In this article we’re going to talk about how to fix audio latency, which always feels like there is a delay or lag in your voice when recording.
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This also effects your MIDI Keyboard while playing keys to make beats.
Audio latency is still a problem within the audio industry, which has had big improvements in later years, but today, I’ll be showing you how to do improve audio latency in FL Studio.
Select an ASIO Driver
The first problem is not using an ASIO driver.
An ASIO driver allows your music program to directly talk to your audio card, rather than having to go through your operating system. So right off the bat, you will get A HUGE improvement with an ASIO Driver.
Now FL Studio gives you two by default, and that’s ASIO4ALL v2, or their own custom FL Studio ASIO.
Now, if you’ve bought an audio interface, you may see your audio interface’s driver within this list as well. You will have to see what ASIO driver works best for you.. typically the audio interface’s drivers will perform better, but this is not always the case, depending on the quality of your audio interface.
Audio latency performance at the end of the day really comes down to two things:
- Your computer’s specs/performance
- Your ASIO driver
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ASIO Driver Buffer Size (Samples)
Once your ASIO Driver is selected within FL Studio’s F10 settings, you can actually further adjust the ASIO Driver’s settings.
There is typically a slider, or radio button options, which allow you to have less latency or more latency.
If you select less latency, this makes your computer work harder, but depending on the size of the project you have made, and the power of your computer, you may be able to run on a lower setting, because your computer can handle it without underruns.
(Underruns are when you hear glitches, clicks, and pops, and is your computer telling you to either increase your ASIO Driver’s buffer length, or your computer may need upgrading soon!)
FL Studio’s manual on audio settings tells us that the optimum setting is 440-880 samples (10-12ms). If you go any lower, they say it is diminishing returns.. which means your computer starts working a lot harder for marginal improvement!
For example, 512ms vs 1024ms is a huge difference!
And even 256ms to 512ms is noticeable, but at 256ms, your computer is required to work very hard!
So how you adjust your buffer size is by hitting F10 -> Audio -> Show ASIO Panel:
In the early stages of the beat (or when recording), you can bump this to 512, or 384 for less latency, and when the song starts to get heavier, and you experience underruns because of more elements added in, you can increase the buffer size to 1024, or even 2048. (You could also try enabling triple buffer if your computer can’t handle the project at 2048!)
How to Get The Lowest Latency in FL Studio
If you would like absolutely zero latency, then you will want to watch this video which teaches you about using a hardware mixer to get zero-latency in your recordings.
So first you select an ASIO Driver.
Next, you adjust the buffer size (also said as buffer length).
Also, having a good audio interface is also important for the stability of FL Studio, and also solid performance. As well as choosing a proper computer for music production.
FL Studio tells us that the single core speed is most important in selecting a CPU.
So here’s what you can try for performance:
- First select an ASIO driver
- If experiencing under-runs (clicks, pops, glitches, etc.) – Increase your buffer size (to 1024, or 2048)
- If still experiencing under-runs, you can select the Triple buffer setting.
- If you’re track is at a point where recording is just unbareable, you have two options:
- Export the song to an .MP3, open a new project, and record at low latency.
- Purchase a mixer, send the audio out of FL Studio into the mixer, monitor and record yourself in the mixer, and then send that recorded vocal back into FL Studio.
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It will teach you in-depth how it all works, and how to avoid latency 100% with an audio interface and a mixer. (Using a mixer will give you the best experience, but you can also get very low latency on an audio interface..)
