How to Record Without Latency in Ableton Live

Many folks are recording their instruments into Ableton Live with Latency so the audio that is played back is off timing! 🔊 My Ableton Courses: courses.seedtostage.com/
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[@SeedtoStage]

Get notified when my online courses come out: mailchi.mp/a6892b61ffb2/seedtostage

[@GreatestSportsHighLights]

Great video! Thank you and enjoy the rest of the weekend!

[@englewoodmusic]

I wanna know how you do that with the guit on ableton!

[@harrisfrankou2368]

Any chance of a Windows 10 set up... POST August Update. I bought a new PC and it has been a month.... Of crashes..reintalls and back to the shop. My old Windows 7 was easier.

[@PriveGitaarles]

hey man, thanks great video , I subbed. Do you have a video on recording guitar into DAW specifically. i'm having a lot of troubles getting the right sound for my covers. Either the volume is way too low or the sound which is coming out of my amp is just not the same as the one that comes into my computer.... even though I am using a good mic (Shure SM57) and a Focusrite interface. Does the fact that I am using Ableton Lite make a difference? Could you refer me to a video of yours or give me some quick tips? [e-mail] Tnanks

[@secondvisions9759]

Thank you Sir

[@rocantando]

just the video I needed to watch 2 years ago, great content

[@WyattCayer]

Get adam sandler to say that! Lol, same though. I didn't know auto switch did that. This man is a god send...

[@stahllandon]

Same man, I stopped using Ableton a while ago cause I couldn't figure out my latency issue. Looks like I'll be going back to it.

[@petraccamusic]

caraca vc por aqui mano kkkkkk alias obrigado por me fazer procurar por esse conteudo, vc foi uma das minhas maiores inspiracoes pra começar a produzir

[@danielmontecino4554]

i feel you

[@andyshistorylessons8278]

Same here!

[@Behine.DeChilis]

I have been manually moving the track to fix latency for about 2 years. You just blew my mind!! Thanks!! Would like to see the guitar chain video, too.

[@jasonzdora]

You dont have to move your track or make a duplicate. Driver Error Compensation will fix the issue (theres a lesson in the Ableton Lessons section that will run you through it).

[@joshuacedars8849]

Me too!

[@auxorion]

I recommend not moving it back. If you're slightly off, on a long take, the end of the take will be way off timing. Or if the first note was a little late in a take, all following notes (which were ON TIME) are now going to be early. Frankly, it would be better to record your take with the horrible DI sound, then apply your amps/effects. Or do what this video is saying.

[@SiHargreaves]

@@auxorion Can you explain that for me please? I'm struggling to get my head around why moving it wouldn't bring the whole thing back to the correct timing?

[@dawin6710]

The solution he is giving is wrong. Just use negative delay on the track. just hit the "D" on your track and enter a value in ms. a negative value would pull the track backwards in other words earlier. don't have to move it manually. to know how much delay you have just look at the latency caused by the size of your buffer in your preference. Germans are much more intelligent that this guy could dream of. ;-)

[@tenorca]

You absolutely prince. I've been adjusting buffer size and manually dragging stuff over if necessary but that often misses the idiosyncrasies that give live performances their character. Will honestly use this is every track. Thanks, bud!

[@david_c_jacob]

SUPER HELPFUL. Just spent months manually lining everything up on a project because I couldn't find a workaround. This video has made the process clear for me. Thank you!

[@sqguitar]

Been waiting far too long for someone to address this issue, thought I was doing something wrong / faulty interface / missed it in the audio set up etc. Drove me f?¿?ing crazy!!! Thank you dude, thank you for explaining it and showing how it can be fixed. Now I can use all those great FX racks on my electric guitar without wasting hours trying to figure out why it's not in time with the track ;)

[@connoryballantyne]

Holy. This has saved my life. Been dragging tracks back to be in time forever.

[@Alej_915]

This was the first video of yours I watched, and I have to tell you that I think this channel is amazing. Will be joining your patreon soon, I really appreciate not only the knowledge you're sharing, but the way you teach it is perfectly suited for my brain. Seriously I appreciate it so much

[@navinamusic]

This has been so incredibly helpful and solved so many mysteries to my timing riddles and frustrations of why everything was just a bit out. Thanks so much!!!

[@martinpowell2245]

I had been using Ableton for nearly 10 years before figuring this out on a forum recently. The amount of time I've wasted in my life shifting tracks in time is insane lol. Thank you for educating the community!

[@RickyTinez]

wow! Beyond informative. Thanks for making this and solving plenty of headaches to come.

[@SeedtoStage]

Thanks for watching! I'm a fan of your channel 🙌

[@rafaelkhan9769]

Damn you know this video is gonna be good when this is the top comment

[@finonomastropiero4261]

❤️📻🙌🏽😎

[@neilsheldrick8158]

So you didn't do the getting started steps of the Ableton help file?

