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I am using ableton live 10 (trial) with a scarlett focusrite solo to record simple loops with my guitar. The recording delay is a huge hassle everytime I want do add a track.

Currently my workflow is like this. I play some drum track, add an audio track with my focusrite as input and monitor turned off because there is a substantial delay. Then I record something, select the part I am interested in to loop, then press insert warp markers, select all those warp markers and move them back a few ms and then this part is in sync with my drum track.

This is what it looks like when it's finished, pretty much in synch.

enter image description here

Is there an easier way to do this? I reckon recording without delay is not possible? But maybe I can automatically remove the delay, or at least move an entire selection back in time for a given amount of ms without the warp markers?

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  • Welcome to Music Stack Exchange. Adding some pictures to help show what you mean and using some paragraphs would make this a lot more readable.
    – Legorhin
    Oct 10, 2019 at 17:35
  • Have you already read the First Steps part of the manual? Do you know where the manual can be found? Quote: "Please take the time to follow the program’s built-in “Setting up Audio I/O“ lesson, which will walk you through all the steps required to set up and optimize the settings for any given system. To access the lesson, use the Help View command from the Help menu." Have you done that?
    – piiperi Reinstate Monica
    Oct 10, 2019 at 18:40
  • @piiperi which manual? Ableton or focusrite? I only tried to reduce latency with the buffer sizes in the preferences of ableton, which didn't help a lot
    – ram uno
    Oct 10, 2019 at 18:56
  • If Focusrite's manuals have a First Steps part, it might be good to read too. But I was referring to Live 10's manual. If Ableton have made a "setting up" lesson, it's probably good to go through first. Especially if it can get you to "... optimize the settings for any given system"
    – piiperi Reinstate Monica
    Oct 10, 2019 at 19:01
  • Have you tried fussing with "delay compensation" and "reduce latency when monitoring" options? help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/articles/… (bear in mind that many folks suggest disabling monitoring when recording).
    – Yorik
    Oct 11, 2019 at 18:38

2 Answers 2

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The biggest thing here is going to be the buffer size and latency settings in the Preferences pane, under the Audio tab, in the Latency section:

ableton preferences

By reducing the size of your buffer, you're essentially telling your computer to process the audio faster, rather than allowing it to have an output delay to provide smoother output.

If you set this buffer size too low, you'll notice very quickly that a crackling sound will start to mix in with your output. Don't worry, it's not actually affecting your track (if you were to render it to audio, for example) but that's a sign that your processor isn't able to keep up with that small of a buffer size.

So you will want to find a balance between allowing your processor enough time to make the sound come out right, while making it come out as quickly as possible.

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Ok, so after a few weeks I figured it out! Changing the Buffer Sizes did absolutely nothing for me. What I did though, is changing the driver type to ASIO and my device to Focusrite USB ASIO. Then I plugged my speakers into the Focusrite, and I can now play and record without any delay!

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