The Ultimate Guide to Latency in Ableton Live (2024)

[@vegetablepark157]

Best Ableton teacher on the internet!!

[@johnmatthewtennant]

Minor correction: at 10:36 you say “if I had 40 instances of days in my whole set I would be multiplying 2.7 ms of latency by 40” As long as those were all on separate tracks you would only get 2.7 ms of latency. Latency only stacks when the plugins are in sequence (not in parallel)

[@FatJazzCat]

Your Ableton Live latency video from several years ago was what brought me to your channel. I'm so glad to be seeing an updated and detailed video for latency!

[@matthewhayter1005]

Essential info presented in a clear and fun delivery. The Seedtostage standard.

[@bonesetter]

You are a great instructor, love the way you enhance your delivery by demonstrating how to access the inbuilt lessons. Very well done.

[@denismontyTV]

Most comprehensive video about latency ever made!! Hands down!!

[@friendwithin]

Excellent video as usual. I was hoping you'd have a solution for that 'real latency problem' but sadly not! Come on Ableton!

[@Grant82gc]

Thank god you mentioned the most important latency issue that still hasn't been addressed - plugin to plugin compensation reporting . I thought you was gonna gloss over it or not mention it. I've been using Ableton for over a decade, there wasn't too much for me to learn here but it was a good reminder to go back and look at all my setup. It's also funny, I have seen so many people (youtubers especially) not using the external audio or external instrument plugin and complain about latency when recording.

[@jimbob6726]

Thanks for this.. some important distinctions, very helpful.

[@butterflap]

I’m so glad you touched on the ableton latency issue because it’s actually worse than that. I found in testing that groups were failing entirely to calculate latency when reopening a project, max for live doesn’t calculate latency correctly either. Some latency gets reported incorrectly upon reopening projects and will cause the same out of time things to happen. The only fix is to rearrange the tracks in the project and put them back where they were which causes ableton to manually recalculate the plug-in latencies. You cannot have a side chain on a track or group because of this and have to make a bus for your side chain to go through or your side chain will not be calculating time correctly. These issues and abletons support responses that told me to stop using 3rd party plugins entirely as well as huge stability issues since 10 made me leave ableton this year after being a lifelong user for bitwig. Sad they have not fixed this it is totally unacceptable at this point.

[@SkyWizardMusic]

Super useful! Seed to Stage is the best at explaining how Ableton works in a logical, clear and practical manner.

[@mbryan829]

This was a great no nonsense approach to explaining several concepts that I've struggled to wrap my head around for years. Super helpful for understanding all of the tools to combat latency.

[@spooqs]

When I was getting started producing, latency was a constant annoyance for me because I didn't understand it. There are so many little things that can cause latency or add to an existing problem and it feels like a lot to wrap your head around when your new. Wish I had this video back then!

[@DaveSchulze]

S2S always winning with the simple to understand and easy to follow instructions! So helpful.

[@NOTYS.]

This dude is having a black friday sale. Who's learning Ableton 12 with me in 2025?!🎉

[@cubexBeats]

Unfortunately not, cant affort it :/

[@cubexBeats]

But have fun with it! 😊

[@AbarajameLabanyera]

Bitwig. Ableton is so 1994

[@AbarajameLabanyera]

@@cubexBeatsSaid no one, ever

[@paulmcmullan8735]

So well explained as always. I'm now much more aware of the possible challenges from Latency under different use cases, but great to have a comprehensive understanding of the solutions and workarounds. Thank you Anthony!

[@danielstone5912]

Anthony is an amazing instructor and his course seed to stage finally gave me the tools to get the musical ideas out of my head and actually like what comes out, I’d recommend him to anyone who seriously wants to up their musical game, whether it’s for fun or a career, Anthony explains things so clearly and with repetition and clarity!

[@MrMusic238]

the keep latency button has made my Ableton experience sooo much better

[@marleenvos4126]

Thank you so much for this perfect overview!

[@cXrisp]

Thanks for the great info, but am a little disappointed that you didn't cover the "MIDI Clock Sync Delay" and other options for each device on the "Link, Tempo & MIDI" options page. Wanted more info on usage of that because the Beatstep Pro I use as an external sequencer lags over USB MIDI. I guess that isn't audio latency proper so might be a different topic...

[@3420music]

nice lid and thanks for the video! been struggling and talking about this a lot lately !!!