[@finonomastropiero4261]

neil sheldrick even if we did, that shit forgets bro

[@metalmutt123]

I’ve been recording in ableton since 2016 and have had to fix timing issues on numerous occasions that all could have easily prevented with a click of a button. Life saver! Thank you so much

[@studiotime2117]

Stumbled upon this by accident. Always wondered how to overcome this issue with latency and so. Perfect explanation for it. I did not know Ableton can do this that easy. Thank you!

[@kingyonkobeats411]

When I record my live instruments, I just turn off the warp settings in preference and fix my timing issue. Glad to have an alternative solution to this problem. Thank you bro!

[@russelsimmons5305]

I'm not sure if this comment will be lost in the noise, but there's something important that you may not have noticed. If you did know this, I think it would be worth mentioning to your viewers in a follow-up. What was recorded in your first track (set to Auto) is what you heard in your headphones when you were playing. What was recorded in the second track (set to Off) has the guitar earlier than what you heard in your headphones while playing. I verified this by loading up the audio of your full video in Audacity, and lining up and comparing the three waveforms (when you played live and the two tracks) aligned by that initial cymbal hit. So the latency that Ableton records (on Auto) is "correct" in the sense that it's what you heard through your headphones while you were playing it. Most people naturally adjust their playing to make it sound right to them, so Ableton's behavior makes sense. But Ableton's Auto behavior would _not_ be what you want if you were not wearing headphones, and listening to the guitar directly through the air, or direct monitoring through your interface.

[@SeedtoStage]

Timing on a physical instrument based on what you hear is only half of the story. Hearing my guitar slightly late would have an effect on my timing for sure, but not nearly as much as the physical feeling of my pick plucking a string. Same with any instrument, hearing the timing off will have an effect but anyone slightly adept at playing an instrument. At the end of the day the optimal setup would be direct monitoring.

[@M2m154]

​@@SeedtoStage Don't think it's that universal. For me at least it isn't. I tend to adjust to the delay and get tighter results with recording the version monitored through Ableton, the one that I heard while I played. Most my guitar recordings are for electronic music or hip hop though. I found I really need to hear that the modulation is sitting bang on and grooving with the track there. So I try to adjust my playing a tiny bit till I hear it's sitting just right. At that point its easier to just fetch the monitored signal. If I was recording a rock track or something I wouldn't go down that road. It kinda depends on the situation and what feels right, for me at least.

[@AOstudiosFILM]

updooting for visual

[@davidgotler3898]

Yes you’re absolutely right that what we heard him play is what was recorded in the auto track. That’s something I hate about ableton’s monitoring is hearing myself slightly behind and messing up my time. As he showed at the end direct monitoring from your interface removes the latency!

[@auxorion]

@@M2m154 I understand what you're saying, I have to agree with both of you - Seed to Stage says the optimal setup is DI, which I agree with (you can have a hardware guitar modeling unit or UAD plugins or whatever else)... but if you NEED to hear your distortion for that guitar part, and you NEED to use a VST plugin, you frankly NEED to record what you heard, because that second track isn't going to be how you heard it. In which case, the only solution would be to track your guitars at a buffer of 64 (or 32 if your setup allows for it.. I think a Thunderbolt interface might be able to pull it off). I also think that, when recording through Ableton, you are unfortunately going to have to do a lot more takes and work much harder to achieve a tighter performance than if you were mic'ing an amp or using a hardware unit. It might even be smart to get your hands on a cheap outboard amp modeler (like a crappy old, beat up, used Eleven Rack), so you can hear distortion while you play, but actually are recording a DI signal that is right on time. (monitoring through your interface rather than Ableton). Then you can reamp however you like with a tight performance. If you use an Apollo, it has a free Marshall amp built in now (I hate the thing, but it can be used for you to track with distortion, then you can reamp later).

[@lukefontova9639]

I literally thought my timing when recording guitar was terrible because I always have to go back and adjust it. This explains so much! Thanks Thogster!

[@l.j.2917]

OMG!!! I could just give you a hug! This has been a long time source of frustration for me and I could not figure it out to save my life! Thank you sooo much!!

[@andreswalters5429]

Great video! but also, keep in mind that the "Off" button doesn't mean "0" latency, it means that you are recording whit the general "input latency" of your session. If you want real zero latency, you will have to set a delayed time of the signal equals to the same "input latency" but in negative (-) and then resampling. That will leave you near Zero latency. I just test this after watching your video. Also, in my case, when I record at a buffer size of 128 an hit that "auto" button, the recording ends up having x3 exactly the general input latency amount.

