Latency Issues, among other things

I'm going around in circles on this, and I'm about ready to just say screw it and switch to Ubuntu.

In any case, this whole thing started when I wanted to record a guitar track. However I found that there was a noticeable amount of delay when recording (I was monitoring the audio through the software, meaning I was listening to it through my headphones while recording), and five hours of searching eventually revealed the problem to be with Windows 7.

Turns out that this is a pretty well known issue, with a lot of hit-or-miss 'fixes' floating around depending on your sound card. As luck would have it, I have a Creative Audigy SB 2 zs.

One of the fixes detailed going into Realtek and adjusting some settings, however when I open Realtek it only lists the Digital output as being active, although it should be Analog. There's no tabs for Microphone, just one tab for Digital Output.

I've heard that Realtek is only meant for the onboard soundcard on the motherboard, and won't work for the Audigy. If that's the case, is there some other GUI to adjust the audio settings? All of the packaged software that came with the card is corrupt, and there's nothing mentioned on the Creative site.

I tried updating my codecs, the manager, and my drivers, but nothing's worked so far. Tried googling for a GUI or something as well, and that was fruitless too.

Is there some way to fix this? I've been trying to find a solution to the latency issue for literally hours (since 6pm last night, it's now 11am).

It's difficult to help because you've left out key details...

It would really help if new members filled out their system specs, otherwise we're just guessing.

I've been audio recording on just about every kind of computer over the past 20 years.
Let me just say that latency is a "given" on every system when monitoring through software, you can't escape it but there are several solutions.

I need to know your recording software, also... if the soundcard's software is corrupt, why don't you simply reinstall it? oh... Realtek has nothing to do with your Creative hardware it's completely separate, adjusting Realtek does nothing for the Creative card. if you're plugged into the creative card, that's what you need to adjust.

Usually Creative installs a low latenct ASIO driver this can bring the latency way down... the other option is to monitor the Creative card via it's own hardware direct monitoring... then there is no latency at all.

Ap

Fetter said:

I'm using REAPER to record, and the reason I can't reinstall the software is because it was bundled onto the CD that came with the sound card, and everything on the disc is pretty much 100% incompatible with Windows 7. Creative's website has next to nothing, beyond just the drivers.

I don't know where I go to adjust the creative card, I've gone through the control panel and the sound settings, and I've also googled for some sort of GUI I can adjust settings from. No such luck.

Ok, gotcha on the software.

This is the driver you've installed, correct?

Creative Worldwide Support

Re: Reaper, (I've looked at it about 8 months ago, pretty amazing software for being developed by an individual)

Some questions... does the Microsoft speaker icon show up in the task bar and show setting for the Audigy.

In the Reaper preferences... where you choose the Audio Device... is there a listing for a Creative ASIO driver?

I'll wait to hear from you-

Ap

There's a place to select

Aphelion said:

Fetter said:

I'm using REAPER to record, and the reason I can't reinstall the software is because it was bundled onto the CD that came with the sound card, and everything on the disc is pretty much 100% incompatible with Windows 7. Creative's website has next to nothing, beyond just the drivers.

I don't know where I go to adjust the creative card, I've gone through the control panel and the sound settings, and I've also googled for some sort of GUI I can adjust settings from. No such luck.

Ok, gotcha on the software.

This is the driver you've installed, correct?

Creative Worldwide Support

This

Re: Reaper, (I've looked at it about 8 months ago, pretty amazing software for being developed by an individual)

I'm not familiar with the history behind the software, but I agree, it's a fantastic program. It's the only one of its kind I've ever used in fact.

Some questions... does the Microsoft speaker icon show up in the task bar and show setting for the Audigy.

The speaker icon is on the taskbar, alongside the Realtek icon (Which was what confused me in the first place). The mixer is blank, and the output options include the onboard soundcard, as well as the S/PDIF output and the default speakers, both of which are on the Audigy. I'm not using digital audio at the moment, just analog.

In the Reaper preferences... where you choose the Audio Device... is there a listing for a Creative ASIO driver?

Wow, that fixed it. It was set on direct input or something, I switched it over and changed some of the settings, it works perfectly now. And there's an option for adjusting the latency as well.

Thanks so much for your help, I can't imagine how much longer it would've taken if i had tried to meddle through on my own :P

Fetter said:

In the Reaper preferences... where you choose the Audio Device... is there a listing for a Creative ASIO driver?

Wow, that fixed it. It was set on direct input or something, I switched it over and changed some of the settings, it works perfectly now. And there's an option for adjusting the latency as well.

Thanks so much for your help, I can't imagine how much longer it would've taken if i had tried to meddle through on my own :P

Glad to hear it, ASIO is Steinberg's Audio-Stream-Input-Output low latency protocol. The ASIO driver that Creative has developed is a pretty good one. The latency adjustment is actually a small high speed buffer. The trade off is: The smaller the buffer the lower the latency but the harder your CPU has to work to keep the buffer full. If the buffer should become empty or miss a byte you will hear static or a "pop" in the audio stream. Find a happy medium.

Ap