[@McEvoy3]

Once again you nail these latency issues in Ableton! Thank you so much for your work Anthony! 🌱

[@fmoll8748]

good to know that effects introduce delay into other effects on the same channel. Thanks!

[@markrestuccia7880]

Cannot recommend the Seed to Stage course enough.. they’re all incredible

[@maxedee]

This video helped so much, thank you for the clear well thought out explanation.

[@Audiomuscle]

Great work, nicely done. This video should be mandatory viewing for every Live user. I'm always dumbfounded that 99% of folks who loudly complain about latency in Live and who falsely claim that other DAWs are "better" or "don't have latency issues" simply haven't taken the time to fully read the manual and learn Ableton Live. There are even more techniques than this (which I'm sure you're aware of) with which to overcome any problem you might encounter.

[@SeedtoStage]

Yeah this! I would also say that likely Ableton has the most or near the most solutions of any daw to overcome it. Curious what did I miss?

[@9coil]

Thanks a ton! I’ll definitely put these tips to use. I have to say that enrolling in all your Ableton courses was one of the best decisions I’ve made for my music. Your in-depth knowledge of Ableton, songwriting, recording, sound design, live performance, mixing, and m astering is truly remarkable! Plus, the S2S community is super friendly and supportive. Wishing you all the best! Thanks again!

[@nectariosm]

@22:10 ...check what is even more crazy...the channel inserts lack of PDC in Ableton Live, can carry over to a new track if the new track is receiving the output (Auto/Off setting in the record state, does not matter) of another track with latency inducing plug ins. This drove me mad for a day whilst I was trying to figure out why it happened! This problem is specific to Ableton Live and its a far too expensive DAW to have such a flaw. There's posts by people saying it can't be fixed without writing the code from the bottom up and I am not a coder so I have no idea if that is the case, but Ableton's strong denial to address it, makes me think the above rumours, might be true. Ableton do mention in Delay Compensation FAQ that "Built-in device modulation synced to the Live transport (i.e. synced to a specific beat-time position) is not compensated". There's no solution on offer, they just flat out say it is what it is. Its 2024 and the elephant is still in the room and no one at Ableton is saying anything. Hopefully this video generates enough noise for them to at least say something on the matter.

[@mjptaque]

Another great video from S2S. An amazing source of learning and fun. I've been actually waiting for the Latency tutorial for a while. So cool! Thanks.

[@Devorkan]

I love your videos and teaching style ♥

[@davidfundter6549]

Awesome video, appreciate your work! Wondering if you have some tips for a setup like: Ableton -> midi clock -> external sequencer (OXI One) -> cv signals -> analogue gear (modular) -> audio in -> Ableton. So far, I haven't found a solid way to get this right. Playing with the midi clock offset helps, but is not very reliable...

[@SeedtoStage]

I’d say the problem is likely in your midi clock as it’s not time adjusted. Instead, what I would use is the CV clock out device. I found that that’s usually way more solid.

[@davidfundter6549]

@@SeedtoStage Cool, using cv clock directly to the analogue gear works very nicely! I guess I could probably clock the OXI this way to get all the other goodies it has to offer. Thanks!!

[@InnerMotionMusic]

Very helpful and informative. Thanks!

[@fritsvanzanten3573]

Great video. Puts an issue on the table I can't figure out. I regularly meet guys or girls that 'd like to start making music like this on their laptops. I can advise them on a lot except the necessity of having/buying an audio interface, certainly when the just start. I had to have one from the start, because I started recording my electric guitar and voice. However, if you don't use analog input like guitars and mics in your tracks, do you need an audio interface. Certainly for people just starting this makes a lot of difference in the budget they need. I tend to think they can work for months without one when they just want to makes beats, maybe using vocal samples. What is your opinion?

[@wayhighermusic]

I was really thinking about stopping using ableton or plugins with latency because I couldn’t figure out why reduced latency with monitoring wasn’t working! Thanks!

[@digicat247]

Thank you for making this awesome guide!

[@thelostboymusic]

I learn something every time - thank you

[@stereopsis]

Thanks for this video! Hopefully I can afford the bundle next year!

[@ericsmith5600]

Seed2Stage's Ableton classes and videos are the best I've found. I didn't realize how little I knew about latency 🤣...Awesome as always!

[@ghash5158]

Awesome video as always. The list you made of devices with their latency is a sweet reaource, i like the idea of knowing what I'm adding latency wise while adding effects instead of hunting for issues later.

