Therefore, you need need to be on guard and know how to deal with it when it does.

After all, there isn’t anything that’s much more frustrating than having an idea, setting your equipment up, opening your DAW and … d’oh!

Why is there such a delay in your audio?!

Don’t worry. We’re going to discuss what you can do to solve audio latency right here.

Latency is a time delay (measured in milliseconds) between an input signal entering a recording device, landing on your digital audio workstation timeline, and the output signal leaving speakers or headphones.

In other words, recording latency is the time it takes for your input audio or DIN MIDI signal to:

So both DIN MIDI latency and audio latency in digital audio recording is the time difference between input and output. Therefore it’s a delay between playing an instrument into your recording device and hearing the recorded signal while monitoring.

As a result, latency can make recording instruments or performing on MIDI devices pretty difficult.

However, some MIDI controllers use USB connections rather than DIN ports.

While any latency is still a time delay, these digital USB MIDI signals :

So latency can still occur with these digital signals too!

Many things can cause recording latency. Potential causes of audio and MIDI latency include:

While recording, your signal travels through your audio interface and into your DAW. So latency will occur if there is a mismatch of the timing of your hardware and your software. 

For example, the time it takes for your interface to convert your analog signal into a digital one can cause latency.

This mismatch in time will affect how your input signal lands on the input channel in your DAW.

Alternatively, recording virtual instruments with a MIDI keyboard typically entails the input signal traveling through your DAW and the instrument itself. Not to mention any plugins you may have loaded on the channel too!

Of course, this is all occurring while your MIDI input is sharing the audio buffer within your DAW with the rest of the project. Additionally, any other apps you may have open are asking for CPU and RAM processing power too.

And these can all affect how speedily your input reaches its destination.

There is a high chance that latency will affect digital audio recording equipment no matter the cause.

And when it does, we usually have to re-record our instrument because latency messed up our take.

After all, monitoring your performance – whether acoustic or electric – while latency interferes is difficult. Everything is out of time because your DAW registers your input and outputs sound too late.

Let’s use a band as an example. While playing, each performer must stay in time with the drummer. Their instruments will sound disorientingly out of time if they don’t.

Consequently, they’d need to re-record their performance and work harder to stay in time with each other.

Therefore, audio or MIDI latency in digital recordings will massively interrupt your recording sessions.

And if you want to avoid these problems before they arise, learning to recognize latency will allow you to record your instruments seamlessly.

Here are a few ways that you can detect what’s causing recording latency.

Any latency higher than 10ms will be audibly noticeable. Therefore a good latency for recording is 10ms or less.

Ultimately, there is no way to completely eradicate recording latency so it’s not possible to record without a bit of latency. After all, digital processing takes time. So latency is an inherent part of digital signal processing!

But there are a number of things that you can do to reduce latency in your digital recording setup.

One problem causing audio latency may be your audio interface itself.

As we explored earlier, an audio interface receives analog signals from a microphone cable , converts that signal into a digital one, and sends it to your computer. This is known as analog to digital conversion (ADC).

And your computer will send the digital signal back to the interface upon playback. Speakers can’t play digital signals, so we need to re-convert them back into an electrical signal.

So the interface converts the signal back into an analog signal, and this is known as digital to analog conversion (DAC).

Finally, the interface sends the signal through speaker cables to your studio monitors.

That’s quite a bit of processing. So it’s understandable why an audio interface can create or add to your recording latency problem! But there are a few things that you can do to reduce audio interface latency.

Reducing the buffer size in your DAW will reduce MIDI latency with USB over MIDI cable connections.

However, if you’re using a DIN MIDI connection to your interface, you can reduce latency by reducing the buffer size in your audio interface software or using zero latency/direct monitoring.

Buffer size is the number of samples your computer needs to process an incoming signal.

Therefore, a higher buffer size requires more samples. And because it needs more samples to process your audio, it increases latency time.

And the more you increase your buffer size, the more noticeable latency becomes.

In contrast, a lower buffer size means your computer needs fewer samples – and therefore less time – to process your input. As a result, it decreases latency.

Reducing your buffer size asks your computer to use more of its processing power in a short space of time to process your input.

Consequently, you need to balance buffer size with what you’re computer can handle.

Ideally, you want the lowest buffer size. But because this taxes your computer heavily, not all systems are up to the challenge. Errors and audible glitches are the results of too low a buffer size when a computer can’t keep up.

Therefore you’ll require a higher buffer size while recording and mixing if you have a less powerful computer.

So experiment with the audio buffer settings and see which is the smallest buffer your computer will process with no errors.

You can calculate how much recording latency you’re experiencing in an audio interface or DAW like this:

Buffer size / sample rate = latency time

But why? Because buffer size is measured in samples and sample rate is measured in samples per second.

The sample rate (measured in kHz) determines the number of times your system measures your input signal per second.

Therefore, by dividing the two you get the physical time of the latency your experiencing, measured in milliseconds (ms).

As a result, recording with a lower buffer size at a higher sample rate captures audio in better quality. However, this will actually increase latency time as capturing more samples means more processing for your computer.

But recording with a larger buffer size at a lower sample rate offers a lower latency time but with a reduced quality.

The buffer size and sample rate you can record at efficiently depends on how powerful your computer is.

Here are the most common buffer size settings:

For computers with 8GB of RAM, a buffer size below 128 may begin to cause problems.

Next, here are the common sample rates for computers with only 8GB of RAM:

But computers with more RAM and processing power can utilize higher sample rates of:

So if your computer only has 8GB of RAM, you will struggle to record with these higher sample rates.

Both digital audio workstations and audio interface software often display the amount of latency your chosen settings offer. And if yours doesn’t, now you know how to work it out for yourself! (See here) .

Finally, there isn’t an industry standard buffer size. It’s entirely subjective, and you should base your chosen settings on the capabilities of your equipment.

But modern technology usually permits computers to record with a buffer size between 128 and 256 at a maximum sample rate of 48kHz with no problems. 

Latency isn’t going away anytime soon. Because it’s an inherent part of digital audio, you need to learn to recognize it and deal with it there and then.

Imagine playing live music with your laptop and MIDI controller and audible latency interferes? If you don’t know how to deal with it then your performance is compromised.

This digital nuisance can crop up anywhere in your signal chain. But now you know how to both troubleshoot and reduce latency in your digital recording setup.

Have you sussed where is that delay coming from?

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