How to Record Without Latency in Ableton Live 

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just the video I needed to watch 2 years ago, great content

I have been manually moving the track to fix latency for about 2 years. You just blew my mind!! Thanks!! Would like to see the guitar chain video, too.

wow! Beyond informative. Thanks for making this and solving plenty of headaches to come.

SUPER HELPFUL. Just spent months manually lining everything up on a project because I couldn't find a workaround. This video has made the process clear for me. Thank you!

You absolutely prince. I've been adjusting buffer size and manually dragging stuff over if necessary but that often misses the idiosyncrasies that give live performances their character. Will honestly use this is every track. Thanks, bud!

I had been using Ableton for nearly 10 years before figuring this out on a forum recently. The amount of time I've wasted in my life shifting tracks in time is insane lol. Thank you for educating the community!

This was the first video of yours I watched, and I have to tell you that I think this channel is amazing. Will be joining your patreon soon, I really appreciate not only the knowledge you're sharing, but the way you teach it is perfectly suited for my brain. Seriously I appreciate it so much

I’ve been recording in ableton since 2016 and have had to fix timing issues on numerous occasions that all could have easily prevented with a click of a button. Life saver! Thank you so much

Been waiting far too long for someone to address this issue, thought I was doing something wrong / faulty interface / missed it in the audio set up etc. Drove me f?¿?ing crazy!!! Thank you dude, thank you for explaining it and showing how it can be fixed. Now I can use all those great FX racks on my electric guitar without wasting hours trying to figure out why it's not in time with the track ;)

Holy. This has saved my life. Been dragging tracks back to be in time forever.

Stumbled upon this by accident. Always wondered how to overcome this issue with latency and so. Perfect explanation for it. I did not know Ableton can do this that easy. Thank you!

I'm not sure if this comment will be lost in the noise, but there's something important that you may not have noticed. If you did know this, I think it would be worth mentioning to your viewers in a follow-up. What was recorded in your first track (set to Auto) is what you heard in your headphones when you were playing. What was recorded in the second track (set to Off) has the guitar earlier than what you heard in your headphones while playing. I verified this by loading up the audio of your full video in Audacity, and lining up and comparing the three waveforms (when you played live and the two tracks) aligned by that initial cymbal hit. So the latency that Ableton records (on Auto) is "correct" in the sense that it's what you heard through your headphones while you were playing it. Most people naturally adjust their playing to make it sound right to them, so Ableton's behavior makes sense. But Ableton's Auto behavior would _not_ be what you want if you were not wearing headphones, and listening to the guitar directly through the air, or direct monitoring through your interface.

Great video! but also, keep in mind that the "Off" button doesn't mean "0" latency, it means that you are recording whit the general "input latency" of your session. If you want real zero latency, you will have to set a delayed time of the signal equals to the same "input latency" but in negative (-) and then resampling. That will leave you near Zero latency. I just test this after watching your video. Also, in my case, when I record at a buffer size of 128 an hit that "auto" button, the recording ends up having x3 exactly the general input latency amount.

OMG!!! I could just give you a hug! This has been a long time source of frustration for me and I could not figure it out to save my life! Thank you sooo much!!

I'm working with Ableton since more than ten years. This is the best tip I found in this time in thousands of RU-vid-Tutorial-Videos. Wow!

holy shit I'm a 10 year Ableton vet and I had no idea. super useful. thanks.

broooo I may be late to this video and to this channel, but it's SO CLUTCH. First, you're super clear, your voice isn't annoying and you crushed the explaination in under 10min!!! BIG LOVE FOR THAT. Anyways, I'm that guy you mentioned who always recorded down at 64buffer to try to hide the latency. NEVER AGAIN!!!! haha. Definitely subscribing to this channel bro. Keep these vids flowing!!!

This has been so incredibly helpful and solved so many mysteries to my timing riddles and frustrations of why everything was just a bit out. Thanks so much!!!

Well done. I've watched several videos on latency and this is the only one that solved the problem for me. 🙌🙌🙌

When I record my live instruments, I just turn off the warp settings in preference and fix my timing issue. Glad to have an alternative solution to this problem. Thank you bro!