[@SimonLahaie]

Awesome! Thanks!

[@WDIPJordi]

Awesome as always, thanks!

[@puneet-404]

Just what I needed ! :)

[@gaelauclair525]

Awesome Video! Very useful thanks!

[@Italliving]

The Ultimate GUIDE, sounds very promising, can you make it happen ... Will edit after the video, Got interrupted many times during this video, and indeed you showed me 2 things i rather have knew before ,external and Monitoring off, handy these are for me. yet i don't like that you need to hover over a plugin to see the latency created, it should show it always and immediate and accurate as intended like in any other daw's , and should give it for the full chain/Bus or track, perhaps one day they will sandbox all and resolve the issue they have with latency and timed LFO , one day ... Are you looking Ableton, Did you notice the request 🙂

[@SukhdevOrian]

Instant like for the intro pun 😂

[@krystlepyette]

Thanks for sorting that out for me 😅

[@mikeandriaccio8246]

Yes!

[@Kevhuman]

If you make a parallel effect chain and mute one chain then put the sync based plugin on the other it should correctly adjust the latency . Automation will still be out of sync however

[@Peter-x1l1k]

FYI: Disabling "Keep Latency" does exactly the same to the recording as the "trick" with recording to a track that has Monitoring set to "Off" did. Exactly the same. In the video they made it sound way more confusing than it actually is.

[@SoloElROY]

That's what he demonstrated in the video

[@Peter-x1l1k]

@@SoloElROY but they never state that it is the same and from their attempt at explaining the feature it also seems like they don't know it is the same. Also later in the video they claim that "Keep Latency" button doesn't solve the issue of not having delay compensation applied when recording (they claim that all you need is the Ext. Instrument device) - which is totally not true. You need the button to disable "Keep Latency".

[@nicoincertezza5763]

great content, like always!

[@sethpaul7447]

Happy Thanksgiving anthony!!

[@friendwithin]

Tip: if you group every device on a track together into a single rack and hover over the rack name it will report the combined latency.

[@thegiodome]

Great Tips! Thanks man

[@andrejkobal]

Great explanation! 👌

[@Funkmastabuzz]

Great video!!! Im guessing the automation latency issue still exists as its time based?

[@SeedtoStage]

@@Funkmastabuzz if you mean signal chains where there is a plugin with an lfo or sequencer is after a latency creating plugin, yes it’s still there and it still sucks! I called them out in this video and demonstrate it about 3/4 of the way through.

[@iluminere]

For me more than 10 ms is unacceptable. Good tips on the plugins, Ableton should have a meter for total latency added by plugins, instead of us having to check each track and each plugin for added latency. Would make life very easy if we could also toggle off all plugins adding more than 3ms (for example).

[@SeedtoStage]

Agreed here I would love to see a total latency feature per track or signal path.

[@swaraj5779]

thank you...I always thought Ableton has some problems with audio recording and even switched to another daws just for recording purposes...turns out I was the problem🥲

[@nathangabily5258]

great video, great explanations, great guy, right ?

[@AntiPattern123]

Heyyyy..... Finally the ultimate comprehensive guide to the black magic. What would you actually recommend for the case of latency-whores inside one effect chain, as you mentioned it in chapter 7 at minute 22:15 ? I guess you just have to route the signal after the time-consuming effect into another track, from where you can add the other effects in series afterwards. The routing to another track should compensate this latency. And that is just possible because the plugins "tell" live their latency??!! Or doe's Live measure this? In both cases, it should be theoretically possible to implement this at specific points in the chain.?! Is the latency in devices like infiltrator always the same, or does it depend on the actual modules (presets) you use in it? That would be the one issue I see, with "predicting/adding" latency compensation after each effect in one chain.

[@SeedtoStage]

All I can say to this is that if the plugin exists anywhere in the signal chain, it will make the latency on every track in Ableton UNLESS “reduced latency while monitoring” is on. So the solution could be to remove the new track from that signal chain or to commit the offending tracks to audio.

[@AntiPattern123]

@@SeedtoStage Yeah.. It will bring all tracks to the worst latency. But the delayed signal of the first half of the signal chain, should be in sync with the midi-actions, happening in the other track. But yeah.This scenario is very abstract. At least for me. But it was an eye opener, because I often have the feeling my songs sounding more and more washed out after some actions, I couldn't explain otherwise. Thx for this.

