thanks for the useful tips BlixYZ. I'm slowly getting use to your advice. However, i'd like to know if i can have the same "rack mount" effect while monitoring, by using the Roland Octa Capture. Having a rack full of good stuff is sweet, but it's fantasy world in my case.
 
Yusuf

Just be careful when tracking that you're not using any CPU intensive plugins like Perfect Space (or any convolution reverb) or any look ahead plugins like the ProChannel Concrete Limiter.
 
Other culprits in Sonar are the LP-64 EQ and LP-64 Multiand Compressor.
 
When tracking I disable these plugs, or don't use them until the mixing stage.
 
If, for example, a singer wants to sing through a reverb, I always used to use Pantheon, or now Breverb, as they don't seem to induce any noticeable latency.
 
BTW, I do tend to let them sing through the CA-2A (PC2A as was), because it sounds great, inspires them to sing better, and introduces little or no noticeable latency.

BlixYZ


You have gotten some good advice, but I'd like to offer another perspective. Unless I am using a softsynth, I ALWAYS use hardware monitoring.

As an aside, for soft synths the latency is one way because there is no audio coming in from the outside to be processed so the real latency would be based on output rather than total roundtrip.  i find i can get away with in most cases less than 100ms of midi latency even with a dozen or more synths going at once.  sonar does a fantastic job of keeping everything in sync when you are recording audio to "live" midi tracks and soft synths.  never ran into a problem with hardware monitoring and using softsynths at the same time.

BlixYZ


You have gotten some good advice, but I'd like to offer another perspective. Unless I am using a softsynth, I ALWAYS use hardware monitoring. It is a dream once you have it set up. My studio is a professional studio and so having even small amounts of latency during tracking is something clients would complain about. This way there is ZERO latency and the buffers can be set anywhere you like. When I need to record midi via a soft synth, I get the latency low JUST BY DISABLING PLUGINS as described above. There is a button marked "FX" that does the trick, or you can press "E". Most of the time, I can lower the latency just by disabling my BUS plugins. This is a trick I want everyone to know about. I leave the plugins running in my tracks and I don't lower the buffer size- I ONLY disable any BUS plugin and the latency drops to near zero (unless the project is huge). I always recommend hardware monitoring to everyone- I think monitoring through your computer's processor is foolish unless you must for a particular reason. It doesn't tax your computer, and there is ZERO latency. How can you beat that. I don't usually post this long, but as you can tell- I feel strongly about this. I want people to feel my bliss. Anyone can feel free to contact me for more specifics as to how to set this up (with reverb and evrything). My interface is a Profire 2626 which has a software mixer that makes it simple to get levels for hardware monitoring. I also use a hardware "rack mount" reverb/fx unit to add some reverb for those who like to hear it when they sing but I DO NOT record the reverb, I record the dry signal only. This can be done using a small mixer that has direct outs, or in my case, using the Aux 1 channel in the profire's software mixer.

a big +1 to this one

I also always use hardware monitoring.

@BlixYZ: The advantages of hardware monitoring are why I'm finally springing for an SSL X-Desk. Actually, I'm kindof a moron for recording for 12 years without an audio mixer and relying on software monitoring, which has always been a bit of a pain. Once I get a lot of tracks going, the computer chokes if I keep the ASIO buffers down where the latency isn't a problem. I've been choking for 12 years, while spending my money on nice mics (Neumann, Wonder, Gefell, Beyer) and preamps (Neve, Great River, LaChapelle, A-Designs, api, Shadow Hills). There must be a word for that kind of foolish. Part of it is the connections and routing look a little intimidating to me. How to give the artist some reverb while recording a dry signal? How to do a loopback test to adjust the delay compensation? Mind if I PM you after I get the X-Desk?