POLL (Sorta) - When tracking, you cue headphones by....

[Ice]

Hi guys,

This topic is mostly about dealing with native latency when tracking, and monitoring performance while tracking...

I use Reaper for Post production, not music tracking. When I used to track musicians I used Pro Tools with DIGI/AVID hardware for no latency so I could cue the artists without any issues. I know you guys are using Reaper and native interfaces to do great work. So I'm curious if you guys are using hardware direct thrus like MOTU has (not in and back out of the DAW before going to phones), or setting buffers low enough, or some other tricks like freezing tracks?

It seems like all these are more or less workarounds and a bit tedious. If we get a busy session so that we can't set buffers low enough, the CPU might crap out. Then we have to freeze everything to free up CPU. Using direct thrus offer the least latency, but then thats another thing to set up and you're stuck with whatever processing the IO has onboard to go into the phones.

I suppose doing any of these enough would become second nature, but for someone like me it seems a fiddly at the start. So I'm really curious what clever solutions you guys have come up with.

[ivansc]

I use an interface with multiple ADAT/Analogue out puts as well as inputs.
Took me a little time to set up but I can now setup anything up to 16 outs with separate mixes either by my 16 outs directly from the RME interface, using TotalMix or do the same via the Reaper mix matrix.
Beauty of this is that every out can have its own mix to suit the !talent! without affecting anything else PLUS you only have to do it once.

[Glennbo]

I use two Delta 2496 cards set to 64 samples latency, and monitor through Reaper 100% of the time when recording analog input from my mixer, like bass, guitar, acoustic instruments, and vocals. I frequently have things in the chain like compressors, EQs, reverbs, or amp sims while tracking.

I use a headphone distribution amp that is inline with my speakers so whether it's just me or me plus others tracking, I just turn off my nearfield monitors, and turn on my headphone distribution amp.

If I wanted or needed to monitor direct, I can simply pull one fader down and another up on the Delta cards mixer applet, but I have no problem tracking with a reported latency from Reaper of 2.4/2.0ms.

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