Edit / speeding up production

[Andrew Smith]

I doubt it.

The point of a pass-through for monitoring is that it bypasses the latency that results from digital data handling and/or processing. To achieve that it's done on an analogue basis. A USB dongle that converts the audio data back to something you can hear has to run it back through a (digital-audio-converter) DAC to function and there is always a delay time for this to happen.

The headphone out facility on the Rode Podcaster (for example) gives zero latency, and you'd be making a safe bet that it's all done at the analogue stage within the mic before conversion to digital data to be sent over USB.

Andrew

[Greg Miller]

Of course. Once the signal out of the mic is USB, one A>D is involved. A monitor box (if such existed) would need to have one D>A. Still, it's possible that the total latency from those two devices might be less than the latency when feeding the USB mic through a computer (and back out again). It would depend on the latency in the given computer, as well as the speed of the D>A in the monitor.

As I expected, a quick search did not find anything like this.

[Patrick Tracy]

A lot of newer interfaces do direct monitoring after the ADC, but it stays in the unit where the circuitry is optimized for low latency.

[Patrick Tracy]

If the OP has a Yeti, perhaps upgrading to the Yeti Pro would retain the sound he has now.

[Eric Tomlinson]

Originally Posted by Greg Miller

How sad that none of us (including me and the OP) caught this before he started recording.

Please, no self recriminations for the flood of great advice. You had no concept of how rookie I am!

I am learning as we go. I never had a monitor facility, and reading a couple of voice over blogs, they suggest a ‘real artist’ would prefer to hear his own voice than the playback … guess that means I am a real artist.

Staying in perspective, I doubt I will ever seek much voice over after my books are recorded. I am now 75% through the first book. With the help of the forum, I am creating a good quality recording.

I would never have known I could monitor real time if I hadn’t been amused by the stomach grumbles. Fixed by controlling my diet! Plus, I can now check the monitor to confirm all sounds well before starting to record, which is another step.

Obviously, the geek in me wants to understand/ learn and possibly acquire better equipment.
I did check the PC and windows 10 allows listening to an input device, whilst this has less latency at least cutting any app software out of the loop, it still causes me to speak much slower and to grind to a stumbling halt. Really odd effect. I also tried the headphone jack socket, albeit with a phone headset instead of USB. This appeared to be the lowest latency, but still too much for my brain to cope.

I ‘could’ acquire the more expensive usb mic, but I would also need a reasonable set of headphones to go with it. Would this be putting lipstick on a pig?

Taking the comment that discrete might be better.

The cost of an audio input / headphones / mic are not actually much more than the yeti pro/ headphones.

Or, back to original concept, headphones, mic and the TASCAM DR 40X (or something similar) gives me a stand-alone recording device. And again, is not much different in price? This device supports a quality external mic and has a headphone jack. (Will confirm if this is a monitor port)

[Greg Miller]

If you dig around you may find a used interface at a good price. I recently saw a Lexicon Alpha sold for ~ $25. I also saw new / discontinued Marantz USB mics, which have headphone jacks, being sold for $40. Are these things better, or worse, than what you now have? Ideally when shopping for low price you want a try / return option so that narrows down the field.

[Greg Miller]

All standalone audio recorder I've seen have had headphone jacks which allow you to monitor while recording. I own three different Tascam models, at least one Olympus, one Marantz, plus a few pocket size Sony and Philips "voice recorders." All of these have 3.5mm headphone jacks. At some point I've tested all of them by recording my own voice. I'm sure I would have noticed any latency.

I've observed that a delay of ~150mSec will make most people slow down, stutter, and finally just stop in befuddlement. When "breaking in" new announcers, we used to secretly patch their headphones to the signal coming from the confidence (playback) head on a 3-head R-R tape machine so they'd hear their own mic with intentional delay. My advice is not to do that to anyone unless you can run faster than they can.

[Paul R Johnson]

Be careful with older Lexicons - I have an omega and a colleague had an Alpha - they're wonderful, but check the driver situation. I don't think there is a Windows 10 version, and it's unsupported now.

[Andrew Smith]

Greg speaks the truth.

I was doing a news read for radio back many years ago and my headphones had somehow been switched to receiving the off-air receiver monitoring feed instead of the studio audio panel. The delay between the studio and coming back from the transmitter so messed me up, and I dare not ponder what it sounded like to the listeners. In hindsight I should have tossed the headphones off my head and over my back and continued but, nay, I battled on to the very end.

For the uninitiated, having the off-air (radio receiver) source is so you know immediately if the transmitter has gone down or up in flames and you are now only talking to yourself.

Andrew

PS. Then there was the time I was doing the Saturday brekky shift (announcing) and the last announcer from the night before (overnight was on automation) must have surely been going deaf. The moment I switched on the mic to do my first voice announcement (about 6:30 am or slightly earlier) the sound levels coming from the headphones were actually enough to be picked up by the microphone and gave me a classic (and very loud) 'PA feedback' squeal ... in stereo. This insanely loud squeal only started when I commenced speaking. The audience will have heard it at the very moment I did, in addition to what my "good morning ..." rapidly devolved into. Never did quite get to the bottom of that one but at least I was very awake from that moment onward.

[Eric Tomlinson]

Final addendum (Probably)

http://monkeyonmyshoulder.co.uk/wp/w...6/newsetup.wav

Couldn't not do it. I had never tried/ experienced using a monitoring setup. This is so much better.

Finally went with the tascam (it had to happen) an AT2020 condenser mic and studio spares own closed headphones. Combined with the rest of the changes, this is so sweet.

I now get how this works ... how did I go for so long without monitoring as I recorded?

Decision is still to press on and fully record this book and then loop back and rerecord the earlier files on the basis that I will keep learning.

Thanks for the guidance.