Practice with amp sims
A while back when I was dorming in college, I remember having to do most of my practicing through my laptop and freeware amp sims because amplifiers were banned from the dorms.
The latency on my setup was noticeable but playable, and after 10 mins it felt negligible. However, since getting back home, I've noticed a stark increase in my synchronization and timing with all my techniques. At the same time I've also changed my practice methods, habits, techniques and so forth so it's hard to isolate the cause.
So, while I did manage to improve during that time, do you think that practicing on a latent system like this could hamper progress or does our brain adjust? And, if it is a problem, do you know of any good solutions?
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While any latency does upset the feedback loop between ears-brain-fingers, you can of course work around this through practice. You could probably become proficient without being able to hear the sounds at all.
Sure, it could slow down learning until your brain has come to terms with the latency delay, but as you still have the physical touch feedback from your fingers, this is not a terminal problem (playing at large venues, I have on occasion had monitors fail, so all I can hear is my own sound reflected from the back of the venue - which can give a significant delay! Annoying, but you can cope)
The solution, as Frank mentioned, is to get a good amp sim. I too swear by Line6, and have the HD500, and I use that in the studio, practicing, and gigging at small venues or festivals. There is no noticeable latency on one of these.
Even modern laptops with a good amp sim and ASIO drivers should be short enough latency that you won't notice it.
So - update your laptop, get ASIO drivers, and possibly think about a better amp sim.
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