[@iamcreans]

broooo I may be late to this video and to this channel, but it's SO CLUTCH. First, you're super clear, your voice isn't annoying and you crushed the explaination in under 10min!!! BIG LOVE FOR THAT. Anyways, I'm that guy you mentioned who always recorded down at 64buffer to try to hide the latency. NEVER AGAIN!!!! haha. Definitely subscribing to this channel bro. Keep these vids flowing!!!

[@ceounicom]

Great vid. I've been using Ableton for years, but rarely with 'recording live parts' (sequencing VSTs and samples); but recently ive built up an arsenal of external instruments/synths/hardware, and this is like a huge head-slapper that explains why i keep finding some timing delays between things. Thanks a bunch.

[@leoislo]

Dude... mind blown. been doing this for years now. I always just manually offset it (by moving the audio) or more recently by using track delays. Huge time saver thank you for sharing this info!

[@dulceglass9111]

holy shit I'm a 10 year Ableton vet and I had no idea. super useful. thanks.

[@beatsprodbycm9455]

What u played on the guitars sounds fire. Keep it up

[@darkone7203]

Well done. I've watched several videos on latency and this is the only one that solved the problem for me. 🙌🙌🙌

[@romanarnold4236]

I'm working with Ableton since more than ten years. This is the best tip I found in this time in thousands of KZbin-Tutorial-Videos. Wow!

[@jon-philipa5675]

Thank you KZbin recommendations I have literally been moving my tracks over manually for soooo long just guessing where it should go

[@resampled3001]

It’s actually live delaying tracks, due to the latency on each channel from devices and FX etc, live adjusts latency per track so the project as a whole is in time. If you’re monitoring on a track that is being delayed to stay in time with another it will include this latency in the recording. You can use the Reduced Latency when Monitoring in options to mitigate this, it won’t bring in the increased latency when monitoring.

[@rfiedler1]

Best explanation I have ever come across. Addressing the monitoring issue as well was key. Good stuff man!

[@monocondasounds5194]

Best video I've seen on youtube so far! Thanks, man! It's been like 10 years Ableton daily usage and now we're talking!

[@hollohead4077]

Just go into Options > Reduce Latency When Monitoring. Same recording with monitoring example (2 channels one auto, one off) took me from 10ms to 1 ms.

[@2beablessing2012]

Trying this 2morro fam

[@EvgenySayfi]

Thanks!

[@tombadgerlock1055]

Most helpful comment I have ever seen. Thanks a lot!

[@paul_burney]

No! this is not the solution - you still need to record to a track with latency off!

[@gorummygo]

bingo! thanks dude

[@bilnabiln]

Thanks for this! I record my guitars direct in via my amp’s line out + my pedalboard so i never needed monitoring on. BUT I always recorded my vocals with a bunch of reverb to mask my poor singing, and I always thought i kept singing off time

[@SeedtoStage]

100% same for me until i figured this out. Vocals and live drums never lined up until I learned this.

[@rascalkc]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I have been doing this wrong all along, and this makes so much sense! You just saved me SO much headache!

[@brunobezzan1169]

I know, you've taught . It ans so much to so many people, you are helping us pursue our dreams! Love from Sweden

[@jorgealejandrorodriguezald6681]

There is a reason why Ableton do this, it's in the manual... It says that when you turn the auto monitoring on, the artist can listen in real time the latency, an then correct it. So if then they apply the latency compensation, the sound will be early. That's why it doesn't apply the latency compensation when recording with the auto monitoring on. But to get the ability to listen the latency and correct it while recording is really hard, so a direct monitoring from the sound card is a better solution

[@foljs5858]

"the artist can listen in real time the latency, an then correct it" Only this is BS from Ableton, because the other tracks (MIDI etc) still play on time after you've recorded. So you have say a MIDI kick drum playing 4/4 and you play guitar on-top of it. You hear the kick drum with some latency (output latency), and you respond (compensate for it) in your guitar playing, so it sounds on time when recording. But then, when you hit play, the kick drum plays on every beat, and your guitar is late (because Ableton didn't compensate for the recording latency). All other DAWs do that (move the recorded audio back so that it is in with the MIDI timing as if there was no latency). In other words, the musician corrects for the latency in their playing, by also playing later, but Ableton doesn't correct this back, so the MIDI/other audio and the recorded track match in time.

[@madsonit]

You can also route to External Out instead of Master while you record to get rid of the latency. The way Ableton works is that all tracks add to the general latency so that it will compensate when you have routings like Sidechain and stuff like that. And, obviously, to sound in sync when you have plugins on tracks - some which add to the latency, some which they don't. So if you route to external out instead of Master, you can monitor without latency even if you have crazy Mastering plugins on the master. Be careful though, to not forget to route it back to MASTER after monitoring.

[@MaxRayMusic]

how have I never heard this tip before, nice!

[@stingpinaudio]

Nice idea. Cheers

[@glenwithonen]

Heyo @madsonit I tested recording using the 'Ext. Out' output type, but Ableton still records with the exact same latency as with 'Auto'. Only setting monitoring to 'Off' allows recording without latency. Great video @SeedtoStage!

