During recording, direct monitoring means playing the recorded signal back as it is being recorded.
During direct monitoring, for example, a vocalist can hear his or her own voice through the headphones, while signing and recording.
Direct monitoring and latency
Even with simple recording equipment, such as a microphone, soundcard, and computer, the recorded signal would have to be picked up by the microphone, sent to the soundcard and perhaps computer, and sent back to the headphones relatively quickly. This means that the latency of the equipment must be small – around 10 milliseconds or less. Anything larger would delay the playback too much and confuse the vocalist or player.
Direct monitoring can be provided by various parts of the recording equipment. In the simple case above, the signal can be sent to the headphones by the soundcard, if the soundcard allows this, in which case the latency of the software does not matter. Alternatively, the signal can be sent for playback by the software, in which case the latency of the software is important.
See Latency for example steps that can be taken to decrease the latency during direct monitoring.
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