Fix Audacity recording latency on Windows — latency correction guide

Two types of latency in Audacity

Monitoring latency

Delay you hear when recording. Fix by using WASAPI or ASIO and increasing buffer.

Recording offset

Recorded track is slightly late vs other tracks. Fix with Latency Correction in Preferences.

Set Latency Correction in Audacity

• 1

  Record a click or clap

  Open a metronome or click track. Record yourself clapping along to a beat. You will use this to measure the offset.

• 2

  Measure the offset

  Zoom in on the recording. Measure the gap in samples between the click in the backing track and your recorded clap. Note the number.

• 3

  Set Latency Correction

  Edit → Preferences → Devices → Latency → set Latency Correction to the negative of your offset in milliseconds.

• 4

  Test and repeat

  Record again and check alignment. Adjust the value until your recordings align with the backing track.

Reduce the delay you hear while recording

• Use WASAPI — lower latency than MME. See WASAPI guide
• Reduce buffer size — Edit → Preferences → Devices → Audio to buffer (ms) — try 50ms or lower
• Use direct monitoring — most audio interfaces have a hardware monitoring knob that routes input directly to headphones with zero latency, bypassing the computer entirely
• Upgrade to ASIO — dedicated audio interfaces with ASIO drivers provide 1–5ms latency. See ASIO guide

Latency questions