problems with micrphone "latency"

When I play my guitar into AA via my mixer I get unnoticeable latency. For some reason when I use my microphone through the same mixer i get nearly a 1/4 second "delay"!

On "external mix" the monitoring it is fine, but I want to hear a little verb when I record vocals but if I use Audition mix I get this delay.

My ASIO is set to 256 samples which should be fine (I still get the delay if I set it to 16 samples). I feel like I must be missing something obvious as I am sure I never used to have this problem (I haven't recorded any vocals for a while)

Any smart ideas out there?

OK if no one has any answers, has anyone experienced anything like this or am I unique in the annals of home recording

I don't have the same sound card as you, so I probably won't be much help.  On the firepod control software there is a latency setting in milliseconds.  If I use the audition mix for monitoring while recording there is very small latency.  I usually keep the 'Pods latency at 4 milliseconds without any trouble on the system.  I'm sure it varies for each individual setup though.

Hi Mark,

Something similar was discussed on the Adobe forum. See if  this link   http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3bc3aaa1  is of any help. I muted the Analog In in the Echo Mia mixer and it did help.

Egbert Menger

I had a latency problem once when I had my camcorder connected to the PC into Premiere, recording me talking, but my mic (my condenser mic) had a lag, resulting in video/audio sync problems .. I concluded later that the problem was that one (video) was digital input and the other (the mic) was analogue. Could this be the smart idea you're looking for...

Hey BFM

I had my camcorder connected to the PC into Premiere, recording me talking, but my mic (my condenser mic) had a lag, resulting in video/audio sync problems

Just asking - were you using firewire to connect camera to PC? I transfer from my Sony cam corder and all is in sync. Never had a pblm. I use Premiere 6.5. Creates a huge avi file. Must have space on a drive for this. I defrag data all the time. Clean away pblms with ccleaner / Tuneup2007 / jv16 pt.

Brewer

http://www.tune-up.com/
http://www.macecraft.com/
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Hi Mark,

Something similar was discussed on the Adobe forum. See if  this link   http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3bc3aaa1  is of any help. I muted the Analog In in the Echo Mia mixer and it did help.

Egbert Menger

Hi and thanks, that looks like the answer, I have been turning of the input monitoring in the echo mixer and it works, the boring thing is having to turn it on/off all the time. Oh well I guess nothing is perfect

Hey BFM

I had my camcorder connected to the PC into Premiere, recording me talking, but my mic (my condenser mic) had a lag, resulting in video/audio sync problems

Just asking - were you using firewire to connect camera to PC? I transfer from my Sony cam corder and all is in sync. Never had a pblm. I use Premiere 6.5. Creates a huge avi file. Must have space on a drive for this. I defrag data all the time. Clean away pblms with ccleaner / Tuneup2007 / jv16 pt.

Yes firewire .. but I wasn't transfering, I was recording straight into Premier .. my voice being recorded by my condenser mic not the camcorder's mic, and the audio lags behind the picture more and more in the recording .. it's an intelligent guess that the mic input via the E-MU card was not digital but the camcorder firewire input was and that was the only major difference I can see.

Yes firewire .. but I wasn't transfering, I was recording straight into Premier .. my voice being recorded by my condenser mic not the camcorder's mic, and the audio lags behind the picture more and more in the recording .. it's an intelligent guess that the mic input via the E-MU card was not digital but the camcorder firewire input was and that was the only major difference I can see.

Close, but no cigar...

This is a very old problem - it's been noted by just about everybody trying to sync external sound with video at some stage or other. And the cause is very simple - the Firewire clock and the sync clock in the E-mu are not locked together, and they drift apart - often quite noticeably.

If you look at a device like the Canopus ADVC 110 and scroll down the page a bit, you will find a section entitled Locked/Unlocked Audio Support, where it says:

Other converters can lose audio/video sync when converting longer segments of video. ADVC110 supports locked audio when converting from analog to digital, assuring perfect audio and video synchronization. ADVC110 also allows conversion of analog audio signals only, when needed.

And what the Canopus does is to provide an analog audio input that's locked to the Firewire input. Not only that, but I think that if you do a Firewire loopthrough via the box, which it also supports, it will lock the internal audio to an external Firewire input as well. (Haven't checked that for ages, but I think it's true.)

So, to get the camcorder direct output to sync with external audio, you have to find a means of synchronising the external audio to the Firewire sync - and there aren't a lot of boxes that will let you do that. With the Canopus, you could do what you wanted by routing an analog audio output from the E-Mu back to the Canopus audio input, and recording it via that. So that would be an analog solution to your problem!

This is a very old problem - it's been noted by just about everybody trying to sync external sound with video at some stage or other. And the cause is very simple - the Firewire clock and the sync clock in the E-mu are not locked together, and they drift apart - often quite noticeably.

Probably the simplest solution to the problem would have been to use the audio input on the camcorder rather than the EMU card.

All the other solutions that I can think of involve additional (and possibly expensive) hardware.

Cheers

James.

Hi. Just waking up here.

solution to the problem would have been to use the audio input on the camcorder rather than the EMU card.

SMPTE code jumps to my mind as per SteveG's msg. I remember working with 3/4" video and using Sony editing. I think the engineer bought a rack / SMPTE unit. I wonder if they have an "analog" unit one where you can run your video from your camera / PC into it / add audio / combine A/V in sync / then on to computer.

Something like this http://www.pangolin.com/products/pricelist-smpte.htm

Probably the simplest solution to the problem would have been to use the audio input on the camcorder rather than the EMU card.

That's fine if you have a camcorder that will let you do it; I know of a number where that simply isn't possible - you are forced to use the microphone in the camera to record with, and that generally isn't good.

This is a very old problem - it's been noted by just about everybody trying to sync external sound with video at some stage or other. And the cause is very simple - the Firewire clock and the sync clock in the E-mu are not locked together, and they drift apart - often quite noticeably.

Probably the simplest solution to the problem would have been to use the audio input on the camcorder rather than the EMU card.

All the other solutions that I can think of involve additional (and possibly expensive) hardware.

Cheers

James.

Well it's a Panasonic NV-GS500 and the video quality is very good but the mic quality is not at all good, it sounds really amateurish because it picks up all atmos sounds, and it sounds echoey and tinny etc. Essentially it is the answer to use the cam's audio recording and I'll be looking to plug in a tie-clip mic of some sort I think, for a better quality audio, especially for those videos where you're talking to camera.

Well it's a Panasonic NV-GS500 and the video quality is very good but the mic quality is not at all good, it sounds really amateurish because it picks up all atmos sounds, and it sounds echoey and tinny etc.

I wondered if you'd got a Panasonic - some of these are rather notorious for causing sound difficulties, one way or another. I inherited one a couple of years ago (earlier model than yours, admittedly), and the sound is dire. Not only that, but unless I modify it, you can't plug an external mic into it anyway. And my understanding is that the NV-GS500 also has a distinct lack of connectivity when it comes to audio inputs...

Well it's a Panasonic NV-GS500 and the video quality is very good but the mic quality is not at all good, it sounds really amateurish because it picks up all atmos sounds, and it sounds echoey and tinny etc.

I wondered if you'd got a Panasonic - some of these are rather notorious for causing sound difficulties, one way or another. I inherited one a couple of years ago (earlier model than yours, admittedly), and the sound is dire. Not only that, but unless I modify it, you can't plug an external mic into it anyway. And my understanding is that the NV-GS500 also has a distinct lack of connectivity when it comes to audio inputs...

You can plug a mic in, what it doesn't have is headphone out .. scroll down to the specs http://www.simplydv.co.uk/Reviews/panasonic_nv-gs500.html