There is a reason why Ableton do this, it's in the manual... It says that when you turn the auto monitoring on, the artist can listen in real time the latency, an then correct it. So if then they apply the latency compensation, the sound will be early. That's why it doesn't apply the latency compensation when recording with the auto monitoring on. But to get the ability to listen the latency and correct it while recording is really hard, so a direct monitoring from the sound card is a better solution

I literally thought my timing when recording guitar was terrible because I always have to go back and adjust it. This explains so much! Thanks Thogster!

Easily one of the best channels on RU-vid. So many hekpful videos I've had Ableton for almost 2 years now and was not aware of the mechanics of this before now

Hey another way around this is to simply set the output of the track you're recording on to Ext 1-2 (or whatever you'd like) to bypass the mix buss and it will achieve the same result. Near zero latency and no need to shift the audio. I even co-developed a max for live device called 'Tracking Bus' that will do this automatically once you record enable the track. It's the perfect workflow.

Just go into Options > Reduce Latency When Monitoring. Same recording with monitoring example (2 channels one auto, one off) took me from 10ms to 1 ms.

Dude... mind blown. been doing this for years now. I always just manually offset it (by moving the audio) or more recently by using track delays. Huge time saver thank you for sharing this info!

Best explanation I have ever come across. Addressing the monitoring issue as well was key. Good stuff man!

Thank you RU-vid recommendations I have literally been moving my tracks over manually for soooo long just guessing where it should go

What u played on the guitars sounds fire. Keep it up

Jeez dude , I searched everywhere , watched 100 vids on the subject , and always knew there had to be something i was missing ~!! Great tip man

I have been using DAWs since 1998. This video is single handed the best tutorial video I have ever watched. I cannot believe its that simple to do monitoring and recording. I've been using mixers and all sorts for decades. I'm truly gonna have some fun recording with some plugins now. Thanks so much I cannot even begin to say how thankful I am for seeing this video. Jeeeez all that time and I never knew this, I kid u not, wahwahahahaha////

Thanks for this! I record my guitars direct in via my amp’s line out + my pedalboard so i never needed monitoring on. BUT I always recorded my vocals with a bunch of reverb to mask my poor singing, and I always thought i kept singing off time

Jesus Christ 5 years of my life without this info. No wonder I’m never happy with my songs lmao

Great vid. I've been using Ableton for years, but rarely with 'recording live parts' (sequencing VSTs and samples); but recently ive built up an arsenal of external instruments/synths/hardware, and this is like a huge head-slapper that explains why i keep finding some timing delays between things. Thanks a bunch.

Best video I've seen on youtube so far! Thanks, man! It's been like 10 years Ableton daily usage and now we're talking!

Damn, we've all been fucking up. Many, many thanks for breaking this down so plainly! Also, I would definitely appreciate a video on a stock Ableton device guitar chain, and any insight into what your guitar chain is like for the Microdosio sets. I'm using the Waves PRS series now for recording, which sounds great but hogs CPU.

You can also route to External Out instead of Master while you record to get rid of the latency. The way Ableton works is that all tracks add to the general latency so that it will compensate when you have routings like Sidechain and stuff like that. And, obviously, to sound in sync when you have plugins on tracks - some which add to the latency, some which they don't. So if you route to external out instead of Master, you can monitor without latency even if you have crazy Mastering plugins on the master. Be careful though, to not forget to route it back to MASTER after monitoring.

I know, you've taught . It ans so much to so many people, you are helping us pursue our dreams! Love from Sweden

Omg!!! Brother thank you so much this was killing me. My songs require a full length take of the acoustic guitars and this issues stunted me for years now. Thanks so friggen much bro

You’re right, track 9 is late, but I think 10 is too early. And that’s because when you play, you’re compensating according to what you hear, not playing according to the strings. The audio while you’re recording, that’s the closest to perfect, and if I’m not wrong, the track 9 is closer to the way you’re playing while recording. I heard that while watching the video but then I analyzed the waves in three cases. If you record with less latency would be the better option in my opinion, you’ll be compensating your playing naturally in a more accurate way. I had the opposite issue on another DAW, always recorded too soon, and that was the reason why in my case. It was compensating my already compensated playing and when played back, there were two compensations which means, too early. The compensation works in other cases but not for amp sims. Think about a piano. It takes a while to hear the sound, it doesn’t sound in the moment your finger touches the key. The hammer needs to reach the string. You’re compensating that the same way you’re compensating your pick if you hear the sound a little late, if it’s not too much of course. If you’re compensating this way, means you’re touching the strings a little bit soon. If you remove the latency you’re hearing while recording, the track will be playing too soon. At least that’s the way it works for me.

