Alex Lohiser

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There are two kinds of zero latency monitoring solutions that every audio engineer should know: “Near Zero Latency” and “True Zero Latency”. Every engineer has experienced, at the most unfortunate time, a near perfect recording, thwarted by latency. Latency is the delay created when audio enters and exits a system. Most “Digital Audio Workstations”, or DAW’s, fix this issue by allowing a change in buffer size. However, there is more to latency than just computer hardware. Near Zero Latency involves sending the signal straight to the artist’s headphones after it comes out of the A to D converter. Then, sending the split signal from the RAM into the reverse D to A converter before the headphones. This will result in a few milliseconds of delay. This will not be noticeable. Most musicians can’t hear more than a twenty-millisecond difference in tempo. True Zero Latency is not necessary, though, it can be a lovely fix for perfectionists wanting to give their artists the best headphone mix possible.  Here, an analogue mixer is inserted before the A to D converter and a separate audio signal is split and sent to the headphones. The Engineer will get the mix coming from the reversed D to A converter. The image below, from Joe Albano’s article on latency, shows the signal flow for True Zero Latency. Creating a good studio environment starts with consistent technology that works when it should. Don't let poor audio management cause problems when recording; always take the nest measures to remove latency in your recording sesions.