[@madsonit]

@@glenwithonen don’t record on the track you are monitoring. That is the idea: one track monitors with ext out as output and one track with the same input channel records with no input monitor and audio going to Master, not Ext Out

[@glenwithonen]

@@madsonit thank you for clarifying! I think I understand what you mean - I can setup one 'monitor' track with 'In' monitoring and 'Ext. Out' output type, and I don't record to this track🤘

[@DaveSmiths]

This has been driving me nuts! I love your workflow workaround... thank you so much! 🥳🥳🥳❤️

[@christinedescollines113]

thank you so much! I was recording yesterday and wondering why every take was out of time. this is extremely helpful even 3 years after you posted it

[@engeomusic]

Damn, we've all been fucking up. Many, many thanks for breaking this down so plainly! Also, I would definitely appreciate a video on a stock Ableton device guitar chain, and any insight into what your guitar chain is like for the Microdosio sets. I'm using the Waves PRS series now for recording, which sounds great but hogs CPU.

[@chrisdestefano6176]

Hey another way around this is to simply set the output of the track you're recording on to Ext 1-2 (or whatever you'd like) to bypass the mix buss and it will achieve the same result. Near zero latency and no need to shift the audio. I even co-developed a max for live device called 'Tracking Bus' that will do this automatically once you record enable the track. It's the perfect workflow.

[@alchemyst2000]

That works like a charm! Thanks for making this!!!

[@CasaSoy]

I tested this and having a dry double track was better at fixing latency

[@MrJFBro]

I prefer doing it like this too -- messing around with the timing doesn't lead to "no latency", you're just covering up the latency and it still exists. Chris' suggestion here actually allows you with NO LATENCY in the playback --- just adjust the recording manually after. Besides, you'll want to get shifty in post-production anyway to make sure transients/phases all align. If you're using auto-processes for this, you're doing it wrong.

[@jbtrumpet]

Easily one of the best channels on KZbin. So many hekpful videos I've had Ableton for almost 2 years now and was not aware of the mechanics of this before now

[@petef.4688]

Omg!!! Brother thank you so much this was killing me. My songs require a full length take of the acoustic guitars and this issues stunted me for years now. Thanks so friggen much bro

[@peteycorn]

I've been doing it wrong for over 10 years, and I always wondered why my audio never sounded as good as I wanted it to sound. I usually ended up using midi instead so that I could get things to fit better. I believe that you have just awakened the beast :) Thank you. And thank you for keeping that relatively short and sweet!

[@thomascoolberth2648]

same

[@anthonyramsey89]

I'm glad you touched on MIDI, I only use MIDI right now and was wondering. But that may change in the future, this is awesome knowledge to have. Love your videos and the channel!

[@MortalVildhjart]

i was trying so hard to be on time with my Vocal recordings, and this just releaved me so much.

[@srigalarsb9477]

Theres a setting called ' Reduced latency while monitoring' in the Options drop down list!

[@bboymac84]

Yes but it may be out of sync with some other tracks in your project

[@jasonzdora]

Do an experiment. Set up 3 channels to record the exact same mic input. Set one to "IN", set one to "AUTO" and set one to "OFF". Hit Record and tap the mic. Now look at the waveforms. Which one is ahead of the others? Do this with "reduced latency while monitoring" is turned on and do it again with that option turned off. Noticing anything?

[@bboymac84]

Will do

[@boswell255]

@@jasonzdora FYI Auto is identical to either IN or OFF depending if you have the track selected or not. It won't have any effect on the latency.

[@mrnelsonius5631]

This. I just recorded a song in Ableton with 45 different tracks, mostly audio some virtual instruments, and I never had latency become an issue. I set my buffer size to about 128, I print tracks often (freeze and flatten to reduce CPU) and i have the reduce latency while monitoring on. I’m recording on a fast laptop but still a laptop, into a scarlet 2i2 so nothing fancy. You don’t need to use 2 tracks like in this video.

[@RobSanx]

You’re right, track 9 is late, but I think 10 is too early. And that’s because when you play, you’re compensating according to what you hear, not playing according to the strings. The audio while you’re recording, that’s the closest to perfect, and if I’m not wrong, the track 9 is closer to the way you’re playing while recording. I heard that while watching the video but then I analyzed the waves in three cases. If you record with less latency would be the better option in my opinion, you’ll be compensating your playing naturally in a more accurate way. I had the opposite issue on another DAW, always recorded too soon, and that was the reason why in my case. It was compensating my already compensated playing and when played back, there were two compensations which means, too early. The compensation works in other cases but not for amp sims. Think about a piano. It takes a while to hear the sound, it doesn’t sound in the moment your finger touches the key. The hammer needs to reach the string. You’re compensating that the same way you’re compensating your pick if you hear the sound a little late, if it’s not too much of course. If you’re compensating this way, means you’re touching the strings a little bit soon. If you remove the latency you’re hearing while recording, the track will be playing too soon. At least that’s the way it works for me.

