Delay while recording vocals

[vicprobey]

Hey, here is a common problem that I have no idea how to fix.

I have an 828, Mac Laptop and mackie board.

I was recording vocals straight into the 828,
To monitor them i have a jack from the 828 headphone jack into the mackie to amplify the track and then headphones in the board.

Now I have to record enable the track in order to monitor the vox, but that causes a delay. Is there anyway to eliminate the delay and hear my vocals clearly?

Any help is appreciated.

[Messiah]

It's a bit hard to help without knowing your DAW program...

Whichever it is, it sounds like you need to have a 'direct monitoring' preference activated somewhere.

Also, not fully sure as I don't have an 828, but doesn't that give you CueMix?
You can setup a 'tracking' system with this that will give you 0 latency when recording...

[theblue1]

Messiah's on the money.

You need to bring up your "Firewire CueMix Console" (probably in a MOTU folder in your programs lsting/menu),

From there, assign your headphone output on the 828 appropriately (it can get a little confusing) -- or you can monitor out your main outs or any of the other outs.

At any rate, set up a mix there for your headphones and/or control room monitors. (You can create multiple cue mixes and route them to various outputs of the 828 as needed.)

Once you're monitoring (nearly) directly --through the near-zero latency in-box digital mixer inside your MOTU 828 rather than making a time-consuming trip over the firewire and into the host computer, through your DAW software (and any automatic plugin delay that might be engaged if applicable as well as the DAW's own buffering) and back out over the Firewire (with the FW controller's buffers)...

Anyhow, it takes a long time -- Turn off your input monitoring and monitor through the MOTU DSP CueMix application. You don't need to keep it open to set up your cue mix -- since it's a simple app that just acts as a remote control for setting the MOTU.

I think it's safe to say that most folks won't notice the very short delay inherent in the DSP CueMix. At all.

(I've had recording people say I was imagining it. But I didn't expect the phenomenon at all. And the only time I ever notice it is when I plug a solid body electric guitar directly into my 828mkII's instrument input. I can't really hear the delay. It's more like a feel thing. But I usually use a live [if not loud] amp, anyhow, so that covers the issue, even with headphones on.)

[Geert van den Berg]

It might be that vicprobey has an mk1 828?

I used to have one too, it doesn't support the cuemix application! It has cuemix but only for 2 (analog) channels. This is something which you can enable in the firewire console. The little app which starts when you start the interface. Or you can enable it in Digital Performer. But I think you still have to setup on which inputs the direct monitoring function works in the console app. This way the monitor knob on the 828 functions as the volume control of the signal you are recording and the other knob is the master volume.

This is one of the reasons why I sold the 828. The converters didn't sound bad. The driver was very stable. But I needed something to monitor more channels, when doing drums or a whole band. Offcourse you can still do this if you monitor throught the software, but then you'd have to keep your buffersettings very low which costs a lot of processor power. And even then, above 128 the latency is a bit too noticable.

[jasonare]

I connect my mic into one of the xlr inputs on my 828mkii, then stereo jacks out from the master outputs on the Motu into the mixer. Mute and enable record on the mixer and /or sequencer for those channels, send a mix to the headphone output on the mixer and connect your headphones.

I dont have a delay with that signal flow and of course you can monitor what levels and instruments you want coming back through the mix.

Hope that helps.