Hi There,

The topic of latency in recordings while using Audacity came up in our chat today. I do not use it myself, but promised to go check it out.
I thought the issue would lie in the buffer settings, BUT I cannot find anywhere where these can be adjusted. How would I do this?
I also thought the issue might be DirectX drivers as opposed to ASIO. I have no idea what people are using as audio interfaces, but suspect it might be one possible issue. Any thoughts?
It is especially hard for me to figure out as I do not have these issues myself when running Audacity, so any thoughts will be deeply appreciated!

Regards,

Martin

Hi Martin,

Audacity 1.2.6 has an inherent latency that will depend on the speed of your computer. Unfortunately besides closing all other programs, there is not much that you can do. Audacity does not have buffer settings like a more robust program such as Sonar or Pro Tools would. Adjusting the sample rate for a particular Audacity session can help with some sound cards but this is not a guarantee. I have run into less latency issues with Audacity 1.3, but being that it is a beta, it comes with a slew of other issues instead.

Using an audio interface can help because it routes the signal through there instead of a computer's built-in sound card. However if you are going to spend money on an interface, you might as well just buy some better software. I only recommend Audacity to PC users looking for a free option. If someone is using a Mac, definitely use Garageband instead. Hope this helps!

Sincerely,
Rob Fusco
Berkleemusic