How can I hear myself w/o delay?

Sogiki

Newbie
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Hi there. I got a Steinberg UR12 and a SHURE SM7 microphone in hopes of hearing myself while recording (without delay). There is still a delay. I've checked the listen to this device feature in my sound settings (recording tab) and it also catches all ambient sound in addition to the delay. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
 
That's most likely latency between the Steinburg and your computer. What DAW are you recording into? Most of them have a way to lower the buffer size, which will help. There's a few tips in here you can run through that'll help get things going. If you're using a bunch of plugins, take them off, they increase latency and some can add latency even when they're bypassed.

 
It's a pretty standard laptop, but I got the interface b/c someone told me it would fix the issue and it's not. What was the point of the interface at all?
 
It's a pretty standard laptop, but I got the interface b/c someone told me it would fix the issue and it's not. What was the point of the interface at all?
Did you try any of the suggestions so far?
 
no I read the article but I'm very novice at this stuff and I have zero idea how to execute any of those suggestions.
 
no I read the article but I'm very novice at this stuff and I have zero idea how to execute any of those suggestions.
Do exactly what Blix suggested in his first post.

Currently you are capturing sound with the microphone, piping the mic into the interface, letting the interface convert it to digital, sending the digital into your DAW, then having the DAW send the sound back to the interface where it is converted back to analog before sending it to your speakers.

If you do what Blix said, the sound is sent straight from the mic preamp to the speakers with none of the conversions mentioned above, so has no delay.
 
Activate the "direct monitor" switch on the front of the UR12, make sure input monitoring is off in your DAW.
I did activate this button and it made no difference at all on the delay issue. I opened my sound settings and clicked the recording tab and checked listen on this device. The mic is connected to the UR12 and my headset is also plugged into it. I don't know how to turn off the input monitoring, but those are my steps so far. I'm trying as hard as I can here I promise.
 
Do exactly what Blix suggested in his first post.

Currently you are capturing sound with the microphone, piping the mic into the interface, letting the interface convert it to digital, sending the digital into your DAW, then having the DAW send the sound back to the interface where it is converted back to analog before sending it to your speakers.

If you do what Blix said, the sound is sent straight from the mic preamp to the speakers with none of the conversions mentioned above, so has no delay.
I did activate this button and it made no difference at all on the delay issue. I opened my sound settings and clicked the recording tab and checked listen on this device. The mic is connected to the UR12 and my headset is also plugged into it. I don't know how to turn off the input monitoring, but those are my steps so far. I'm trying as hard as I can here I promise.
 
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Change that buffer size setting to 32, 64, or 128.
 
Which operating system? What program are you using to record yourself? How are you monitoring (headphones probably?) If you're using Windows, did you install ASIO drivers for the Steinberg?
 
Which operating system? What program are you using to record yourself? How are you monitoring (headphones probably?) If you're using Windows, did you install ASIO drivers for the Steinberg?
UGH. I'm so dumb. I did not install the drivers. My buddy just asked me the same question. [insert face palm]. Will install and report back!
 
There's STILL a delay. Drivers installed, direct monitor button hit, buffer size reduced, still a millisecond delay. It's slight, but it's enough to make hearing myself useless
 
Do you have someone more experienced who could walk you through your setup? This is nearly impossible to troubleshoot properly on a forum.

Are you monitoring your own voice? Are you using headphones or speakers for monitoring? You may be hearing your voice from another source in addition to the direct monitor on the interface.
 
I did activate this button and it made no difference at all on the delay issue. I opened my sound settings and clicked the recording tab and checked listen on this device. The mic is connected to the UR12 and my headset is also plugged into it. I don't know how to turn off the input monitoring, but those are my steps so far. I'm trying as hard as I can here I promise.
Are you just trying to listen to this in WIndows or something? or are you using a DAW software like Cubase, Reaper, Ableton etc?

Input monitoring should be without delay, but if you are also trying to listen to it through WIndows then you might get weird results.

All you should need to do is press the Direct Monitor button on the audio interface.
 
There's STILL a delay. Drivers installed, direct monitor button hit, buffer size reduced, still a millisecond delay. It's slight, but it's enough to make hearing myself useless
Make sure you've activated ASIO inside your DAW. Which DAW software are you using?
 
The buffer size and audio drivers are all an unecessary rabbit hole for what you are trying to do. You have only done 1/2 of what Blix’s first comment told you to do. You have to also turn off monitoring of the track in your DAW so you aren’t hearing the delayed signal.
 
Really, you *do* need to check what Blix was suggesting (and what Boudoir Guitar was trying to hammer in - rightly so, I gotta say) and you need to tell us what DAW ("digital audio workstation", typically your recording program) you're using, so people could talk you through the process of either deactivating software monitoring or optimizing your latency (which is what this kinda delay you're experiencing is typically called in DAW land).
 
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