Well i recieved a new laptop from work in exchange for my old one which i broke
i got very excited about doing some recording and set up my sophisticated home studio (okay - i just opened audacity)

however, for some reason there is a delay of about 1.5s between me playing a notes and it comming out of the speakers. this is going to make recording impossible when i come to put some guitar over an already existing track.

im not doing anything different than before, but has anybody encountered this before??

[Big Lar]

Sounds like the audio driver is not an ASIO low latency driver. See if the sound card maker offers an ASIO driver.

[almann1979]

thanks - but can i ask what an ASIO driver is please?

[falcon1]

ASIO is just a driver with a very low overhead, which reduces the delay. You can download it here: http://asio4all.com/

If you need help setting it up, feel free to ask!

[almann1979]

thanks for the link, that is brilliant!!! ill get it downloaded and try it tomorrow.

many thanks again!!

[Kalle_in_Sweden]

Sorry to say , but Audacity does not support ASIO2 drivers
And 1.5 s delay is far , far above any delay from a sound driver.
What is the delay (input to output in PC) when you use windows standard sound controls.
Normally, you should not have any delay problem until you start to record your instrument to an already recorded track (recording your playing to a backing track).
/Kalle

[almann1979]

the delay is there weather i record or not, even if i just use the pc as a speaker without audacity open??

[Kalle_in_Sweden]

"the delay is there weather i record or not, even if i just use the pc as a speaker without audacity open??"
That is very peculiar, even on a very old Pentium 2 (450 Mhz) PC i didn´t have that problem.
I can´t even understand how you can get that big delay (1.5 s) in the sound circuitry of a PC (old or new).
If you connect a headset with mic to the PC , do you get same delay of your voice ?
How have you connected you instruments to the PC, line-in or mic-in,USB, any pre-amp between the instruemnt and PC ?
/Kalle

[almann1979]

well since i last posted, i now dont get any noise out of my computer at all when i plug my guitar in. i can plug into my practice amp first and then the pc, and i record with no delay, but that is now the only way i can hear my guitar while recording.

i dont know what settings i have fiddled with and broken, somebody should keep me away from computers

[Kalle_in_Sweden]

well since i last posted, i now dont get any noise out of my computer at all when i plug my guitar in. i can plug into my practice amp first and then the pc, and I record with no delay, but that is now the only way i can hear my guitar while recording.
i dont know what settings i have fiddled with and broken, somebody should keep me away from computers

My guess is that you switched the recording settings in Windows sound controls from Mic-in (high gain) to line-in (low gain).
Many laptops has just one sound input that is "SW" switchable between line-in or mic-in.
But this means that you have solved the delay problem and can start recording without any delay problem....
/Kalle
PS You should not use the Mic-input on PC or Laptops standard soundcard as it is normally very noisy and bad.
(its not designed for music recording, just for headsets and chatting)
The Line-input (on the other hand) is normally good enough for recording and just need a pre-amp/analog mixer or other level converter (headphone/line out of guitar amp) to do a good job.