Keyboard connect to Laptop - but sound is delayed

[blueangel]

Hi, I just bought an audio cable to connect keyboard stereo-out to my laptop mic-in.

Downloaded a free copy of Audacity software to record WAV files as I play ( can export to MP3 ) but the sound was delayed like about 0.5 seconds.

Wonder if anyone can give a tip on how to get rid of the delay ?

The sound produced when I play is a software Playthrough..so I think the software processes the sound and reproduced it at 0.5 seconds later through my desktop Creative's stereo system. You know, my keyboard sound is disabled whenever I plug in the stereo jack into the phono-out. ( that logical since its suppose to be used as a phono earphone jack, so speaker from keyboard is muted )

Is there anyway I can do so that I can hear exact realtime from the keyboard or disable the muting from the keyboard ?

My laptop don't have a line-in jack, so I used the mic-in jack.

Thanks !

 

[piano_ex]

Can you tell us ur laptop specification?

so you're recording rite?

 

[lowjk]

Install this http://www.asio4all.com/ and select it as your sound driver.
See if it helps reduce the "delay".

 

[blueangel]

YEah.. I was trying to record from the keyboard.. my laptop is the usual Dell Inspiron 6400. 1.66Mhz and 512M ram. Its using the built-in SigmaTel Audio..

I also tried installed the asio4all... but seems like it wasn't working well..??Dunno how it works.. haa

 

[piano_ex]

i think 512 ram is very very minimum ....

my iBook was laggin when it's still 512 ...
I've upgrade it to 1.5 now ...

can use reason for gig now .... with very minimum almost not noticeable lag ..

 

[blueangel]

I think it could be the software...

I just made a good search again just now and managed to download 2 more free software.. installation for both were fuss-free.. but yet to try out if there was pronounced latency in these 2 software.. gonna try them at home tonight and review it after trying out

FYI : I download these software.. hopefully they give better results..

KRISTAL
EXPSTUDIO

 

[l0u5y]

The most probable reason is ur sound card is not up to par. what u can do is change the sound card or get a preamp with a soundcard built-in. connect both to ur laptop and it shud reduce the latency.

my laptop is also of 512mb of ram, 2.0 Ghz of cpu power. but im using a presonus firebox with soundcard built-in. if i switch to my laptop sound card, the latency is like 1.5s. but when using my firebox instead, the latency is .04s which can be further reduce to .01s but tat would hurt my laptop though.

 

[blueangel]

Oh.. didn't know there is such device .. where is possible to get that external sound card .. and roughly how much would it cost ? Where is it connected ia the PC , USB ?

 

[l0u5y]

its actually an audio interface with a sound card built-in.
im not really sure where to get it. maybe funan, im not sure if sim lim has it. theres a stall in sunshine plaza called resolution, maybe u can get 1 there.

 

[Cheez]

Blueangel, what do you mean asio4all isn't working well? In your software, you should be able to select the audio drivers. Make sure it is not Window's MME drivers which has significant latency. It has to be asio.

If all these are done and you still encounter latency, then l0u5y is right. There are many options for audio interfaces out there, from USB to firewire to PCMCIA. Many brand carries them - M-audio, Echo, MOTU, Presonus, RME, Yamaha, etc etc and the list goes on.

And recording from the mic input for a keyboard (line) is not recommended.

I believe you may be just trying and experimenting with recording at this stage. So I guess you won't be spending too much money buying gears. So I would say, exhaust all your current options first (ie what you are doing - asio4all, try other software etc). If you really want to do it, then the next step is the audio interface. And the choice depends on many factors, the main being what and how many instruments you are going to record.

After that, if you get clicks and pops, the problem will lie on your RAM limitations, which really need to go up. But...with my old P3 933Mhz with 512 RAM, I can still do multi-track recording. So your specs are not too bad, unless of course you have lots of other software running taking up CPU and RAM resources in the background. We'll leave all this to another discussion. Let's solve the latency first...

 

[blueangel]

Thanks for all your suggestions .

Asio .. i installed but the composer software doesn't show any asio sound driver in the list. Only Windows MME and SigmaTel audio.. both got the same latency.

If this doesn't work, well maybe I try to go around it lah.. cos I thought of recording the play together with the full auto accompaniment from my keyboard too..

Example :
Record track 1 = chords + auto accompaniment
Record track 2 = melody
record track 3 = other parts, example effects or add-on a rhythm etc

So I need to record track 1. Then while recording track 2, I will play back track 1 at the same time, so that I can record the melody in sync with the chords + accompaniment. But the long latency makes it impossible to play it in tempo .. end up my track 1 and 2 become off-beat...

 

[Cheez]

Try uninstalling and reintalling asio4all. It should appear on your software as a driver.

 

[magistra]

I think it's not about ASIO drivers.

Latency caused by delay from A\D conversion at input and D\A conversion at output. Possibly also by how the computer handles the audio data.

I stopped trying to configure the ASIO drivers and got a hardware interface EMU0404USB that converts A\D and let's me monitor my analogue input at source (before it's converted into digital and goes into the computer). Once it's in my Music Production Software (Cakewalk, Ableton). All those tracks recorded play back fine with no noticeable latency.

The only latency issue I have is with the software synths playing reading my MIDI data and playing the audio back with some delay. EMU drivers work well with their hardware (no noticeable latency). ASIO4ALL works fine with my on-board High Definition sound card running stereo, but registers BEYOND LOGIC (can't see the device) for the EMU hardware.

I also discovered that using the multimedia high definition audio driver will cause high latency. I guess so, because it gives me 8 possible speaker outs.

Anyone out there using APOGEE A/D D/A s? Comments on the performance?

 

[Cheez]

Actually, Asio drivers do play an important part; so does the AD/DA converters.

There are SIGNIFICANT difference in latency with using MME compared to Asio drivers.

Most soundcards uses Asio or Asio 2- so does the Emu. So when you uses the Emu0404, your low latency is a combination of different factors at play.

 

[persentio]

You probably need a better sound card or DAW. Do your audio driver or Audacity have an option for you to change your audio buffer sizes or reduce latency?

 

[mogui_666]

Hi blueangel,

if you are serious into music composition then i will advice you to get an external audio interface. I use to have this problem long time ago. then i realize that its the laptop sound card problems. So safe up some money and get myself a real audio interface. currently i am using a TC electronic konnect Live with my lappy.

I brought my konnect Live from team 108 not long ago. But if konnect is too expensive for you, you can get other external audio interface like forcurite saffire. that is much cheaper and, from a mate, forcurite stuff is damn solid.

here is the website to team 108: www.team108.com

 

[exin]

it's called latency, the time that your computer takes to process the audio data and send it back to your audio output for you to hear.

like what many others have mentioned it's alot due to the A/D and D/A conversion that you have when you record audio. Lower-range soundcards will have a higher latency time ... alot is based also on your computer specifications ... how much your motherboard/processor can pump out and handle and of course your RAM.

the best solution is to get a breakout box/USB/Firewire interface. some examples would be the Firewire 410 from M-Audio, if you need more inputs the Firewire 1814 ... if not Presonus carries amazing breakout boxes/audio interface ... like the Inspire 1394 and the FIREBOX ... can check them out, powerful gadgets for its size.

Do check it out on the internet too, there are many articles, websites that are floating out there that will teach you and show you how to setup a simple I/O chain for recording audio and get past that latency problem that is so rampant with digital recording, but with the onset of newer technologies etc, it's not difficult to get past it.