[@RobSanx]

@Jake de Jongh Maybe. But try recording the same way except one take listening through the track on your DAW with a latency you're able to notice and then monitoring through the zero latency monitor of your audio interface (or an amp). Compare the results. That's my point. Hearing one thing while recording and a very different one when you press play doesn't make sense for me.

[@HeyStripes]

@Jake de Jongh kzbin.info/www/bejne/h17EiYKodtWSsKM

[@jakeblair8876]

I'm running Ableton on a Intel Celeron and even I don't have trouble with latency. Sometimes my system crashes and lags but I let it rest and fire it up and I'm good for a 3-4 hours lol. I run amp room with it set on "in"

[@kamsplanz]

You are correct, in that the delay on instruments like a keyboard is usually overly noticeable. You are also right when concerning the fact that it can actually put people off of using ableton as an amp simulation as if ‘feels different’, you just hit the nail on the head about the different feel. For me, when recording vocals with monitoring on- the latency bugs the hell out of me! Horses for courses, I suppose.

[@JohnnyVoidMusic]

I been using ableton 15 years and never known this thank you. I been warping and moving my guitar vocal notes the whole time.

[@Targon999]

I just started to mess around with ableton and I'm really thankful for videos like this. Awesome!

[@brandenlikesbeer]

Jesus Christ 5 years of my life without this info. No wonder I’m never happy with my songs lmao

[@RetroPlus]

That sucks, but at least you know now

[@kevinmcdonald7648]

hey i found this video was really helpful... in case i don't fully understand. wouldn't you be able to compensate for that recorded latency using driver error compensation in the ableton preferences? that way you wouldn't have to arm 2 tracks at once to record using your plugins... the way I've done it is by recording the auto-track and the off-track at the same time. then I calculate the ms latency and input that difference in the driver error compensation things seems to line up after that. if im missing something with this approach let me know

[@rockersrevenge1]

I have been using DAWs since 1998. This video is single handed the best tutorial video I have ever watched. I cannot believe its that simple to do monitoring and recording. I've been using mixers and all sorts for decades. I'm truly gonna have some fun recording with some plugins now. Thanks so much I cannot even begin to say how thankful I am for seeing this video. Jeeeez all that time and I never knew this, I kid u not, wahwahahahaha////

[@blackfeather7686]

Been using Ableton for years and didn't know this. Thanks for the info and tip. Brilliant.

[@KozmykJ]

That's a good explanation and you got all the techie stuff right. Funny though, I preferred the guitar part With the latency on it in that instance. That 'behind the beat' feel suited it ... I'm sure it was just coincidence though . Subbed

[@SeedtoStage]

ha me too, in classic fashion i was rushing, in my defense it was my first take ;)

[@jamesweeks3833]

@@SeedtoStage sometimes you want that "swing" in the recording.. .when it sound right, go with it

[@TerryMaplePoco]

ha ya, gotta love that lil Delay icon in the bottom right near the I-O

[@michellew.3691]

Oh this is a realtime-no-plugin Haas-Effect ;-)

[@Bo-rv8om]

Comb filter

[@yazuto]

at first i didn't realize at first that i also had to get rid of the effects in the 0 latency track but after that it worked like a charm! thank you!

[@gentrymonasmith3466]

This is cool. I was really surprised that I didn't realize this, but it's definitely one of my main issues with trying to record with Ableton. Thank you for sharing

[@senorbokchoy]

Easier to just go to the options tab and select "Delay Compensation " and "Reduced Latency When Monitoring " and then go to Live Preferences , select the Audio tab , change the Buffer size to 64 samples . You will see that the overall latency is less than 1 millisecond . These settings will stay put fixed for every session , providing you use the same interface . Saving you the hassle of doubling every track you record .

[@therealsavion]

I Can’t Find Reduce Latency When Monotoring

[@howir0n1c2]

Only problem with this is you have to change the buffer size to a larger one once your project needs more CPU usage or you will get underruns/clicks

[@therealsavion]

@@howir0n1c2 True

[@distortimus7631]

@@howir0n1c2 meh. That's just 2 clicks and it's perfect😂

[@OhSlugggy]

PLEASE make that ableton guitar video, would be massively helpful

[@lexmacar1]

another great video, I bought the course, keep up the great teaching/sharing, it helps all of us!

[@Mishaman61]

So glad I found your channel. I’ve been on Ableton for years have been frustrated by this issue. Messing with buffers, offsetting tracks and sliding audio back manually. The auto monitoring is truly a misleading label. You’d think that would be the best and default position. But no! Thanks for your great videos.

