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Recording to your PC and latency.

DuckSoup

DuckSoup

Dec 20, 2017
204
236
Colorado
#1
So I'm looking for a way to record my bass to my computer, while also listening to music through Spotify or an MP3.

Right now I have a Real Tone cable that I picked up for cheap. It works, but without using Windows Audio Exclusive (Where it only plays the sound of the bass, no music) I get a bit of latency when I play, which throws me completely off.

Now I've done some searching around on these forums, and I've seen many folks recommending products such as the Behringer UMC22 or UM2, but do these products have any kind of latency issues?

Does it allow you to interface with something like Amplitube, while also listening to other music through your PC?
 
#2
The key is for your interface to have a direct monitoring output capability. That just means the headphone out doesn't go through your DAW, just input-> headphones. Theoretically zero latency for anything pushed through the hard ware. You may still get latency when recording, my Focusrite 2i4 has a few millisecond, so I need to nudge the track into time when I am done, but the actual playing -> phones portion is in time with the recorded tracks while I'm playing. Does that make sense?
 
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#5
Ender_rpm said:
The key is for your interface to have a direct monitoring output capability. That just means the headphone out doesn't go through your DAW, just input-> headphones. Theoretically zero latency for anything pushed through the hard ware. You may still get latency when recording, my Focusrite 2i4 has a few millisecond, so I need to nudge the track into time when I am done, but the actual playing -> phones portion is in time with the recorded tracks while I'm playing. Does that make sense?
Click to expand...

So it's a bit over my head, but when you say the interface do you mean the interface used to plug my bass into? So for example the Behringer, I'd plug my bass into that, but use the headphone out on that device, rather than from my PC? But then I wouldn't have the music playing from my PC to the headphones right? Or would the PC audio output to the Behringer?
 
#6
DuckSoup said:
So it's a bit over my head, but when you say the interface do you mean the interface used to plug my bass into? So for example the Behringer, I'd plug my bass into that, but use the headphone out on that device, rather than from my PC? But then I wouldn't have the music playing from my PC to the headphones right? Or would the PC audio output to the Behringer?
Click to expand...

Yes, you'd set up your audio controls on the computer to out put through the interface, and everything would output through your headphones or the monitors you have plugged into your interface.
 
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#7
Ender_rpm said:
Yes, you'd set up your audio controls on the computer to out put through the interface, and everything would output through your headphones or the monitors you have plugged into your interface.
Click to expand...

Ah I understand, thank you.

As for those Behringers, is that a good interface to pick up for recording? They seem pretty inexpensive, but will they get the job done?
 
#8
DuckSoup said:
Ah I understand, thank you.

As for those Behringers, is that a good interface to pick up for recording? They seem pretty inexpensive, but will they get the job done?
Click to expand...

I can't say, they look pretty cheap, so I'd probably say much like most Behringer stuff, it'll work, but you get what you pay for.

Having looked at them, see the "direct monitor" button on them? That looks like it will switch your instrument signal to come directly out of the headphones, vs waiting for the AD convertors and DAW to kick it back. You'd still need to reroute your PCs audio to the Behringer as the out put device, but it should come with instructions on how to do that.
 
#11
The outboard gear you use won't matter if you don't have a computer stuffed full of RAM. For years I had trouble getting Cubase to work with my system. When I finally upgraded to Win10, I replaced all the inner components of my computer and put in as much RAM as I could afford. Now I can play/record multiple tracks and have little or no latency issues.
 
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#13
Focusrite 2i4 or Presonus Itwo are great low budget interfaces.

If you buy an internal firewire card (some good ones that are cheap) then then opens up your world to super low latency FIREWIRE!
 
#15
DuckSoup said:
So I'm looking for a way to record my bass to my computer, while also listening to music through Spotify or an MP3.

Right now I have a Real Tone cable that I picked up for cheap. It works, but without using Windows Audio Exclusive (Where it only plays the sound of the bass, no music) I get a bit of latency when I play, which throws me completely off.

