Digital recording tracks are out of synch

Fred Glave · Post by **Fred Glave** » 2 Jun 2011 11:04 am

I've heard of this problem before, and I've tried to research it on the forum with no success. I lay down the first track fine, but the next tracks are slightly out of synch. I use a click track everytime. I have Audacity, and there is a "time shift" feature that helps, but it's pretty tough to lock in sometimes. What is the method for keeping tracks in synch?

Fred Glave · Post by **Fred Glave** » 5 Jun 2011 9:27 am

I figured out a trick to making sure tracks are recorded in synch. My first track is a "dummy track" and then I record everything against that track. Then all of the keeper tracks are in synch with each other, but not with the 1st dummy track.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 5 Jun 2011 11:10 am

The problem is "Latency". When you record something with a previously recorded track there is a time delay. How much delay depends on your PC and recording devices.

Latency can fill books, just do a search for Latency.

I have to take that into consideration in my home recording studio, that I have using Sonar.

You can check your PC's latency with the DPC Latency Checker

Click Me

Bob Martin · Post by **Bob Martin** » 5 Jun 2011 9:29 pm

Hi Fred, I have heard a lot of complaints from all over the net about "latency" or in other words each track being out of sync with the other tracks.

No matter what audio interface you use to record your audio input ie guitar, steel, piano, fiddle and so on they should all be in sync with all of the other tracks because if there is latency in your recordings they should be on every track including the very first track which means they all have the same latency/delay and all tracks will be in sync with each other and you will never feel it.

The only time that a person might expect one track to be out of sync with another track is if you record one track with one audio interface such as a USB 2 or Fire wire interface and then decide to switch to a different audio interface that has a different latency then the tracks very well could be out out of sync.

Just to go over all of this again, unless you change audio interfaces from one track to another or adjust the settings in your DAW from one take to the other there is no reason for your audio tracks to not line up perfectly.

I will end up with this paragraph, latency is a very hard concept for some folks to understand so if I have confused or you have been confused from other posts please email me and I will send you my telephone number and I'll try to do a better job explaining my post here about latency.

Bob Martin[/i]

Robby Springfield · Post by **Robby Springfield** » 8 Jun 2011 7:27 pm

Latency issues are most generally seen or "heard" when trying to record to a previously recorded track and has to do with how you hear the pre-recorded track verses the live track you are attempting to record. It should not affect how your DAW lines/syncs up. You should be able to record your tracks and them be in sync inside of any DAW.

Are you using any plugins while recording your second track? Is your second track ahead or behind the first?

Bob Martin · Post by **Bob Martin** » 12 Jun 2011 8:04 pm

Hi Fred, did any of our answers help you figure out the problem you are having? I'm guessing that it probably did not. I would be very glad to help further if it is needed

thanks

Bob Martin