Latency

Definition

The delay between a signal going into a processor and coming back out again.

While latency may occur to a small degree in most audio devices where what is being input is being simultaneously monitored, it predominates in A/D converters and D/A converters in computer-based recording setups. This is due to the time it takes for the computer to digitise and then undigitise the audio information and is directly related to the processing speed of the computer.

Faster processors significantly reduce any latency.