Reaper help. . .again! Latency rears its ugly head

[Alison]

Hi guys, no, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. . .yet!

I've actually been doing some recording and all has been going pretty well until today. . . latency has reared its ugly head and NOTHING is working to fix it. I've put the block size WAY up, went to recording and input manual offset, and screwed around with that for a while. Nothing is working. The weird thing is, everything was fine when I recorded yesterday.

I'm extremely frustrated. Any suggestions as to what to do would be greatly appreciated, I'd really love to finish this song. . .

Thanks

[rayc]

Kenny's latest two videos are about latency.
https://www.youtube.com/@REAPERMania
If you turn off all possible VSTs - one at a time & test things you may find that one is causing the problem. Things like ReaTune & Melodyne hog the CPU for instances, not that you use those.
What interface are you using?
You may have a direct monitor option with it so that latency would be less of a problem.
Mine has a direct monitor feature so that I don't really need to worry about latency when tracking but I do mute most things when doing it.
I use a big buffer when mixing becasue of VSTs and multiple tracks slowing my machine.
Check that nothing new has installed itself on your computer and is making priority calls on your chips.

[Alison]

I really don't use many VSTs except my usual Eq and reverb. I have a Presonus Audiobox iTwo and I don't think it has a direct monitoring option. I tried upping the block size all the way up to 500 and nothing changed! Ugh! I am SO close to having this song finished!

[Armistice]

Which monitoring option do you have clicked on your Reaper track?

[Alison]

Thanks for the video link, @rayc

[Alison]

Which monitoring option do you have clicked on your Reaper track?

Monitoring option? Ha, not sure about that but, I think I solved the problem and boy, do I feel STUPID!!
After watching Kenny's video about latency, I realized that my recording is not huge (just 6 tracks) but before I caught some mistakes and thought I was finished, I put some Ozone mastering on it. Once I turned off the effect, the latency was gone. . .

Sorry about the panic post. Still would be good to learn about monitoring options though. . .

[rayc]

Alison, looking at the front of the interface you have a knob that is labelled input on one side & play back on the other. If, when recording, you roll the knob to the left you'll hear your instrument GOING in, before it hits the computer so NO latency. You need to find a balance between that level and the stuff in the DAW already. I have a similar knob on my SSL. I have the knob at about 10 0'clock and turn the headphones up to compensate for the DAW tracks. This should mean no real need to set a high latency in the DAW if, in Reaper, you have selected both mute & record on the track you are playing into.
https://legacy.presonus.com/learn/techn ... -Interface
https://support.presonus.com/hc/en-us/a ... eshooting-

[rayc]

I put some Ozone mastering on it. Once I turned off the effect, the latency was gone. . .

Yep, powerful, hungry VSTs do that.
Nevertheless the stuff I linked to above is useful.