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Latency Compensation

By default Audacity will compensate the latency present in your system by 130 milliseconds. Using this procedure you can estimate and set the proper value for your system.

Note: Latency Compensation is only important for the following recording scenarios:

Overdubbing: recording a new audio track while listening to previously-recorded track(s). You want what you play to be synchronized with the tracks you are listening to.
Punch and roll recording

Measuring latency in your system

There is an automated method available now, which is available at

It's currently in beta, so please leave your feedback in the forum thread

Step 1: Adjust your Audacity preferences

1. Set your Devices Preferences

On Windows open the Edit menu and select Preferences... or press Ctrl + P in your keyboard. On macOS open the Audacity menu and select Preferences... or press Cmd + P
Select Devices in the left pane of the Preferences window
Select the preferred Interface Host:

2. Set your Recording Preferences

Select Recording in the left pane of the Preferences window
Enable Overdub: Check Play other tracks while recording (overdub)
Make sure Software playthrough of input is not checked

3. Set your Selection preferences

At the bottom of the Audacity window you will find the Selection toolbar

Disable snapping, if you have it enabled
Select Start and Length of Selection as your selection format

Step 2: Measuring the latency

Hardware Setup

To measure the latency you will need to record the audio from your playback device using your microphone. To do this place your microphone next to your speakers/headphones

Recording while playing a test track (Overdub)

Open the Generate menu and select the Rhythm Track... option. Set Number of Measures (bars) to 2 and set the Beat Sound to Ping (short). Click OK to generate the track.
Press Shift + R to record a new track. The rhythm track will be played back and recorded on a new track.

Zoom in so you can see the clicks on the top track and its delayed version on the bottom track
Create a selection that goes from the start of one click to the next

You should see something like this:

You can read the latency directly from the second panel of numbers. In this case it is 0.184 seconds or 184 milliseconds.

Click on Edit > Preferences, click on Devices tab and enter the negative of this number in the Latency compensation box. In this case it would be -184. Press OK to save your preferences.

Step 3: Checking the result

Delete the second track by clicking the close box in its Track Control Panel
Click in the Track Control Panel of the remaining track to select it
Press Shift + R to record a new track

After the recording is finished Audacity will apply the Latency compensation by pushing the newly-recorded track back by the Latency compensation value.

Note: If you change any of your recording or playback devices (for example, if you change from using the line input port on your computer to using a USB audio interface) or if you use the same device but change the in , then you will need to do this test again. The test you just did only applies for the specific inputs and outputs and host used during the test.

Latency Compensation

By default Audacity will compensate the latency present in your system by 130 milliseconds. Using this procedure you can estimate and set the proper value for your system.

Note: Latency Compensation is only important for the following recording scenarios:

Overdubbing: recording a new audio track while listening to previously-recorded track(s). You want what you play to be synchronized with the tracks you are listening to.
Punch and roll recording

Measuring latency in your system

There is an automated method available now, which is available at

It's currently in beta, so please leave your feedback in the forum thread

Step 1: Adjust your Audacity preferences

1. Set your Devices Preferences

On Windows open the Edit menu and select Preferences... or press Ctrl + P in your keyboard. On macOS open the Audacity menu and select Preferences... or press Cmd + P
Select Devices in the left pane of the Preferences window
Select the preferred Interface Host:

2. Set your Recording Preferences

Select Recording in the left pane of the Preferences window
Enable Overdub: Check Play other tracks while recording (overdub)
Make sure Software playthrough of input is not checked

3. Set your Selection preferences

At the bottom of the Audacity window you will find the Selection toolbar

Disable snapping, if you have it enabled
Select Start and Length of Selection as your selection format

Step 2: Measuring the latency

Hardware Setup

To measure the latency you will need to record the audio from your playback device using your microphone. To do this place your microphone next to your speakers/headphones

Recording while playing a test track (Overdub)

Open the Generate menu and select the Rhythm Track... option. Set Number of Measures (bars) to 2 and set the Beat Sound to Ping (short). Click OK to generate the track.
Press Shift + R to record a new track. The rhythm track will be played back and recorded on a new track.

Zoom in so you can see the clicks on the top track and its delayed version on the bottom track
Create a selection that goes from the start of one click to the next

You should see something like this:

You can read the latency directly from the second panel of numbers. In this case it is 0.184 seconds or 184 milliseconds.

Click on Edit > Preferences, click on Devices tab and enter the negative of this number in the Latency compensation box. In this case it would be -184. Press OK to save your preferences.

Step 3: Checking the result

Delete the second track by clicking the close box in its Track Control Panel
Click in the Track Control Panel of the remaining track to select it
Press Shift + R to record a new track

After the recording is finished Audacity will apply the Latency compensation by pushing the newly-recorded track back by the Latency compensation value.