Recording with a bad delay

[Linas]

So ive got a newer version of ableton and im trying to make a very basic recording of my bass plugged in directly from it with a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter into the soundcard. I know there is an inherent delay and when i lowered the buffer it makes it sound really bad. How should i go about recording this? Listening to myself 1/2 a second off really screws with me. I might have to do it unamped.

[geoffkhan]

Is there a zero-latency monitoring option? For example, are you using Ableton's monitoring, or can you have a direct monitoring from your soundcard?

[bluestarbass]

Something I had to do, and even digidesign suggested this, when i got my first mbox. Mute the track your trying to record. This wont allow you to hear any of the plugins you have on the tracks, but it gets rid of the latency. Obviously Geoff's answer is better than mine, but if you dont have zero latency monitoring this will work alright, not great.