Sound Delay

D

DJ XTATIK

New member
Yo what up people?!
now i seem to have a problem with playing sound through my imac computer...i'm just starting out in all this recording business and i've successfully hooked my tt's up to my imac but when i play it through the comp i get a sound delay. Can somebody help me out on this one? I've already cleared up a lot of space for it and it's a pretty new comp so i can't see the problem!:mad: N E help would be greatly appreciated.

plus: does n e body know of any good programs for recording on imac's??? They're hard 2 find so any help would be great

peace out,
DJ XTATIK
 
This is computer latency and no you can't get rid of it except with a very expensive sound card.

One way round is to use an external mixer to pre route your sounds , then monitor your playing from the mixer not the computer. This will get rid of that anoying delay which at a guess is around 2-500 ms
 
hey thanks for the help....but i'm not sure i completely understand. I have already hooked up an external mixer and have hooked that into the comp and am monitoring it through there. Would it be better to use my amp and hi-fi speakers as a monitor instead of the comp? can it work like that?? and if so how could i hook that up???

thanx again
DJ XTATIK
 
Well it depends on your mixer.

If you have auxillary sends you could use these to send a feed from each channel to a headphone amp.

If you don't you could use a seperate pair of stereo outs to go to an old tape deck and monitor the mix thru that.

The basic idea is that you want to be hearing everything off the computer but you want to be hearing your playing signal mixed in with that before the signal goes to the computer. If thats any clearer.

What sort of mixing desk do you have ?
 
Firts of all here's a stupid question...cause i'm new to this...but what excatly is a mixing desk? I'll tell you what i have right now:
-my turntables hooked up to external Gemini mixer that has 4 aux inputs (2 used by tt's)
- my master line on mixer is connected to sound card port in my imac computer
- and right now i am using hi fi speakers connected to an amp which is connected to line output on computer for monitoring while i record.......
I'm not sure if explaining all that helped any but basically i am gettin sound delay after all this. :mad: How can i get around this stupid problem??You probably already answered this but please try and explain again.....

thanx,
Dj Xtatik
 
Ah you have a DJ mixer. A mixing desk has lots of other stuff on it. A DJ mixer is like a stripped down mixing desk. Some of the Panasonic DJ mixers are small Mixing desks in their own right.

The way you want to route it is your computer outs go into one of the inputs on the mixer , your turntable outs go in the others and your mixer goes to the monitors.

You must remember to turn off the thru monitor in your recording program otherwise you will get a delay coming through.

For this to work you need 4 outs from your mixer as 2 will have to send the signal to the computer to record.

You might find yourself needing a mixing desk for this sort of stuff.
 
it sound like you are just trying to record a set, right?

you're not trying to use the imac to produce sounds, correct?

if this is the case then there should be nothing coming out of the computer 'line out' or 'headphones'.

This is what you do. Your mixer should have at least two RCA outs. One called 'master' and another one called either 'recorde' or 'aux' or 'booth'. The master out goes to your amp/stereo/tape deck/ self-powered speakers/ monitors/ tin can. . . .anything that makes a sound, and this is not subjective to sound card latency. This is what you monitor off.

Then from the other out, that goes to the 'line in' of the sound card. This 'out' should not respond to the master volume control (slider) on the mixer, but will respond to the channel volume controls.

So now you are matching beats off of a cleaner signal and your computer is recording the same signal with some latency, but who cares? you can't hear that latency.
 
The computer doesn't record with latency , it only monitors with latency. Anything that is recorded will be playing back in time ... it is only the act of monitoring through a computer that introduces the latency.
 
i have the same problem...
when i actually record directly into cubase it seems to be the sound going in has a delay...so when i hit a note.. it repeats and records it like a second later than when i play it.. so i cant monitor it in the headphones!
i never thought such crapness existed
any idea's?
 
Are you talking about a MIDI note here , from a keyboard ?

If so , are you using software synths to produce the sound ?
 
nope audio..
i think its latency?? or is it just cubase isnt set-up right?
 
Yo thanx a lot POP D and Robin H....u guys helped clear up this crap about sound delay. I think i'm gonna try Pop D's idea cause like he said all i'm trying to do is record a set. That simple, not tryin to produce new sounds or ne thing....2 complicated 4 dis cat.:cool: ah well i'll try yo' idea pop D hopefully it works!!!

thanx again guys,
Dj XTATIK
 
nope audio.. i think its latency?? or is it just cubase isnt set-up right?
Click to expand...

Are your headphones plugged into the computer? If they are then its latency and there is very little you can do about it apart from use an external mixer.
 
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