[@alanfragosocamargo285]

Did you try putting it in rice?

[@bvrbvs]

it took me two years to figure this out. the direct monitoring works, but a lot of my sound has much processing, and it is uninspiring to hear the super dry guitar as you record. As someone else mentioned, Anthony, it would be much appreciated to know if you use the ' Reduced latency while monitoring' option? looking forward to your class!

[@auburnkit]

this is my exact issue. I use a ton of vst effects like reverb, delay, and distortion(shoegazy sounds) but it's so funny listening to direct monitoring. the only solution might be using a pedal board or external effects

[@OHHnoYOUdidntMAN]

@@auburnkit That's why i use Ableton as a canvas for my recordings now. I use as much hardware as I need/can, then use specific 0-latency plugins for EQ, Compression, Reverb, Delay, Bitcrushing, etc.

[@PoboyMusic]

As long as your computer latency isnt long enough to screw up your playing. Duplicate guitar effects track. Set one to in and one to off. Record to the off track. That's how I've been doing it. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

[@bvrbvs]

@@PoboyMusic thanks. And do you have the "reduced latency while monitoring' enabled?

[@Craigiehaybee]

Thanks so much! this has made the world of difference, and saved a lot of headaches

[@opiecunningham7734]

Your videos are brilliant! I feel like you really know your. Thank you for creating all these lessons.

[@geluix69]

Unfortunately midi latency is a constant for most with hardware synths, samplers, drums machines etc. E-RM multiclock fixes this, but at a hefty price.

[@ivanberko]

I just drag it over

[@AmirAbbasiOfficial]

You’ve missed a vital component to getting no latency as have 99% of other KZbin videos. There is a builtin project in ableton to help you set this up. Notice how your driver error compensation is at 0ms? This is how ableton realizes how much your system is delaying the audio coming in compared to going out on your monitors. In the sample project you hook up a cable from your audio cards out back into its input. You keep recording an included sample from ableton as you adjust the driver error compensation. Once you get them locked you won’t have anymore latency. Many miss this vital fact and others don’t even know how it works. Turning monitoring off in certain situations helps or at the very least selecting “reduce latency while monitoring” in the options menu of each new project but you will never get zero latency without completing the included project.

[@diemturner5755]

I don't think that is correct what you're saying there (or perhaps just misunderstood). Driver error compensation is only relevant in a *direct monitoring* scenario, that is to say, when the musician(s) being recorded are not using the audio coming from the pc as their monitoring source. Instead they're monitoring direct audio either from a console, the guitar amp itself or some other form of latency free hardware. Yes it will help make everything line up correctly but in no way does it give you zero latency. All it does is give you a method of measurement how much latency is actually being incurred so that you can tell Ableton how much latency it has to take into consideration. The latency you have is, at the end of the day, the latency that you have and no amount of measuring or compensating is going to reduce your latency, to say nothing of reducing it to zero. It would be great if that was possible, but the physics of round trip audio through your interface cannot be altered I'm afraid. If that were possible all of the high end thunderbolt/USB-C ultra-low latency audio interfaces would lose their appeal tomorrow if you could do the same thing with hardware costing half or a third of the premium units.

[@AmirAbbasiOfficial]

Diem Turner you are wrong. Look at the ableton instructions. This does exactly what you are saying it doesn’t do. It compensates for different sound cards and the latency that their drivers cause. You literally take a cable from your soundcard out and run it back into its input to measure the latency. It is meant to compensate for different cards. It has much other benefits as well. I find that when it’s done correctly even the internal delay for plugins locks better. Which helps avoid phasing issues that sometimes occur on unfrozen tracks. Give it a try and if it doesn’t work show proof on here because this video as well as 99% of the other videos on this issue are wrong and causing people so many unnecessary problems.

[@juanocordoba]

@@AmirAbbasiOfficial can you explain exactly how to do it? im on ableton 9

[@juanocordoba]

Amir Abbasi thanks a lot mate 🙌🏻

[@diemturner5755]

@@AmirAbbasiOfficial Oh believe you me, I've been using Ableton since v4 and I've done my fair share of DEC runs over the years. Compensation does not equal negation. It very explicitly states in the directions for DEC page 1/6 that, and I quote "driver error compensation is only relevant in a *direct monitoring* scenario, that is, when the musicians being recorded do not hear their own signals through the computer", end quote. This tells you in plain language that this would not apply to what this guy is presenting here as he is very clearly hearing his own signal (his guitar in this case) through the computer, making driver error compensation irrelevant to the recording scenario in this video. You can compensate all you want but it will not change the fact that your audio interface has an inbuilt inherent latency for which you can compensate. But that doesn't get you to zero latency. It doesn't change the latency of your interface at all, it merely helps mitigate some of the effects of latency.

[@colinknecht5665]

Great Video. Will be checking out more of your stuff.

