I've been recording rap vocals in Audacity until this week, I noticed a few recordings sounded like I was offbeat when I was sure i'd delivered them on-beat --- so I tried to check the latency settings for my vocal recordings.
I did the usual thing of creating a click/rhythm track and then putting the mic up against my headphones to record and to see the difference between the click track and the vocal recording --- but when I recorded multiple times, I could *see* that each of the recordings from the click-track were off-beat (either slightly ahead or behind each other).
I was either getting recordings with slight rushing or slight dragging (maybe around 0.5 to 1ms) of my vocals when I knew I'd delivered them on beat. Super frustrating as I just want it to record it accurately, and even a slight delay or rushing on them makes them sound weird.
Can anyone recommend 1. a way to make sure Audacity doesn't give variable latency output of my vocal recordings or 2. recommend another program that handles latency consistently and will give reliable recordings that will never sound 'off-beat' when I deliver the vocal correctly and on-beat.
Best DAWs for accurate latency on vocal recordings? (getting variable latency in audacity )
Re: Best DAWs for accurate latency on vocal recordings? (getting variable latency in audacity )
Welcome to the forum 
Latency can be introduced from various sources but most of them are of the plugin variety. If you are recording direct into a piece of software without plugins in the input chain then the biggest contributor to latency is almost certainly the device driver associated with your audio interface.
Two things you said seem odd to me though:
Given all interfaces have some latency then unless your software supports some kind of compensation (I can't be certain but I don't think Audacity does) then the recording should be offset such that the vox are later than the click. If you saw vox before the click then that makes little sense even if Audacity did support compensation.
Related to the above. There should be no rushing, insofar as the vox will not come before the click. If they are, your performance is probably off. I'd also contend that a latency of 0.5-1ms is of no importance; hardware synthesizers (not to mention acoustic pianos) have more than that between hitting a key and hearing the resulting sound and the human ear isn't going to notice such a tiny delay.
So something else seems to be going on. What audio interface are you using? Does it have ASIO drivers and if so what is the buffer size? Can you do more tests and try and be more specific?
Latency can be introduced from various sources but most of them are of the plugin variety. If you are recording direct into a piece of software without plugins in the input chain then the biggest contributor to latency is almost certainly the device driver associated with your audio interface.
Two things you said seem odd to me though:
BeadyMac wrote: I could *see* that each of the recordings from the click-track were off-beat (either slightly ahead or behind each other).
Given all interfaces have some latency then unless your software supports some kind of compensation (I can't be certain but I don't think Audacity does) then the recording should be offset such that the vox are later than the click. If you saw vox before the click then that makes little sense even if Audacity did support compensation.
BeadyMac wrote: ... slight rushing or slight dragging (maybe around 0.5 to 1ms)
Related to the above. There should be no rushing, insofar as the vox will not come before the click. If they are, your performance is probably off. I'd also contend that a latency of 0.5-1ms is of no importance; hardware synthesizers (not to mention acoustic pianos) have more than that between hitting a key and hearing the resulting sound and the human ear isn't going to notice such a tiny delay.
So something else seems to be going on. What audio interface are you using? Does it have ASIO drivers and if so what is the buffer size? Can you do more tests and try and be more specific?
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Re: Best DAWs for accurate latency on vocal recordings? (getting variable latency in audacity )
thanks for the welcome and the feedback
much appreciated
apologies i mistyped. the tracks where i could see the difference visually (ie slightly ahead or slightly behind) were multiple microphone recordings of the clicks coming thought the headphones
i had a latency compensation setting of -127ms set in audacity
i wanted to check to see if the differences with the seemingly rushing or dragging click tracks were audible so i turned the volume on all the mic recordings up and played them all at once, and it was like hearing 3 very fast clicks around the single original click
really frustrating because it means i can record a perfect take and playing it back, it can sound slightly off
im using a focusrite scarlett solo, shure sm58, quite a powerful windows laptop, got direct monitoring on -- not sure about ASIO but can do more tests for sure
apologies i mistyped. the tracks where i could see the difference visually (ie slightly ahead or slightly behind) were multiple microphone recordings of the clicks coming thought the headphones
i had a latency compensation setting of -127ms set in audacity
i wanted to check to see if the differences with the seemingly rushing or dragging click tracks were audible so i turned the volume on all the mic recordings up and played them all at once, and it was like hearing 3 very fast clicks around the single original click
really frustrating because it means i can record a perfect take and playing it back, it can sound slightly off
im using a focusrite scarlett solo, shure sm58, quite a powerful windows laptop, got direct monitoring on -- not sure about ASIO but can do more tests for sure
Re: Best DAWs for accurate latency on vocal recordings? (getting variable latency in audacity )
Audacity doesn’t use ASIO as standard for licensing reasons. Though I believe you can get an add-on yourself to get around that, but I have no idea what is involved if that’s true.