[@landonh3535]

So for hardware being sequenced by an external sequencer, but getting clock from ableton it's better to use external instrument and set up another audio track with monitor off to record in? I'll have to try this. I have a template set up with audio in so I can monitor and "keep latency" off and as you are saying it does have the latency reported from my interface in the audio. I run at 64 sample, so it's a slight bit, but if I can eliminate it completely, that's pretty amazing.

[@elijahwoods7518]

legend

[@MarinSubasic]

Hey, thanks a bunch for this video. Unfortunately your statement the other DAW´s have the same problem is not exactly true: I use Ableton a lot ion tour on stage, but do my recordings with studio one. S1 has a hybrid engine, means you can set it the input buffer for example to 64 and the playback buffer to 1024. This will have the effect, that as soon as you arm a track for recording, it will be monitored at 64 samples, no matter what plug in´s are on the masterbus. It mutes these plugin´s automatically and that makes life so much easier. in this regard Ableton has a way to go to ...

[@crushworxvideo]

I noticed you didn’t address the latency dial in the external instrument plugin , I use this a ton because I have a lot of external hardness, I cannot get it rock solid without adjusting this dial, am I doing something wrong?

[@uitarelight5832]

Are those headphones the Arya Stealth?

[@beatsbybr1nk544]

What happens if you put External FX before or after the time based plugin. Wont that compensate for your whole set?

[@Noldy__]

22:24 with anyone using infiltrator and tries this experiment, you can circumnavigate it by turning either MIDI or Audio retrigger on in Infiltrator and it'll sync. But , Ableton needs to really address this.

[@tavenner07]

So the infiltrator won’t start until it receives audio/midi?

[@andypryce7417]

Lack of graphical compensation for playhead/cursor is my biggest issue. Drives me crazy when what I hear and where the cursor is not the same when the project has heavy plugins.

[@JamesPhillips-bb6rt]

I was so hoping your external audio effect portion would help me out but alas, my system of Ableton Live 12, and Apollo 8 with Audient preamps connected via ADAT and being the clock source does not allow for it. The externally processed audio always comes in as too early, not as too late. I've messed with driver error compensation and done the tutorial several times. So wish that External Audio Effect could be the panacea it is for you, but it's not.

[@sytsew]

I still have another latency, buffer-related or working-memory issue that persists through Live 8,9,11 and now 12. After some time working and recording, I get a "crackle seizure", a rising wave of crackles, stuttering and delay moves through everything, including into recording tracks, then falling away again. Takes 5-10 seconds, afterwards no problem for another 20 minutes or more. Changing the buffer size and upgrading to 12 helped a little, the wave is shorter and less frequent. I assume it might have to do with the core audio and/or a memory swap of the (Mac) OS, perhaps not just a Live issue - it also happens when recording in very simple projects. Yet I'm not sure. Back in Live 11 and before, after a severe wave an added delay would remain throughout the entire project, having to restart live to get a clean slate. Any ideas?

[@sqguitar]

Dude, you are the best at all things Ableton by a country mile! I have a question: I'm using Live 11 Suite and tried adding a Shaper to a pad sound. When I increase the buffer size to keep the project from bugging out, the timing of the shaper is off. And this is confirmed when I compare audio tracks at alternate buffer sizes recorded directly from that pad track. It's the same if Delay compensation is on or off. I am also making sure track monitoring set to Off on the recording audio channels. Zero latency reported by all Ableton devices. This also causes issues using 3rd party PI's (like Kickstart 2 for example). Totally screws the vibe, and I don't understand as surely this should all be happening within Ableton before it goes out to the interface. What am I missing here?

[@SeedtoStage]

Is shaper after any plugins that cause latency? That’s where I would start.

[@sqguitar]

@@SeedtoStage Nope, just an operator with single oscillator & zero latency. 😕

[@eento06]

Plugins handling in Ableton Live 12 (and all versions before) is a nightmare…issues with PDC and no sandbox environments around them making potential crashes inevitable. Live 12 live sets kept crashing a lot and 12.1 seems more stable…But the current issues with PDC + different handling of the compensation depending on the type of track used/routing makes the whole sets very hard to keep in sync, especially with external hardware instruments.

[@gabbyonyoutube]

I wish Ableton would have a low latency mode like Logic, where it would actively bypass any plugins that introduce heavy latency.