[@psydewise3813]

Jeez dude , I searched everywhere , watched 100 vids on the subject , and always knew there had to be something i was missing ~!! Great tip man

[@kpk1958]

6:59 Yeah...but monitoring directly from the soundcard or the MIDI interface does not allow any of the fx on the Ableton track to be heard (saturation, reverb, delay, eq, etc.) in my headphone mix. This to me, represents a complete loss of the mojo/groove/confidence component that a performer would want to hear as they record the track. It's a complete "wind out of my sails" feeling for me to hear my vocals bone dry while I'm recording and that vacuum is revealed in my takes. Yeah the timing will be on, but the energy and vibe will have the vitality of an anechoic chamber. It's amazing to me that Ableton thought this latency issue and their supposed fixes for it are acceptable; I can't imaging a pro artist going into a pro recording studio and having to put up with dry vocals in their headphone mix OR to put up with latency of their vocal relative to the band's music. I admit I'm new at this and I'm maybe (probably) missing something, but I've been trying to deal with this issue for a while and I don't like any of the "solutions" I've seen to date on the KZbin tutorials, they seem like Band-Aids. Having said that, I enjoy your channel and your teaching style. Thank you!

[@davidjoelstephens]

I agree with your comment full-on, 100 percent. While this doesn't work in all scenarios, when possible, I bounce the mix down to 2, then kill the audio output, transfer it to a second instance of live and open the mixdown by itself and go batshit. Seems to keep things pretty tame in the latency dept for me.

[@mikeypipes]

Honestly I use the "reduce latency when monitoring" option and have never noticed a problem. Wish you would touch on what this does, seems like you're ignoring all the comments mentioning it.

[@joelk2342]

I second this. No one is explain the stuff in the options list. Including when recording vocals. Everything is coming in different from ‘reduce latency when monitoring on/off to even turning delay compensation box off. Confused.

[@yosh_io]

This has been one of the biggest problems with ableton. That’s why I’ve always tracked outside of ableton and imported. Thanks for posting this. Will try it out

[@Proxima04]

I’ve been using Live since V6 I always thought I was lacking some piece of gear with magic DSP, how I didn’t know this; is criminal. You sir, are music production hero. ❤️

[@professorchaos9171]

Getting great guitar tones using abletons amp sims would be interesting. Maybe like Clean, Crunch, and high gain?

[@SeedtoStage]

word yeah, i think people don't realize that youre supposed to use amp, cab, and pedal all together if they want an authenticish sould. And a bit of EQ and glue comp really helps out.

[@professorchaos9171]

@@SeedtoStage some cabinet impulse responses can really save the day too. Love vids homey!

[@jacobbruck2260]

@@SeedtoStage i at least know that much that the three are meant to work together, but I can't get the sound quite right, it usually sounds cheesy to me.

[@SeedtoStage]

@@jacobbruck2260 yeah they aren't the best guitar amp modeling tools out there, but they certainly aren't the worst

[@leoson8441]

You should just press the ‘in’ button on the monitoring track that way you don’t have to record the signal twice at the same time

[@fchild221]

Wait, so if I set it to in I won’t record latency?

[@muzaarnold]

yeah, that's how I've been doing it and then turn it back to auto to hear it...

[@bboymac84]

Arnold Muza wow!!!

[@andriesmaurer1964]

This is not true. i tested it and the latency is the same as in auto

[@muzaarnold]

Andries Maurer even with delay compensation on im option menu??

[@fourfing]

Every creator needs to watch this video!! Important stuff and it’s explained clearly.

[@kurtoppenheim4552]

I've been using Ableton for a year and a half and had no idea that auto monitoring actually records the latent signal. Thank you for posting this.

[@mu_on]

What about the fact that hearing your sound with delay as you record influences your interpretation in a weird way. Specifically on vocals it can make you stutter depending on the amount of delay. Unless listening to direct monitoring only from the soundcard, which can be too dry and disturbing as well, it seems complex to find a good ratio of buffer size and CPU processes. In order to hear the sound you wish to have while recording with minimal delay so that you can play on time...

[@fonesrphunny7242]

There is nothing complex about the buffer sizes. You just reduce them as far as possible without getting crackling noises. If the latency is still too much for you, you'll simply have to deal with monitoring the input signal directly or upgrade your hardware to something better.

[@MaxHaake]

If your interface has effects you could monitor with effects, and record dry to process later.

[@AhmadAli95]

What I do is I turn on the direct monitoring on my audio interface and use a send for reverb. So I end up recording dry takes but I hear the reverb while recording. Not ideal but works in some cases.

