Audio Latency Adjustment Problem

[Eric Brad]

Hi All - 

This is making me nuts so I hope someone can help.  Recorded a bass line and everything seemed to be coming in a hair early.  I did some testing in a clean project with only 1 audio track and no effects on the bass.  When I record I'm just playing quarter notes and observing the peaks in real time.  When I stop recording, the wave is adjusted back by the same small amount every time.

I've played with the "Record Latency Adjustment" setting in Preference and it doesn't seem to effect what's happening.  I've tried both positive and negative numbers.  Matched the reported latency of my Steinberg UR44 as reported (as both positive and negative numbers).  I've even tinkered with some of the other settings for Audio but the adjustment seems to go back by the same amount every time so that the notes sound slightly early.

If someone can help me understand this I would be grateful.

Thanks in advance.
Eric

[John Vere]

Hopefully you are using ASIO drivers supplied by Steinberg.  This video explains exactly how to set your audio up in Cakewalk. If you use ASIO you shouldn’t have to adjust timing offset. 
Note that the visual drawings of the wave form will not be in sync as you perform. Don’t look at that. If you’re looking at anything look at the drum track and mostly use your ears to play in time.
After you stop the recording Cakewalk adjust the drawing so yes it will appear to move to the exact spot you played it. 

This is my complete playlist of tutorials if you are new or just wanting to increase your knowledge of Cakewalk and it’s features.  
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7YqVth30eGsURWrKGeu-fFyg3ETjF-Ox

Edited July 24, 2023 by JohnnyV

[Eric Brad]

Hi John

Thanks for your input.

To address some of your questions:

"Hopefully you are using ASIO drivers supplied by Steinberg."

Yes I am using the Steinberg provided drivers.  Even downloaded the latest available from the Steinberg support website.

"This video explains exactly how to set your audio up in Cakewalk."

I had actually gone through this video of yours before posting here.  It was very helpful in explaining the basics of setup and specifically the ASIO stuff.  Thanks for this and all of your videos, many of which I have enjoyed watching!

"If you use ASIO you shouldn’t have to adjust timing offset." 

That was my understanding as well.  But I did run into a problem a while back after installing a rival DAW which installed generic ASIO drivers.  I searched the forum and found a few posts that suggested checking Preferences.  Sure enough the timing master was pointing to the wrong driver.  I have changed the setting to my Steinberg interface and deleted the alternate drivers.  Any chance there is some residual effect of those drivers somewhere in Preferences or the Registry that might be affecting this?

"Note that the visual drawings of the wave form will not be in sync as you perform. Don’t look at that. If you’re looking at anything look at the drum track and mostly use your ears to play in time."

Thanks for this observation but it's really the "ear test" this is failing me at this point.  I know I'm just not that early that consistently.  I can use the Nudge function to move the entire clip forward and everything line up perfectly.  So either I'm VERY consistently out of time (slightly early) or something is going on with the latency adjustment.  That's what's making me nuts.

Again, thanks for taking the time to think about this!

Eric
 

[jackson white]

ru by any chance doing loop recording?

fwiw, some timing issues noted when loop recording, have not been able to confirm a root cause (i.e. buffer size,  drivers, cpu load, sunspots, etc)

[Eric Brad]

Hi Jackson - 

No.  Not doing loop recording.  But I have found what I think is a workaround.

According to the Cakewalk Reference Guide here on this site:

"In ASIO mode, the current active ASIO device (remember ASIO can only have one active at a time) reports its “Input Latency.” You can't edit this value. This supposedly accounts for buffer size, A/D Conversion latency, etc. The check box allows you to use this reported value. It is checked by default. In any case, the amount entered into the Manual Offset field will be combined (added to) the reported value if you have it checked" (emphasis is mine)

I tried entering the max amount (5000) into the Manual Offset field and that seems to have corrected it so that the latency is no longer noticeable to my ears.

Strange, eh?

[Patrick Wichrowski]

53 minutes ago, Eric Brad said:

 

But I did run into a problem a while back after installing a rival DAW which installed generic ASIO drivers

I had problems with Reaper generic ASIO drivers. Reinstalled Reaper and unchecked the option of installing theeir ASIO. Problem solved for me.

[John Vere]

In my video ( 8:00)  I briefly mentioned checking the Reg Edit app to see if other ASIO drivers are still registered. Generic ASIO drivers have been known to interfere with the latency timing adjustment calculation that Cakewalk uses to keep tracks in sync.

Check there and remove all but you interfaces driver. 
 

You can perform a Loopback test to see if something is wrong with your device set up. I show a screen shot at around 8:50. 

You start with a Drum track and you loop it back from your interfaces output to a input and you record the audio to a new track. You zoom in and see if it's out of sync. a bunch of us tested dozens of interfaces years ago and all the ASIO interfaces were within a few milliseconds of perfect.  But the loopback test will show how much you are late or early and you can use that to properly set the timing offset. 

I have the Steinberg ASIO driver that my Soundcraft mixer uses and its a good driver and is in perfect sync. So I sort of doubt its the driver at fault, but something else might be wrong.  5000 samples divided by 48 hz  =104ms that's pretty bad. 
 

Edited July 25, 2023 by JohnnyV