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A note about latency
You will probably have heard the term “latency” used in connection with digital audio systems. In the
case of the simple DAW recording application described above, latency is the time it takes for your
input signals to pass through your computer and audio software, and back to you. While not an issue
for most simple recording situations, under some circumstances, latency can be a problem for a
performer who wishes to record while monitoring their input signals. This might be the case if you
need to increase the size of your DAW’s recording buffer, which could be necessary when you record
overdubs on a particularly large project using many DAW tracks, software instruments and FX plug-
ins. Common symptoms of a buffer setting that is too low could be glitching audio (clicks and pops),
or a particularly high CPU load within your DAW (most DAWs have CPU readouts). If you experience
this on a Mac, you can raise the buffer size from the DAW application itself but on a Windows PC you
will most likely need to change this from the ASIO ControlPanel which can usually be accessed
from your DAW Setup Preferences*.
The Clarett 4Pre USB, in conjunction with Focusrite Control, allows “zero latency monitoring”,
which overcomes this problem. You can route your input signals directly to the Clarett 4Pre USB’s
headphone and line outputs. This enables the musicians to hear themselves with near zero latency
– i.e., effectively in “real time” – along with the computer playback, even with very high DAW buffer
sizes. The input signals to the computer are not affected in any way by this setting. However, note
that any effects being added to the live instruments by software plug-ins will not be heard in the
headphones in this case, although the FX will still be present on the recording.
* Typical name – page names may vary with DAW
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