Gearslutz.com - View Single Post - avoiding latency with a usb microphone? other options?

newpollution · 11th December 2009

Hi everyone,
I'm trying to buy a microphone as a gift for someone. He wants to do jamming and looping on his computer, using a program like Max/MSP basically as a fancy looping/delay pedal. He doesn't have a microphone beyond the computer's built-in one and I'm trying to figure out a cheap option to use in this context.

Since he also doesn't have an interface of any kind, I figured a USB microphone for 40-100 bucks might be my best option. However, I'm a little worried about latency issues, since the main thing he'll be doing is overdubbing many loops on top of each other. I was thinking of getting the Blue Snowflake microphone or something like that. Do you think this would cause some latency problems (assuming he's just monitoring out of the 1/8" laptop output on headphones or computer speakers)?

If this is an unavoidable problem, what other options do I have? Would the only solution be to get a cheap interface and mic? I'm trying to keep this under 100 dollars. I know that's pretty limiting, but any suggestions or ideas are much appreciated. Thanks!

11th December 2009	#1
newpollution Gear nut Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 87 Thread Starter	avoiding latency with a usb microphone? other options? Hi everyone, I'm trying to buy a microphone as a gift for someone. He wants to do jamming and looping on his computer, using a program like Max/MSP basically as a fancy looping/delay pedal. He doesn't have a microphone beyond the computer's built-in one and I'm trying to figure out a cheap option to use in this context. Since he also doesn't have an interface of any kind, I figured a USB microphone for 40-100 bucks might be my best option. However, I'm a little worried about latency issues, since the main thing he'll be doing is overdubbing many loops on top of each other. I was thinking of getting the Blue Snowflake microphone or something like that. Do you think this would cause some latency problems (assuming he's just monitoring out of the 1/8" laptop output on headphones or computer speakers)? If this is an unavoidable problem, what other options do I have? Would the only solution be to get a cheap interface and mic? I'm trying to keep this under 100 dollars. I know that's pretty limiting, but any suggestions or ideas are much appreciated. Thanks!