It’s actually live delaying tracks, due to the latency on each channel from devices and FX etc, live adjusts latency per track so the project as a whole is in time. If you’re monitoring on a track that is being delayed to stay in time with another it will include this latency in the recording. You can use the Reduced Latency when Monitoring in options to mitigate this, it won’t bring in the increased latency when monitoring.

Holy shit man! I love you! After 3 years not recording at home (baby time), I am finally on it again... I always thought, something is off... Wow! This is the very best "how to record audio properly" video... I always left it in auto, never thought about it. Even with an input latency of 4.5 ms it can be heard... Wow, thank you! thank you! thank you!

thank you so much! I was recording yesterday and wondering why every take was out of time. this is extremely helpful even 3 years after you posted it

I've been doing it wrong for over 10 years, and I always wondered why my audio never sounded as good as I wanted it to sound. I usually ended up using midi instead so that I could get things to fit better. I believe that you have just awakened the beast :) Thank you. And thank you for keeping that relatively short and sweet!

Theres a setting called ' Reduced latency while monitoring' in the Options drop down list!

I been using ableton 15 years and never known this thank you. I been warping and moving my guitar vocal notes the whole time.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I have been doing this wrong all along, and this makes so much sense! You just saved me SO much headache!

hey i found this video was really helpful... in case i don't fully understand. wouldn't you be able to compensate for that recorded latency using driver error compensation in the ableton preferences? that way you wouldn't have to arm 2 tracks at once to record using your plugins... the way I've done it is by recording the auto-track and the off-track at the same time. then I calculate the ms latency and input that difference in the driver error compensation things seems to line up after that. if im missing something with this approach let me know

Did you try putting it in rice?

I've been using Ableton for a year and a half and had no idea that auto monitoring actually records the latent signal. Thank you for posting this.

This has been driving me nuts! I love your workflow workaround... thank you so much! 🥳🥳🥳❤️

That's a good explanation and you got all the techie stuff right. Funny though, I preferred the guitar part With the latency on it in that instance. That 'behind the beat' feel suited it ... I'm sure it was just coincidence though . Subbed

Oh this is a realtime-no-plugin Haas-Effect ;-)

i was trying so hard to be on time with my Vocal recordings, and this just releaved me so much.

I just started to mess around with ableton and I'm really thankful for videos like this. Awesome!

Easier to just go to the options tab and select "Delay Compensation " and "Reduced Latency When Monitoring " and then go to Live Preferences , select the Audio tab , change the Buffer size to 64 samples . You will see that the overall latency is less than 1 millisecond . These settings will stay put fixed for every session , providing you use the same interface . Saving you the hassle of doubling every track you record .

PLEASE make that ableton guitar video, would be massively helpful

So glad I found your channel. I’ve been on Ableton for years have been frustrated by this issue. Messing with buffers, offsetting tracks and sliding audio back manually. The auto monitoring is truly a misleading label. You’d think that would be the best and default position. But no! Thanks for your great videos.

Been using Ableton for years and didn't know this. Thanks for the info and tip. Brilliant.

You’ve missed a vital component to getting no latency as have 99% of other RU-vid videos. There is a builtin project in ableton to help you set this up. Notice how your driver error compensation is at 0ms? This is how ableton realizes how much your system is delaying the audio coming in compared to going out on your monitors. In the sample project you hook up a cable from your audio cards out back into its input. You keep recording an included sample from ableton as you adjust the driver error compensation. Once you get them locked you won’t have anymore latency. Many miss this vital fact and others don’t even know how it works. Turning monitoring off in certain situations helps or at the very least selecting “reduce latency while monitoring” in the options menu of each new project but you will never get zero latency without completing the included project.

it took me two years to figure this out. the direct monitoring works, but a lot of my sound has much processing, and it is uninspiring to hear the super dry guitar as you record. As someone else mentioned, Anthony, it would be much appreciated to know if you use the ' Reduced latency while monitoring' option? looking forward to your class!

