Trying to record a synth (effects issue)

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I'm doing this in Reaper, and it's doubly annoying since I don't know Reaper well yet.

I can record a track well enough, that's not a problem, but my synthesizer does not have any onboard effects. I currently do not have an external effects processor or anything like that. What I would like to be able to do is to have my synth set up in any DAW (not just Reaper, I'm willing to switch) to be able to hit a key on the synth and have any effects VSTs (or other format) that are applied to that track be heard both before I am recording and during. I can add VSTs after the tracking is done, but there are two problems I'm having:

1) It is annoying, especially for compositional purposes.
2) I don't think I have much latency, especially since what I've been doing is one 10 second track with at most two effects on playback (not even recording) but the audio gets delayed and jumbled up. This is on playback still, remember.

There has to be something wrong here, but I don't know what. I have an M-Audio 192 audio interface, by the way.

OK, my main question: Can I have software effects plug-ins be heard with this current setup before and during recording with the exception of reasonably low latency for my audio interface?

Sub-question: If yes, then is there any way to have only the effects-altered synth part heard out of my monitors? I'm thinking through this logically, and since my synth is set up to play just itself without being opened up in a DAW, there would naturally be both the regular synth sounding when I'm playing it, and the effects-altered synth sound when I have it opened in a DAW, right?

Follow-up question: Should I just use external effects? This is for things such as flange, chorus, reverb, etc, and not compression, gain, and all that, which I will still use in VST (or similar form)?

I might re-post this on another forum, because IDK if anyone here uses Reaper. but if someone does record a synthesizer here into whatever DAW they use, then please god tell me how to make it work. I'm just confused here.

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stonebeard Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Forum Senior Member Joined: May 27 2005 Location: NE Indiana Status: Offline Points: 28057	Topic: Trying to record a synth (effects issue) Posted: February 23 2011 at 20:49
	I'm doing this in Reaper, and it's doubly annoying since I don't know Reaper well yet. I can record a track well enough, that's not a problem, but my synthesizer does not have any onboard effects. I currently do not have an external effects processor or anything like that. What I would like to be able to do is to have my synth set up in any DAW (not just Reaper, I'm willing to switch) to be able to hit a key on the synth and have any effects VSTs (or other format) that are applied to that track be heard both before I am recording and during. I can add VSTs after the tracking is done, but there are two problems I'm having: 1) It is annoying, especially for compositional purposes. 2) I don't think I have much latency, especially since what I've been doing is one 10 second track with at most two effects on playback (not even recording) but the audio gets delayed and jumbled up. This is on playback still, remember. There has to be something wrong here, but I don't know what. I have an M-Audio 192 audio interface, by the way. OK, my main question: Can I have software effects plug-ins be heard with this current setup before and during recording with the exception of reasonably low latency for my audio interface? Sub-question: If yes, then is there any way to have only the effects-altered synth part heard out of my monitors? I'm thinking through this logically, and since my synth is set up to play just itself without being opened up in a DAW, there would naturally be both the regular synth sounding when I'm playing it, and the effects-altered synth sound when I have it opened in a DAW, right? Follow-up question: Should I just use external effects? This is for things such as flange, chorus, reverb, etc, and not compression, gain, and all that, which I will still use in VST (or similar form)? I might re-post this on another forum, because IDK if anyone here uses Reaper. but if someone does record a synthesizer here into whatever DAW they use, then please god tell me how to make it work. I'm just confused here.
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