Audacity recording problem !

[calymarvin]

Hi all Audacity users !

I am new to recording. Recently I downloaded audacity and tried to record my guitar plugged into computer through my Zoom g2.

when I press the recording button I can hear the backing track clearly but when I play my guitar the sound on the speaker output and my recorded track is delayed by a half a second (Is It called 'Latency' I am not sure?)

I hear the sound after half a second of picking my strings on the guitar

Consequently I am unable to keep up with backing track.

Anyone could help me solve this ?

Regrads Calymarvin.

[grip]

Hi Calymarvin,


You may find some answers in these 2 threads:

charliehall.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=technical&action=display&thread=4004

charliehall.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=music&thread=4378&page=1

There is also a possibility that it is caused by your PC equipment if it is "slow" by today's standards and doesn't have much memory


Kind regards,



Chris

[calymarvin]

Hi Chris

Thanks for your reply !
My Computer is Pentium 4 ( 3 Hz) , Windows XP

Regards Calymarvin

[shadfan4]

It is almost certain to be latency, this is about the time taken by the A/D (analogue/digital) converters of your sound card. to convert the analogue input to digital then play it back by digital to analogue. This can be changed by adjusting the buffer sizes on the sound card. There should be an indication in your soundcard control panel for the buffers and in your sequencers audio device set up dialogue box for the total in/out latency in ms.

If the zoom has spdif or other digital out and your soundcard has digital in, then that will remove half the conversion process.

Hope this helps.

Mike

PS the longer the input chain is into the PC the greater the latency. Around 6ms is a good target.

[tonybiker]

Where are you connecting the guitar to the PC?

[calymarvin]

Hi Tony,

Thanks for your response !

I connect the guitar through my Zoom g2 to mic input in rear pannel of my computer (which is pink)

Guitar ---> Zoom G2--------->Computer Mic in



Regards,
Calymarvin

[TonyL]

Hi CarlyMarvin

I have the same set up for recording (G2) only I normally take the headphones output on my amp to the LINE-IN on the PC (BLUE).

Assuming you have the latest version of Audacity (I'm running 1.3.11) you can set up the latency in the Edit>Preferences>Recording section.

Make sure that Overdub: Play other tracks while recording new one is the only box selected.

Leave the Latency for now and click OK.

Go to the Help pages and you need to find your way to the Recording Preferences section. The easiest way is to click Menu Bar in the left panel. Then click Edit in the main panel on the next screen. Scroll right to the bottom and select Preferences dialog. On the next screen click Recording and you'll finally get to the Recording Preferences section.

Scroll down to Latency and click on the Latency Test link in the last line and follow the instructions.

I've done this and I get no problems with latency when recording.

[Deleted]

Hi Caly,
When you start recording each time you press record, Audacity starts on a fresh track. It is standard recording practice if you mess up a section in your first take to leave it and carry on, then you can target the mistake and just record that on the next track. It will come up on the second track but remember to mute your first recording.
Then watch youtube tutorial about deleting part of a track.
On other recording software its called "Punch in and Punch out".
Before around 1962 you could'nt Punch in/out only splice tape until they got multi track recording, thats why you may notice slight bummish/unintended notes in a couple of the Shads early tracks. I think in 1962 the Beatles recorded on a 4 track then by the mid 60's they went up to 32 track or something.
Tony

[calymarvin]

Hi Mike / Tony (Cyprus)/Tony(UK)

Thank you all for your help & support I am trying all the options avilable.

One of the problems was I was using the old audacity now I 've downloaded the latest version (audacity 1.31.12 beta (Unicode).
I tested the latency by using the help menu the latency was .16 seconds. Now I've corrceted the latency. I will record during this week end.

If I am succesful I'll let you all know !

In the mean time Thank you all again for your time, help & advice !!!

Regards Calymarvin