12.25

OPTIMIZING PERFORMANCE620
About Latency Compensation
Below the Input Latency and Output Latency rows in the Preferences-Audio dialog, you will find an item called Re-
cording Latency Compensation. This value is used internally in Reason to compensate for latencies when recording
audio using external monitoring.
Recording Latency Compensation
! Adjusting the Recording Latency Compensation parameter is never necessary when you have selected “Auto-
matic” in the Monitoring section on the Audio page in Preferences - see “Monitoring”.
Recording Latency Compensation is when the program adjusts the position of the recorded audio according to the
current latency. Here's how it works:
If you're recording audio and are not monitoring through Reason (e.g. monitoring directly through the audio card or
via an external mixer), the audio you record will reach the program slightly late. This is because you play along with
background tracks or the metronome - and you hear these delayed by the output latency. Also, the sound you record
is sent to the program via the buffers in the audio hardware - it is delayed by the input latency.
Reason compensates for this by moving the recorded audio earlier by the sum of the input+output latencies. This
compensation is also done in "Manual Monitoring" mode, if Monitor was Off for the recorded track (when you started
recording).
If Monitor is On, there is no Recording Latency Compensation. This is because the monitored sound will also be de-
layed, and numerous tests have shown that the performer will actually play slightly ahead to compensate for this. In
other words, when monitoring through Reason, the performer is expected to do the Recording Latency Compensa-
tion himself/herself.
If you are monitoring via an external mixer, and have selected “External” in the Monitoring section on the Audio tab in
Preferences, there might be situations where you experience that the recorded audio is generally played back too
early - or too late - in the song. This could be because your audio card doesn’t actually have the latency values it re-
ported to Reason.
If you should experience that your audio recordings are played back too early or too late compared to the instrument
tracks in your song, you can adjust this by editing the Recording Latency Compensation parameter:
D Click the Recording Latency Compensation spin controls to compensate for early or late playback of audio
track recordings
If the audio appears too early during playback, adjust to a negative (-) value.
If the audio appears too late during playback, adjust to a positive value.