Latency Solved: Should have done this years ago

I've struggled with latency on and off while tracking/recording through a mic either vocals or acoustic guitar.

It's probably not an issue for some, or others have solved what I've just done following their own exploration, or because they have a more expensive audio interface which just removes latency altogether.

But I've solved latency for me, and am passing this on in case any of the forum members have had issues with latency in their set up.

Here's what I've done and it's now perfect. (I have a small studio by the way, I'm not recording live bands).

1. I bought a microphone line splitter (ART SplitComPro). $35.00. Handles phantom power split issue.

2. Bought a mini mixer (Yamaha MG06X) with onboard reverb and delay. $120.00

Routing described here:

A. From microphone, mic line into the mic line splitter input.

B. One split line (the main one), route it to my audio interface mic input.

C. Audio interface output route to 2 channels of input on the mini mixer. This is for playback of the Sonar song's music tracks.

D. from the mic splitter, the second mic split line to an input channel on the mini mixer.

E. Set vocal track in Sonar to record enabled, but don't turn on input monitor.

F. Adjust on the mixer the balance between the Sonar music playback and the mic only channel (brought in by the split line). (Both sound absolutely clean).

G. Add some reverb from the mixer's built in reverb to the mic channel as desired.

H. Record.

Result? It's perfect!

The recording experience is perfect to my ear while performing/singing. The recorded audio track is perfectly clean and on time.

No more latency issues for me.

Solved for about $150.00 of hardware.

Correct. But it's not just about reverb. It's about zero latency, which I get with this. Previously I could have near zero latency, or whether it was a complicated song or whatever, some latency or pops could happen. With this method it's completely clean. Trouble free!

Good for my scenario. Hope it may help someone if they are frustrated.

RME's are nice for sure. More expensive, but excellent.

Yes, I'm sure the higher priced audio interfaces have advanced routing and at least near zero latency.

I'm specifically solving in my case for audio interfaces that don't have built in DSP effects, and specifically for capturing microphone recordings.

In my case, I have a Line 6 KB-37 which is an audio interface that allows me to get a zero latency experience with amp sim software (I use Amplitube 4) fully loaded with effects, hearing it with the effects, but recording the dry signal. This is ideal for me for amp sims. So I'm not using this external mixer approach for electric guitar monitoring.

I have three audio interfaces. They all work great for recording keyboards and MIDI performances. But for microphone recording, all three introduce some latency to one degree or another, even at low round trip settings. This external mixer approach (at a low cost) removes microphone performance latency altogether for me. Which is headache free, and trouble-free.

At least for my gear, this is the solution I was looking for.

That's a good tip.  
The added latency on the reverb is more pre-delay.

Jim Roseberry
That's a good tip.  
The added latency on the reverb is more pre-delay.

Exactly.

I'm glad MOTU's interfaces have on board dsp so I can add compression and or reverb on the interface with it's zero-latency CueMixFX interface.

I've been direct monitoring for years.  Much less headache.
 
I even record MIDI without monitoring through the computer.  just record the MIDI while monitoring the keyboard audio.  it doesn't have to be the exact sound you end up using in the project, just something close.  for example, if you were going to render your MIDI to some strings in Kontakt, for example, just record the MIDI but monitor the keyboard using string sounds from it.  then render the MIDI to kontakt after editing the MIDI.  no need to even have Kontakt inserted in the project until the MIDI has been recorded and edited.
 
and as gustabo says, my MOTU has dsp I can add through the cuemix software, so no need for external sends to verb or compression.

this is the compressor I use on the way in (which I believe is the same compressor br is using but in a rack model instead of a 500 series):
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/160A
 
for pres I use either an ART MPA Pro II http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ProMPA2 for color
or a True Systems P-solo for clean mic pre http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PSolo
 
I use a Mackie for bringing everything together for monitoring and I use the mackie "split" inserts for keyboards.  Bass and Guitar, if recording direct, go into the Mackie as well, but typically are mic'd.
 
from the Mackie, I send the mains out to the near fields but for recording, I use the ALT 3/4 outs going to headphone amps.

batsbrew

brconflict
 
Thought
What I find interesting is, go back to the year 2000 and check out a Yamaha AW4416. This unit offered DSP hardware that allowed you no-latency tracking with compression on the listen-back head-phone mix. We still haven't been able to do this well in today's hardware/OS. 15 years later.

yes, i had this same availability with both my roland VS-880ex, and my Roland VS-1880
 
latency was never even discussed at the vs planet forum, a non issue.

Obviously, this is now caused more by latency-inducing plug-ins, which are far and wider more CPU-intensive than ever before, especially when we're talking 'moddled', but I haven't found any included plug-ins that have low enough latency-induction to be real useful. More, in my case it was a problem that sometimes the latency is high in the Echo function, other times, it's near-zero. It's never been consistent unless you disable PDC.
 

Glad you found a good solution!

@CactusMusic
 
I have an external compressor too, and I wanted to take a second to describe how I usually use it. It's a 2 channel 162SL DBX compressor which has a stereo/linked channel mode.
 
At first, I used it in the direct chain to enable me to get a fairly good line level without clipping. This is what you are describing. Mic > pre amp > compressor > Interface AD converter.
 
Now, unless I'm using 14 or more channels in the recording, I usually record the microphones directly to the interface (A/D D/A converter). This gives me as pure a capture as I can get so I can work with it after the fact.
 
Sometimes, I send from the interface to the compressor and return the compressor to the interface on a second channel from the first. This gives me both the compressed and uncompressed signals to work with. I can then let the musicians monitor the compressed sound. I can even mix the compressed and uncompressed sounds for a NY Style compression.
 
I almost always use EQ and Compression for what I send to the mains/PA system. The RME UCX has EQ and compression for each input channel and each output channel as well as loopback. This means, I really don't need my external compressor. It also means that I can record what I send to the mains so I can later hear what my mix sounded like live.
 
When I record a whole lot of tracks, it is nice to have a final degree of compression that is going to the mains that I have physical nobs for. I can grab the gain nob and bring it up and down for example to keep it properly loaded into the compressor when the song gets quieter. So, in this case, I use my compressor in stereo mode on the Left and Right channels of the master outs.

Cactus Music
I too will sometimes just plug right into the interface and then keep the level on the low side. I find the Focusrite  pre amps are way to picky about levels, my Tascam interface is easier to dial in a hot signal. The little circle meter does not give you enough information. So that's why I like having the Joe Meek. 
For vocals I don't compress with it, I use it to stop overs. I get a better track out of the deal 
It colours the sound in a nice way too which is the whole point of having a different pre amps. 
For Bass I do compress the signal depending on the style of music. The Joe Meek has a wide pallet of tone control and I'm one of those who likes to record the sound I'm after first off as opossed to mucking about later. 

this is definitely a tangent, but I completely agree with you and actually I don't understand the immense popularity of the Focusrite units due to the gain knobs on the units being so "picky."  I bought one to be a backup unit when my MOTU was "in the shop" and immediately sent it back because of the gain knob not being smooth in the gain.  there's a big "jump" in gain with a very small movement in the knob at one place and it's difficult to get a balance.  I hated that and bought a presonus instead.