Wow, life changing info! i'm sure many folks like myself were going crazy thinking we were doing something wrong or our setup was glitching out....this changes everything... i'd give you a big kiss, but i'm not that kinda guy ;) thanks again my friend, you have provided my with so much inspiration and confidence using this platform over the years...

This really helped me out man, I had had no idea how to do it myself but after watching you do it I was like "Ok so all I have to do is the exact opposite of what he just did" And it worked!

Honestly I use the "reduce latency when monitoring" option and have never noticed a problem. Wish you would touch on what this does, seems like you're ignoring all the comments mentioning it.

Unfortunately midi latency is a constant for most with hardware synths, samplers, drums machines etc. E-RM multiclock fixes this, but at a hefty price.

This is cool. I was really surprised that I didn't realize this, but it's definitely one of my main issues with trying to record with Ableton. Thank you for sharing

I’ve been using Live since V6 I always thought I was lacking some piece of gear with magic DSP, how I didn’t know this; is criminal. You sir, are music production hero. ❤️

6:59 Yeah...but monitoring directly from the soundcard or the MIDI interface does not allow any of the fx on the Ableton track to be heard (saturation, reverb, delay, eq, etc.) in my headphone mix. This to me, represents a complete loss of the mojo/groove/confidence component that a performer would want to hear as they record the track. It's a complete "wind out of my sails" feeling for me to hear my vocals bone dry while I'm recording and that vacuum is revealed in my takes. Yeah the timing will be on, but the energy and vibe will have the vitality of an anechoic chamber. It's amazing to me that Ableton thought this latency issue and their supposed fixes for it are acceptable; I can't imaging a pro artist going into a pro recording studio and having to put up with dry vocals in their headphone mix OR to put up with latency of their vocal relative to the band's music. I admit I'm new at this and I'm maybe (probably) missing something, but I've been trying to deal with this issue for a while and I don't like any of the "solutions" I've seen to date on the RU-vid tutorials, they seem like Band-Aids. Having said that, I enjoy your channel and your teaching style. Thank you!

You should just press the ‘in’ button on the monitoring track that way you don’t have to record the signal twice at the same time

TNice tutorials is one of the best tutorials of ANYTNice tutorialNG that I've ever watched in my life! Thank you so much!

Brother I been picking up tips and tricks off you tube since people been posting em. I have never come across some one as thorough and informative. Aswell as comprehendable. I dont really use ableton much anymore. But I am honestly considering switching back just because I found someone to teach me the way you do. Thank you and really I'll be watching your channel like a hawk. I'm sure I can use some of it in logic x.

Getting great guitar tones using abletons amp sims would be interesting. Maybe like Clean, Crunch, and high gain?

What about the fact that hearing your sound with delay as you record influences your interpretation in a weird way. Specifically on vocals it can make you stutter depending on the amount of delay. Unless listening to direct monitoring only from the soundcard, which can be too dry and disturbing as well, it seems complex to find a good ratio of buffer size and CPU processes. In order to hear the sound you wish to have while recording with minimal delay so that you can play on time...

nice. I was suffering from latency recordings like crazy .thanks for the heads up and a new subscriber !!!!

I'm glad you touched on MIDI, I only use MIDI right now and was wondering. But that may change in the future, this is awesome knowledge to have. Love your videos and the channel!

THIS is DISCUSTING Ableton !! fix this mess

another great video, I bought the course, keep up the great teaching/sharing, it helps all of us!

When I first started I would manually adjust the tracks in post but one day by just dumb luck I recorded duplicate tracks, one monitor auto, the other monitor off. During the playback I about fell out of my chair. Wish I would've seen this video 8 months ago. Great video. New Sub 👊🏻🤘🏻

at first i didn't realize at first that i also had to get rid of the effects in the 0 latency track but after that it worked like a charm! thank you!

