Monitoring While Recording With USB Mic?

Question

Is there a way to do zero (or at least very small) latency monitoring when recording with a USB mic that does NOT have a headphone jack on it? Yes, I can hit the "I" button in multitrack mode on the track. But that has such latency that I hear a doubling effect.

I've tried on both a Mac (MacBook Air) and Windows. In both instances, I select either the built-in soud card (Windows 11 desktop) and External Headphones on the Mac). Can't figure it out. I'm hoping I'm just missing something?

SteveG_AudioMasters_ · Answer

No, I'm afraid that you've been stuffed by the Laws of Physics, I'm afraid - latency is completely unavoidable. What sound devices normally have is a 'monitor' path which takes the signal direct from the mic and feeds it to the headphone socket, without any round trip through the computer. This is generally fine, because Audition is extremely good at recording what you send it, so as long as you aren't overloading the input, you won't have a problem.

But there's no way you can do this with a USB mic that doesn't have its own monitor system built in. The moment the signal leaves the mic down the USB lead, latency is inevitable - sort-of a bit like death and taxes. The reason is that it takes a finite amount of time to convert the signal to a digital one - then you have to process it, and lastly to monitor it, you have to send it back out through a DAC to your sound device.

I realise that this won't help, but at least I hope you'll see why it's like this.

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