[@osmancolak]

There is. Under Options Menu /Reduce Latency When Monitoring

[@gabbyonyoutube]

@@osmancolak no, it's not the same. Try to reduce latency when monitoring with several CPU heavy plugins, and you will still have latency issues.

[@kaiwenwu1947]

Hi. Great stuff. But my problem is not latency as you describe it, I use mixpad and I record reggae ". I have NO delay in what I hear and play BUT. Trying to put a guitar rhythm track on the multi track recording always!!! Is lagging behind" and for reggae it's crucial it's perfectly timed. Iv tried buffer settings, everything " it changes the difference in the delay but I can't get it to match. ??? I did once. But it moved off sync on the next recording, so my latency is not heard. Until playback". I use 4i4 focusrite which has. Direct or through control on a blend knob, wherever I put it to recording I always have this out of sync playback. Can't even put drum fills in , same with them , HELP. , I'm soon to be suicidal lol😮 , same in wavpad as well , on overdub ??? No one knows how I can solve this. So mixpad ( expensive) is useless " I have to multi track on my tyros 5. Which is a faff , please help 😢

[@TheFunklin]

But can it run Crysis?

[@mmsmiguel]

👏👏👏👏

[@neyopanda]

22:21 I tried same thing on both ableton and bitwig and there is no issue in bitwig

[@SeedtoStage]

Yep this issue is exclusive to ableton as far as i can tell and NEEDS to be fixed asap.

[@musicbyapropos]

👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻

[@wesmincic6462]

Day 1 of asking Papadosio to come to Tulsa

[@ryangreen2006]

lmao intro made me cackle

[@BIONDIEST]

I wish i could turn the plugin off to reduce latency instead of deleteing it.

[@Italliving]

You can but it won't bypass the latency like Bitwig does when you deactivate the plugin on the track , i assume abletons bus/chain/channel works very differently hence the timing delay with LFO's ... one day they will get it right i hope

[@JVJF7]

Will the latency drop when using a Arturia Fuse?

[@Cheasseseandwitch]

[@condito]

...i think the info you give in the dyad example is not 100% correct...you would only have 40x the latency of one device if you'd stack them within one track...if one track has a plugin that causes 100ms latency and another track has the same device on it then the total latency would still be 100ms (+ the latency of the interface)...

[@SeedtoStage]

Yeah I should have mentioned that what i meant was if there was 40 dyads in an instrument rack all on the same track. If that was the case, there would be over 100ms caused by it. Since youtube is annoying and you cant add edits after posting im just going to remove those couple seconds. Thanks for catching that.

[@Interstellore]

Latency, painful

[@zacchariejacquat5349]

Let's gooooooo

[@theinvisibleman-e8v]

12 ms is not great. You want under 5 ms to record ok

[@SeedtoStage]

@@theinvisibleman-e8v it’s irrelevant as the latency is automatically adjusted for with the right settings.

[@chiAAAr_]

@@SeedtoStage but woudn't you hear it while playing? thus affecting your timing

[@SeedtoStage]

@@chiAAAr_ yes and you will play according to what you hear. Let me try to explain, ableton or any daw's plugin delay compensation delays all tracks equally so that when you play along with them you hear the music delayed slightly. You you'll play your instrument along with what you hear the timing of the music to be. The drums of your music, the other tracks, even the metronome will all be in sync. The issues come up when you are hearing your own signals later than what is intended and thats what this video is about.

[@sytsew]

@@SeedtoStage Yet this base sometimes does confuse me. There's 2 reference options for your own playing: (a) listening to your own real world attack (say, hitting the string), and (b) listening to the audio of all song tracks, perhaps slightly delayed but all in sync with each other. If on well insulated headphones, you'll be able to reference fully on the latter. But at larger compensation intervals, you start feeling that your arm actually is hitting earlier than the musical reference. Still works a long way, indeed your brain believes the headphone reference (including your own playing in the tribe) and adapts, too. But if you're on a drumset or worse insulated headphones, you start wanting the processed tracks to sync up with you, not vice-versa. Up until this video, I'd indeed put monitoring on OFF and flipped the headphones half off one ear, to get my physical attack (also on guitars etc). Or had to turn off heavily delaying devices or tracks - I got that far, and the Keep Latency track option. But didn't yet try Reduced Latency when monitoring. Thanks for that, and understanding much better what's going on.

[@iHOiD]

👏👏👏