New, needing answers

[Czar]

I'm a total noob when it comes to audio interfaces and Cakewalk and have a cpl questions. I recently obtained a Scarlett 2i4, got it all hooked up and everything works fine as far as sound, but I'm wondering if I have a lag issue or if perhaps it's something in cakewalk. When i play my Guitar through it using headphones in stereo mode I hear the Guitar fine but get a reverbish delay type echo out of the left side, is this normal? There are times when using certain vts's that the issue is not present. Is it something that can be tweaked in the Cakewalk settings? 

[parboo12]

Hopefully you went to the Focusrite website and downloaded the proper driver. Make sure it is set to ASIO in the Cakewalk preferences menu.

This will get you started (if you haven't already done this.)

 

[rsinger]

Didn't see it on the website - other IFs have a direct switch. If you're using FX make sure the direct switch on the 2i4 is off, if it has one. Keep the sample size low, 96 or 128 or less. It may be something in the VSTs you're using.

[Czar]

I think it does depend on what amp setup is being used, but like I said I'm new so will have to mess with it more.

[John Vere]

All systems will have latency. Using ASIO at a low buffer can reduce the latency but only if your system can run smoothly at lower settings. 
So first move is to optimize your computer for audio. Otherwise you suffer glitches and dropping out at low settings. 
 

The echo you hear is caused when you turn on input echo for the track you are recording. This is your systems latency. Look in preferences and it will tell you how many Milliseconds this is. Anything over 6 ms can be noticed. It will sound like digital delay. 
This is why interfaces have direct monitoring so you can avoid hearing this because if it’s high enough it will throw you playing off. So you only turn on input echo when using Guitar sims. 
Adding a lot of effects to a project can also increase the latency and drop outs. So best to record guitar sims to a clean basic project where you can get the latency lower. 

[David Baay]

19 hours ago, Czar said:

... delay type echo out of the left side

In addition to comments already made about interface latency and disabling direct monitoring so you hear only the input-monitored signal, this suggests you might have the track Input set to a stereo pair rather than just the one channel (left or right side of the pair) that your guitar is plugged into. Also note that loading up on "normal" plugins will not increase latency - only CPU load and the probability clicks/pops/dropouts - but some FX use a lookahead buffer that will add latency (a.k.a. plugin delay). Many guitar amp sims do this to some extent, especially if they use convolution as many more modern ones do.

[Czar]

Thanks for everybody's input.