Best practices for Latency?

[Martin Vigesaa]

Rather than go through the extra work of setting up my interface software mixer to allow a direct 'no latency' signal.   I have always recorded with my Mixing Latency buffer set low in Cakewalk, turned off plugins that cause excessive latency, then do the reverse when mixing.  E.g. turn the latency buffer size up, turn plugins back on...

As I acquire more plugins recently I am finding I this method may be more time consuming than setting up a "no latency" path for recording. 

Is the following a normal practice:
(Recording a singer example):

1.  Use a channel send e.g "Monitor Mix 1" to setup a mix for  the singer.  This mix is routed from Cakewalk to an audio interface output e.g Output 3.  This allows the singer to hear the mix however they want as each channel has a send.
2.  Due to latency, the vocal mic channel is not sent to Monitor Mix 1, but instead the Audio interface software mixer is setup to route the vocal mic channel to Output 3. 

I'm thinking with this setup I may be able to leave most plug-ins ON allowing me to start building a final mix as the project proceeds as long as the latency compensation works, and my PC can keep up.

A down side is:

1.  Having to bounce back and forth between cakewalk and the audio interface mixer.  Probably not a big deal once it becomes habit.
2.  Reverb for the vocal will have a pre-delay equal to the latency.

In general is it more common to record and live with the slight delay in your monitored signal or is setting up a no latency path more common?  Any advice?

Edited January 5, 2020 by Martin Vigesaa
clean

[Terry Kelley]

That method is common for analog inputs but for midi, it won’t solve the delay. I have to turn off all effects and PDC to kill the delay. There are ways to reduce it but not to zero without killing the effects ... at least for me.

Edited January 5, 2020 by Terry Kelley