Reliably fallible.
Re: Best DAWs for accurate latency on vocal recordings? (getting variable latency in audacity )
BeadyMc wrote: ↑Sat Oct 21, 2023 2:33 am thanks for the welcome and the feedbackmuch appreciated
apologies i mistyped. the tracks where i could see the difference visually (ie slightly ahead or slightly behind) were multiple microphone recordings of the clicks coming thought the headphones
i had a latency compensation setting of -127ms set in audacity
i wanted to check to see if the differences with the seemingly rushing or dragging click tracks were audible so i turned the volume on all the mic recordings up and played them all at once, and it was like hearing 3 very fast clicks around the single original click
really frustrating because it means i can record a perfect take and playing it back, it can sound slightly off
im using a focusrite scarlett solo, shure sm58, quite a powerful windows laptop, got direct monitoring on -- not sure about ASIO but can do more tests for sure
That not surprising - the clicks through the phones are going through an additional round of DA and AD conversion, and travelling through the air to the mics, which generates latency. It’s not a problem.
Re: Best DAWs for accurate latency on vocal recordings? (getting variable latency in audacity )
I wouldn't think on Audacity as a DAW as such. It's a sample editor. It can do multiple .wav files at the same time, but it's not really aimed at multitracking.
There's Ardour or you could try the free demo of Reaper. To use Audacity with ASIO it must be compiled from source with the correct configuration options, which honestly is beyond most folks. Ardour and Reaper can both use ASIO out of the box.
There's Ardour or you could try the free demo of Reaper. To use Audacity with ASIO it must be compiled from source with the correct configuration options, which honestly is beyond most folks. Ardour and Reaper can both use ASIO out of the box.
It ain't what you don't know. It's what you know that ain't so.
Re: Best DAWs for accurate latency on vocal recordings? (getting variable latency in audacity )
Did you set this yourself following Audacity's latency compensation procedure?
https://support.audacityteam.org/troubl ... mpensation
Re: Best DAWs for accurate latency on vocal recordings? (getting variable latency in audacity )
This sounds like a windows driver problem to me. As has been said, Audacity doesn't work with ASIO drivers as standard, and without ASIO you're likely to suffer variable latency.
If I were you, I'd ditch Audacity and switch over to Reaper which will work perfectly with Focusrite's ASIO driver. There'll be a small learning curve, naturally, but it's a much better DAW and there are plenty of people here who use Reaper and can offer guidance if needed.
If I were you, I'd ditch Audacity and switch over to Reaper which will work perfectly with Focusrite's ASIO driver. There'll be a small learning curve, naturally, but it's a much better DAW and there are plenty of people here who use Reaper and can offer guidance if needed.
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In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
Re: Best DAWs for accurate latency on vocal recordings? (getting variable latency in audacity )
Though you might find Reaper a step to far, and some other basic version of a DAW might suit you; especially if you are used to Audacity.
For slightly more than Reaper, the Studio One 6 Artist edition has probably all you're likely to need at the moment. The same with Cubase Elements 12.
But Reaper is free to try, so have a go, and if you can't get your head around it, there are others that aren't too complicated but offer far more than Audacity offers.
For slightly more than Reaper, the Studio One 6 Artist edition has probably all you're likely to need at the moment. The same with Cubase Elements 12.
But Reaper is free to try, so have a go, and if you can't get your head around it, there are others that aren't too complicated but offer far more than Audacity offers.
Reliably fallible.
Re: Best DAWs for accurate latency on vocal recordings? (getting variable latency in audacity )
Yes, I would agree that rather than try to fix things with Audacity, I would use a DAW. Reaper is a good choice.
They are designed for multitracking, and if you want to adjust the timing of a track, in many of them you can simply set a track delay of however milliseconds forwards or back you want the track to play.
They are designed for multitracking, and if you want to adjust the timing of a track, in many of them you can simply set a track delay of however milliseconds forwards or back you want the track to play.