Latency Issue

[marvintpa]

Whenever I try to use analogue LINE IN on my Windows 7 machine there is latency,- it's quite marked. It doesn't matter whether output is wired or optical.

This used not to happen but now it does: this does not appear to be a sound card issue as I have tried three different ones to the same effect.

Everything else works,- playing audio is fine. Can anyone suggest what else might be causing this?

The audio which is input is fine,- it's just the monitoring of it which is delayed by .25 second.

 

[zigzag3143]

Whenever I try to use analogue LINE IN on my Windows 7 machine there is latency,- it's quite marked. It doesn't matter whether output is wired or optical.

This used not to happen but now it does: this does not appear to be a sound card issue as I have tried three different ones to the same effect.

Everything else works,- playing audio is fine. Can anyone suggest what else might be causing this?

The audio which is input is fine,- it's just the monitoring of it which is delayed by .25 second.

May just be a driver. Use this to check them. DPC Latency Checker

 

[marvintpa]

Hi : thanks for your reply. Yes, I tried this,- all green and "should be able to handle.." etc.

 

[zigzag3143]

Hi : thanks for your reply. Yes, I tried this,- all green and "should be able to handle.." etc.

Perhaps re-install audio driver?

Also to check you OS run a system file check

Run a system file check to verify and repair your system files.
To do this type cmd in search, then right click to run as administrator, then
SFC /SCANNOW

Read here for more information http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

Let us know the results from the report at the end.

 

[marvintpa]

Hi Zigzag: thanks for that idea: "..did not find any resource integrity issues" or similar. As to re-installing the card, I've done that numerous times (and with three different devices); I'm toying with re-installing Windows 7, adding the card drivers first, then proceeding by a process of elimination, -ending perhaps with the purchase of a Mac..!

 

[fireberd]

Generally latency using a PC audio sound card can't be overcome. You need a good recording interface unit to get lower latency. I have a Sonar based recording studio and those of us with computer based recording have to work with this and the recording interface hardware to get the lower latencies.

 

[marvintpa]

Ah, but as stated at the outset, my system worked with unnoticeable latency for more than a year before the current issue began..

 

[fireberd]

If it did, that is a very rare case. The posts on the Sonar recording forum ALL note latency issues with internal sound cards. Other posts here, on the steel guitar forum and on the Dell users forum suggest latency is a known on internal sound cards.

 

[marvintpa]

The card in question was actually a USB external SB Audigy 2; since things went wrong I've tried to use two other external USB cards (SB XFi and Terratec) and now an internal SB XFi,- to no avail. I used to be able to listen to a backing track and play along with it but now it has become difficult.

 

[marvintpa]

I'm not sure whether or not this is relevant but I think that the people who supplied the barebones kit had overclocked it and recently I had to replace the BIOS battery.. I wonder whether they had tweaked settings which have an effect on latency (if this is possible)..

 

[fireberd]

One thing I forgot, and you can try, is to install ASIO4ALL and see if that helps. I never had any luck with this program and it screwed up my recording system, but if you want to give it a try, set a manual restore point first before installing in case it causes problems.

ASIO4ALL - Universal ASIO Driver

 

[marvintpa]

Hi firebird - thanks very much for that: the current card (Creative XiFi) claims it uses ASIO - btw when I talk latency I'm not talking nanoseconds but a quarter of a second or so: surely a properly functioning card should do better than this?! All i' m trying to do is to play along whilst monitoring a backing track.. I think a windows7 reinstall beckons when I can afford to release the machine for a day or two!