Sound delay when using mic or line in.

Hi,

This latency issue with Windows 7 has been a HUGE problem for me, and I have finally cracked it!

Please spread this solution, because it drove me INSANE for months!

Ok, basically, there are two ways to activate "listening" to the Line in port on your soundcard, one of the generates lag, the other does not. Unfortunately, the "sensible" logical one is the one that causes problems!

Method 1...the obvious "Sensible" thing to do to activate line in recording...

1. Go to control panel>sound

2. Click on the "Recoding" tab
3. Select Line in and then "listen to this device"

Good news: you now have line-in input selected. Bad news: it's mega-lagged and utterly unusable for audio recording.

This is what you should do to avoid the lag..a far less intutive and logical approach, but it works:

Method 2:

1.go to control panel>sound>PLAYBACK (yes..playback..NOT record tab!)

2. Find the active "speakers" item on the list, double click it
3. A new box for "speakers properties" opens
4. Click the "levels" tab
5. unmute and push the fader up for "Line in" on this page and click "apply/ok"
6. Now you will have unlagged sound!!
7. NOTE...if you already have activated "listen to this device" with method one, then you will now have BOTH lagged AND unlagged sound...go down the method one route, and UNTICK and click apply on the "Listen to this device" box.

I have absolutely NO idea why this works, but I promise you it does...this problem has driven me nuts for nearly a year and caused me to abandon using a brand new PC for audio recording and go back to XP before I cracked it.

Hope this helps!

Sirs/ma'ms at Microsoft,

I am sorry, but the response from Srinivas R regarding " Sound delay when using mic or line in" is not a viable answer to the question of recording latency in Windows 7.  In XP, all of us musicians recorded flawlessly with no latency.  To put it in laymen's terms, when you UPGRADE to a BETTER OS,  you should have MORE capability, not LESS, especially with the prices you charge and the things you now make us buy which used to be free.  If you were to care about what your customers are saying, you would research this problem and come up with a corrective action instead of making it sound like WE as consumers have set something up wrong. You all dropped the ball on this one and left many a musician stranded, unable to finish projects which may have been their bread and butter.  There are a LOT of computer savvy musicians out there who cannot correct this problem and have opted to go back to XP.  I have ten years of recorded music ideas that are half-finished that I can no longer overdub new parts to due to your weak new OS and its 1-2 second latency problem and lack of stereo mixing capabilities.  Start by creating an analog recording atmosphere in which Windoiws does not have to convert an analog signal to digital first (first music production lesson: DIGITAL isn't always BETTER)- I would guess that the transformation from analog to digital processing would cause that latency.  All we are asking is to get back what you already gave us.  Now get to work, fix the problem (or find someone who CAN), and give your customers what they are asking (begging) for..... thanks.

Hi M.I.W 

Maybe we have similar systems, but I just used your info and it immediately fixed the prob for me, particularly the 'untick' part - just wanted to say thanks for saving me a great deal of aggravation  :)

I am attempting to record my guitar onto my pc, but when I use the mic or line in jack I get a horrible delay, about .5 second. It wouldn't be a problem if I was just doing 1 track, but if you try to add multiple tracks, they won't line up. I have an Asus M2n-e motherboard, sb x-fi soundblaster card, and windows 7.