We know what you’re thinking: “But 16 samples isn’t that long….”Īnd that’s precisely the problem. This time adds to the delay between what you are recording and what you are hearing. The buffer size determines the amount of time you are allocating for your computer to process the incoming information. Depending on your audio driver, this buffer size can be set from 16 to 4,096 samples. The most significant contributor to latency is the buffer size you’ve set in your DAW. But basically, everything between your guitar, for example, and your headphones, needs a little time to perform its function, and that time adds up. Latency is the time it takes for the sound you are generating to come back to your headphones, and many things impact it. And once you know what latency is and how it works, it gets easier to find your way around it while monitoring your performances when you’re recording. We can sum it up in a single word: Latency. The Slow Moving Elephant in the Roomįirst things first: Let’s talk about the problem. While we’ll be using PreSonus ® audio interfaces as examples because we know them best, these principles can be applied to any audio interface that provides similar monitoring solutions to the ones described here. This article will cover the most common types of low-latency personal monitoring solutions available on audio interfaces today. The good news is that almost every audio interface provides some level of personal monitoring ability. How you listen to yourself while you record is critical to getting a good performance, and dialing in a monitor mix can be one of the initial sources of frustration for engineers and musicians alike.