[@intelbreak]

This is where hardware comes into play, find a cheap multi FX guitar pedal or midrange like the zoom MS70CDR multistomp and route the headphone out from your soundcard output through it. enable direct monitoring out on your soundcard, then you can use budget delay/reverb/chorus whatever you want on the signal you hear in your headphones without any latency while you are recording dry clean signal from your mic straight into your card with that you can put any High end processor heavy delay/reverb/chorus on in the daw of your choice. the budget pedal is only there as a pseudo-crutch one can rely on to hear an approximation of their final mix without big budget plugins. This is the correct way to have wet FX chain monitoring foldback in the artists headphones with zero latency if you intend on treating the clean recording with DSP intensive VST's and the artist can't work with a dry signal as a foldback. It doesn't matter if its a crap cheap pedal, they will never hear it on the final mix.

[@shtirlic]

Let’s view it in a different way, let’s put you speaker 5 meters away and measure the sound latency. What is the latency will be for the sound? Yes, almost 15 msec and it’s higher than normal latency(128 buffer) in ableton. Many people are playing without headphones and their guitar cabinets are 2-5 meters away and it’s fine. So 1 meter distance is roughly 3 msec latency and 1 feet is 1 msec latency. If you tracking guitar with latency 10ms on headphones, it feels like your speaker ~10 feets away or ~3 meters away from your ears .

[@jammer2nd]

THIS is DISCUSTING Ableton !! fix this mess

[@jamesweeks3833]

Recommend Hardware [as in certified] (audio interfaces) that will give the end user Specific choices on how to better deal with this.

[@skipnobeet8765]

Damn bro thank you for this! This is a game changer for me. I went YEARS recording with latency, setting the buffer to one of the lowest settings and thinking this is just the limitations of recording inside a daw that I had to deal with.

[@brewn0te]

I'm still getting my head around some of this, but this is the most helpful video I've stumbled across for this issue.

[@luos916]

TNice tutorials is one of the best tutorials of ANYTNice tutorialNG that I've ever watched in my life! Thank you so much!

[@HowdyDoody511]

Wow man thank you so much for this. You really laid that out well and as a beginner i was having real problems with latency

[@sportguy17]

nice. I was suffering from latency recordings like crazy .thanks for the heads up and a new subscriber !!!!

[@pesnevim1626]

Thanks so much. Such an effective, simple solution. Not seen this anywhere else.

[@gleyderparedes3728]

This really helped me out man, I had had no idea how to do it myself but after watching you do it I was like "Ok so all I have to do is the exact opposite of what he just did" And it worked!

[@dr.slippers4975]

This helps so much I personally think this trick is better for recording audio from an external synth that you sequenced via midi because you know that it’s exactly on time midi wise rather than a guitar which is not guaranteed to be fixed to any grid or piano roll (obviously) which relates to how you said that ableton treats midi and audio the same

[@jonathanjota292]

im just starting and tNice tutorials video was perfect.Well explained and easy to follow for a beginner.I never understood soft soft till i watched tNice tutorials.

[@mattweinbaum8633]

ive literally always had this problem and had no idea why thank you so much

[@silvertongues2]

Excellent thanks for that. I had been recording midi controlled external synths and had noticed the latency. And I knew about the sound interface direct monitoring but hadn’t realised that the Ableton monitoring on/off had that effect!

[@sabri9569]

BROTHER, YOU ARE THE BEST!!! You oooh really helped me!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

[@olke85]

Holy shit man! I love you! After 3 years not recording at home (baby time), I am finally on it again... I always thought, something is off... Wow! This is the very best "how to record audio properly" video... I always left it in auto, never thought about it. Even with an input latency of 4.5 ms it can be heard... Wow, thank you! thank you! thank you!

[@tommckean7216]

Holy crap!!! I'd just recently discovered dropping the buffer size, but this is a game changer. Thanks!!!

[@kentuckyblugrass]

When I first started I would manually adjust the tracks in post but one day by just dumb luck I recorded duplicate tracks, one monitor auto, the other monitor off. During the playback I about fell out of my chair. Wish I would've seen this video 8 months ago. Great video. New Sub 👊🏻🤘🏻

[@particular_noise]

man have I been needing this one

[@alexchaidez9258]

Awesome explanation dude!! You answered questions that I would’ve had while you were doing that video! Very clear and succinct. You got a sub from me!

[@bassmanjtfunk]

I'm new to ableton. I learned the monitoring . From Tech Support where I bought my controller. This is more in depth. Much Appreciated. New subscriber.

[@MP_Soundbox]

Such a simple solution and explanation! Thanks so much!

[@thebluestartattoos]

Super helpful! Thanks so much!

[@giantessmaria]

Wow, life changing info! i'm sure many folks like myself were going crazy thinking we were doing something wrong or our setup was glitching out....this changes everything... i'd give you a big kiss, but i'm not that kinda guy ;) thanks again my friend, you have provided my with so much inspiration and confidence using this platform over the years...

[@xiaco8309]

Dude. you rock. So much better than other videos I've seen