This has been one of the biggest problems with ableton. That’s why I’ve always tracked outside of ableton and imported. Thanks for posting this. Will try it out

Damn bro thank you for this! This is a game changer for me. I went YEARS recording with latency, setting the buffer to one of the lowest settings and thinking this is just the limitations of recording inside a daw that I had to deal with.

I'm new to ableton. I learned the monitoring . From Tech Support where I bought my controller. This is more in depth. Much Appreciated. New subscriber.

Thanks for the wisdom! Ran into this issue yesterday. Vocals were subtly off so I didn't realize until I got the track to mastering when things were cranked. Never again! "Fool me once, strike 1. But fool me twice, strike 3." -Michael Scott

THANK YOUUUUU I was beyond desperation. I have a mixing console and currently can't afford to buy a soundcard. This was so helpful.

awesome!! over a decade of wrong doing and post edit hustling are OVER!! THANKS SO MUCH for this enlightening video!

I'm still getting my head around some of this, but this is the most helpful video I've stumbled across for this issue.

I used to always warp my recordings to how I thought they sounded live. Can’t believe I never thought to record two tracks. Thanks bruh!🤘🏽🤘🏽

im just starting and tNice tutorials video was perfect.Well explained and easy to follow for a beginner.I never understood soft soft till i watched tNice tutorials.

Believe me, you just saved Focusrite a return on their scarlett. I had been using a RME audio Fireface for more than 10 years (firewire) and never had any issue with latency. I have to say, an amazing sound card. The poor thing just died on me, and I replaced it with the focusrite, but could not believe how all my recorded loops were off, couldn't figure this out! Thank you so much solved the issue. Subscribed to your channel and thumbs up! :)

Every creator needs to watch this video!! Important stuff and it’s explained clearly.

Really good explanation about latency being recorded on your track. Thanks for making this video!

LOOKING forward to the COURSE!!!

Excellent thanks for that. I had been recording midi controlled external synths and had noticed the latency. And I knew about the sound interface direct monitoring but hadn’t realised that the Ableton monitoring on/off had that effect!

Oh holy wow, thank you for this. I've been dealing with this with no success. I'm so glad I followed you. Yes, please do a video on setting up a guitar signal chain, that would be super helpful, too.

Love your style and your lack of compromise on the truth that is born of doing your research. It shows. One quick note: I use a Tascam Model 16 and I listen to what is going into the board in my live feeds along with a mix-in of what is playing on the Ableton which I can put on a single stereo track as the Model 16 has two dedicated stereo lanes. (wish I had bought the 24 because I have already outgrown the admittedly powerful 16 - although I am learning some creative ways this powerhouse can be expanded through multilayered DAWs - for example using MPCBeats inside Ableton Live 11 Standard or Suite - I have Standard) What this gives me is 256 polyphony with literally hundreds of layered tracks from layered DAWs. Digital music production is truly mind-bending. I use the Model 16 main tracks for all my analog inputs. The reason that I wish I had the 24 is that I like to set up my instruments with effect chains and leave it once I get that sweet spot. Of course, that sweet little teaser you gave about guitar effects chains in Ableton got me thinking (and hoping I did not spend money I did not have to). I think my purchases are safe though for now. The only thing I think I will grow into is the 24.

And all this time I thought I just was naturally always a little behind the beat, very helpful video!

Holy crap!!! I'd just recently discovered dropping the buffer size, but this is a game changer. Thanks!!!

nice video the phenomenon exists on midi tracks as well, the way i solved it is: im listening to the midi track with INPUT MONITORING / 01keys - "In" im recording on a seperate midi track / 02midirec - "Off" 02midirec's midi output goes to 01keys and you may just duplicate midirec tracks like 02midirec 03midirec 04midirec ect this is a great video, i was always aware about it, you are the first person i watched to actually demonstrate it well.

This is a great little workaround. My guitar playing is already behind the beat so with latency it sounds like i've turned up late for the session and i'm trying to sight-read! Thanks for the vid