Latency
The delay between playing a note and hearing the result through a monitoring system, measured in milliseconds.
Latency comes from converting analogue to digital, processing, and converting back, and it becomes intolerable somewhere around ten to fifteen milliseconds, when the player starts to feel disconnected from the instrument. It can be reduced by lowering the buffer size, which costs processing power, or by monitoring directly through the interface's own hardware before the signal reaches the computer. Most modern interfaces offer the second option, called direct monitoring, precisely because it removes the problem entirely.
Example: A guitarist who hears their own playing with a noticeable lag through the computer, but not when monitoring from the interface itself, is experiencing latency.
See also
Related
- PageAudio interface
- PageDAW
- PageHeadphone mix
- PageAmp mic placement
- PageAux send
- PageBalanced signal
- PageAaron Dessner
- PageAce Frehley