Now I've done some searching around on these forums, and I've seen many folks recommending products such as the Behringer UMC22 or UM2, but do these products have any kind of latency issues?

Does it allow you to interface with something like Amplitube, while also listening to other music through your PC?
Click to expand...
I have and use the Behringer U-phoria UMC202HD (192KHz) audio interface into my desktop. It has Zero latency problems. You can record straight off of it or you can push in the "direct monitor" button and anything you play will sync perfectly with what you are listening to. We used to call this "sound on sound" with those old tape machines. It works perfectly if you want to play and sing at the same time. If you want to have others in your "studio" then their 404HD at twice the price is great. If you will only be doing the singing and instruments yourself, no need for the 404HD, just get the 202HD. After you record the melody and an instrument track, you can go back and cut more tracks with other instruments and vocals on it.

I also used it for a while to hook up to an internet service that would let you play in real-time with others. That actually worked pretty well. You usually have to go in and adjust the latency on it to play with 2 or more people but it still works just fine. You adjust the latency with a dialogue box on your 'puter. Stopped using it for that because the guitarist who used a different interface just couldn't get his to hook up with the service. I could play with the drums, but not the guitarist.

I thought my original UMC202 (not HD) had died last year when I was having sound problems on my desktop computer. A newer and better version (192KHZ instead of 96KHz) was available for less than 1/2 the price I paid for the first one. And of course the first one didn't end up being the problem. So I finally tracked down the problem and have the old one set aside to give to our guitar player. Current price on Amazon on the UMC U-phoria 202HD that I use is $59.99 - BUY IT!
 
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#16
JaketheB said:
Focusrite 2i4 or Presonus Itwo are great low budget interfaces.

If you buy an internal firewire card (some good ones that are cheap) then then opens up your world to super low latency FIREWIRE!
Click to expand...

Ten years ago I would have agreed with you, but today I'd say Firewire is more or less dead. (Which may be a good thing as you can pick up a used FW interface for next to nothing, but don't expect to build a future-proof studio around it.) I'd say the major issues that plagued early USB is solved; both latency and capacity are comparable with FW, and this without excessive load on the CPU.
 
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#17
DuckSoup said:
So I'm looking for a way to record my bass to my computer, while also listening to music through Spotify or an MP3.

Right now I have a Real Tone cable that I picked up for cheap. It works, but without using Windows Audio Exclusive (Where it only plays the sound of the bass, no music) I get a bit of latency when I play, which throws me completely off.

Now I've done some searching around on these forums, and I've seen many folks recommending products such as the Behringer UMC22 or UM2, but do these products have any kind of latency issues?

Does it allow you to interface with something like Amplitube, while also listening to other music through your PC?
Click to expand...
So a couple things. Have you given ASIO4ALL a shot? It's a universal driver that works with nearly every DAW (with varying degrees of success).

Scarlett Focusrite gear DOES get a lot of advertisement (I have an opinion 18i8 I barely get a chance to use) and I don't hear much latency complaints but realistically, how little do you need? We've been in the game of usb 2.0 gear needing "less latency!" But people don't really justify that very well. I have an M-audio fast track that did ok for when I HAD to record into my laptop, but if you read reviews you'd think the thing was horrid.

Generally people swear by presonus, Scarlett, any firewire gear, or going to an actual studio. That's my experience.
 
#19
DuckSoup said:
Yep, I've had that installed, and when it's set there is no latency, but I cannot play music from my PC while using those drivers. It's almost like the Windows Exclusive mode.
Click to expand...
Right. ....I'm flashing back.....so you're trying to do this through a laptop, right? I think what I had to do back when I had the fast track was turn off windows sound and let the DAW control the playback, and then you'd get the music and instrument mix with no latency because if you try this process with windows sound on your pc detects DAW and PC sound as two different sound sources vs it all being in the same box
 

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