What is acceptable latency for recording?

Most musicians can work comfortably with round-trip latency under 10-12ms. Below 6ms is considered unnoticeable. Above 20ms becomes distracting for most performers, especially drummers and keyboard players.

How does buffer size affect latency?

Smaller buffer sizes mean lower latency but higher CPU load (and risk of audio glitches). A buffer of 128 samples at 48kHz gives about 2.7ms one-way latency. Doubling the buffer doubles the latency but halves the CPU stress.

What is converter latency?

A/D (analogue-to-digital) and D/A (digital-to-analogue) converters introduce a small fixed delay, typically 0.5-2ms each. This is hardware-dependent and cannot be changed in software. Check your interface specifications.

What does the distance equivalent mean?

The distance figure shows how far sound would travel in the time of your total latency. For example, 10ms of latency is equivalent to standing 3.4 metres from your monitor speakers. This helps visualise the delay intuitively.

Audio Latency Budget Calculator — Round-Trip Delay

Calculate total round-trip audio latency from buffer size, sample rate, converter latency and plugins. Get usability ratings and recommendations.

Buffer Size

Lower = less latency, more CPU

Sample Rate

Higher rates reduce latency

A/D Converter Latency

Analogue-to-digital delay (check interface specs)

D/A Converter Latency

Digital-to-analogue delay (check interface specs)

Plugin Count

Number of plugins in monitoring chain

How We Calculate This

This calculator sums all latency sources in the recording signal chain to give a total round-trip delay measurement.

The formula

Buffer latency = Buffer size / Sample rate x 1000

Round-trip = (2 x Buffer latency) + A/D + D/A + Plugin latency

Distance = Total latency x Speed of sound (343 m/s)

Frequently Asked Questions

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Last updated: March 2026

All calculations are estimates based on standard formulas. Always verify results for critical applications.