Help Understanding Monitoring

[Marketblandings]

I am a MIDI composer. But now, I've done a track with audio included. And there will be more.

The whole subject of monitoring baffles me. Like....I know that my interface lets me select between audio that's gone through Reason (latency) and audio before it gets to Reason. But how is that used in a session?

Then all the reason monitoring buttons and check boxes confuse me.
Monitoring thru the interface or through Reason? I guess I'm a "through interface" guy - but should I be?

Need tutorials. The Reason Manual assumes I know what I want - and I don't know what I want.

Prefer to read. I'm finding YouTube vids too quirky and random.

Thanks,
D. Mathews

[robussc]

It's my understanding that it's all about latency (as you note). Back in the day routing things through the computer and back out to your headphones could introduce a noticeable delay between the performance and the sound in your headphones. Direct monitoring bypassed the computer and kept things in sync.

Nowadays, assuming a fairly modern computer and interface it's much harder to get into a position where there's a latency issue to worry about.

I"m sure some other Reasoners will have more detailed responses.

[selig]

I can probably help, what is your question? Monitoring is a general question and I could write paragraphs on it (wouldn't be the first time). But it would be more helpful if I knew exactly what you're experiencing.

A couple of general concepts - too much latency, either with MIDI or audio, and it becomes difficult to perform. You have two options to deal with this when recording audio tracks. The first is Direct Monitoring (assuming your interface supports it), which completely eliminates any latency, but the trade off is there is no additional effects (either EQ/compression or reverb delay).
If you want that you'll either need to switch to the second option, monitoring in Reason where you can apply EQ/compression or add Reverb keeping in mind none of these will be recorded to the audio track in this setup, but can make your headphone mix more pleasant!
Basically…
When using direct (external) monitoring, put a track in record but do NOT select auto monitoring or activate monitoring on that track via the green speaker button to the right of the record button. The level of the track you are recording is set with the audio interface, not with Reason.
When monitoring in Reason, do NOT use direct monitoring on your interface, and instead make sure the green monitor button IS selected. Also, use the LOWEST buffer setting possible, and adjust the monitor level of the recorded audio by its channel fader.

Is this helping or do you have a more specific question?

[Marketblandings]

Sorry to be late back to this discussion Thank you for such a long introduction to the subject! You are very generous.
Let's take a real example: a good friend is a super accomplished jazz and gigging guitarist. He came to my little studio to let me record him. There was a project track for him to listen to in headphones and I asked him to add rhythm guitar. He was immediately annoyed by the delay of his own sound back to him in the headphones (a matter of microseconds).
Is the solution to mute monitoring through Reason and use the direct monitoring button on my interface to give him his own sound? My interface even has a blend knob between direct and the audio from the DAW.

[robussc]

As Selig noted, have you first tried optimizing Reason for low latency monitoring? Also can you replicate the sensation of the guitarist? Do you hear the lag? If you can notice it then at least you can start fiddling with the various options on your own time.

So yeah, I’d try getting Reason to close the gap and if that doesn’t work then you’ll need to explore the direct monitoring options.

[selig]

…Is the solution to mute monitoring through Reason and use the direct monitoring button on my interface to give him his own sound? My interface even has a blend knob between direct and the audio from the DAW.

YES! Use the blend knob to control how much guitar vs the rest of the mix. For example, if the player asks to hear move of himself, adjust the knob to give a little more ‘direct’ signal and less of the guide track/mix.

[Marketblandings]

Thanks All,
I was down to, like, 162 samples for low latency. Laptop couldn't handle lower.
My musician friend was even annoyed at latency in his overall position in the playback. It only took a nudge of his track of about 4 clockticks to fix that.
That's a different latency and different discussion, though.