8 Ways To Fix Guitar Latency On Your PC

Guitar latency is the gap between hitting a string and hearing the note come back out of your computer. You pick, and the sound arrives a moment later, as if your amp were standing at the other end of the room. A few milliseconds nobody notices. Past about 15 it gets annoying, and past 20 or 25, as the recording writer Craig Anderton puts it, it can take the fun out of playing.

On Windows the cause is almost always the audio driver, and most of the fixes cost nothing. This article picks up where how to play electric guitar through a PC or laptop leaves off: your guitar is connected and you can hear it, just late.

The short version:

1. Use an ASIO driver: your interface’s own, or the free ASIO4ALL if you don’t have an interface.
2. Set the buffer size to 128 samples, or the lowest setting that doesn’t crackle.
3. Turn off Windows’ Listen to this device and your interface’s direct monitoring.
4. Plug in wired headphones, not Bluetooth ones.

The rest of this article explains each fix, and what to do when it doesn’t work.

What Causes Guitar Latency?

Your computer doesn’t handle sound one sample at a time. It collects a small batch, called a buffer, runs it through your amp simulator, and sends it out. The bigger the batch, the longer the wait.

To turn a buffer size into time, divide it by the sample rate. Sound On Sound’s example: 256 samples at 44.1 kHz is 256 divided by 44,100, which is 5.8 milliseconds.

Buffer size	At 44.1 kHz	At 48 kHz
64 samples	1.5 ms	1.3 ms
128 samples	2.9 ms	2.7 ms
256 samples	5.8 ms	5.3 ms
512 samples	11.6 ms	10.7 ms

That’s one buffer, and your guitar passes through more than one. It goes in through an input buffer and out through an output buffer, so Sound On Sound points out that the delay you hear while playing is double the playback figure, and the converters in your sound card add about a millisecond each way. In one of Craig Anderton’s tests, a 2.9 ms buffer came to 12.7 ms from string to ear.

Then there’s Windows itself. Its normal audio path is built for YouTube and games, not for playing an instrument live. According to the FlexASIO documentation, the shared Windows audio engine holds about 10 ms of sound on its own, and the older DirectSound input path can’t go below about 31 ms. ASIO, a standard created by Steinberg, skips most of that and talks to the sound hardware directly. That’s why almost every fix below comes back to ASIO.

One comparison helps. Sound travels about a foot every millisecond, so 12 ms of latency feels like standing 12 feet from your amp. If you’d happily play from there, 12 ms won’t bother you. Speakers across the desk add a few milliseconds of their own. Headphones don’t.

First, Find The Audio Settings In Your Amp Simulator

Every fix happens in one of two places: the audio settings of the program you play through, or the driver’s own control panel. If you run your amp simulator as a plugin inside a DAW, the DAW’s audio settings are the ones that count.

In the free Guitar Rig 7 Player, open the Main menu at the top, then File, then Preferences, and go to the Audio tab. You’ll find Driver, Device, Sample Rate and Latency, which is Guitar Rig’s name for the buffer, plus the inputs and outputs. That tab only exists in the standalone app. Also check that the input selector at the top of Guitar Rig matches the input you chose, or nothing reaches the rack.

The standalone Neural Amp Modeler app has the same kind of window under File, then Preferences, with Driver Type, Buffer Size and Sampling Rate. Most other free amp simulators keep theirs under a similar Preferences or Audio Settings menu.

1. Use Your Interface’s Own ASIO Driver

If you play through an audio interface or a USB multi effects pedal, start here. Download the driver for your exact model from the maker’s website, install it, and restart if it asks. Focusrite, for example, has everything at downloads.focusrite.com. Pedals often have their own driver too; BOSS offers one for the GT-1 on Windows 10 and 11.

Then open your amp simulator’s audio settings, set the driver type to ASIO and choose the maker’s driver, the one with the brand name in it. Focusrite owners set the buffer size and sample rate in Focusrite Device Settings, which you’ll find in the Start menu or through the Focusrite Notifier in the system tray.

Plug your headphones into the interface, not the laptop. With ASIO, the same device has to handle both input and output, so you can’t take the guitar in through the interface and listen through the computer’s own headphone jack.

What goes wrong:

• Using ASIO4ALL instead of the interface’s driver. Focusrite says this can result in much slower latency and worse performance than its own driver. Craig Anderton gives the same advice: if a driver was written for your device, use it.
• Skipping the driver because the interface works without one. Many interfaces play sound straight out of the box, but Universal Audio says to install the hardware driver on Windows for low latency.
• Settings that change on their own. A DAW or another program can change the sample rate or buffer size, so check its settings if your numbers keep moving.

2. No Interface? Install ASIO4ALL

ASIO4ALL is a free ASIO driver that works with almost any sound device on a Windows PC: the built in sound card, a USB guitar cable, a cheap USB interface. Michael Tippach started it back in 2003, and version 2.22 came out on 23 July 2026 with official support for Windows 10 and 11. It’s free for anyone, even for commercial work, and it doesn’t replace or change your existing drivers.

Setting it up takes a few minutes:

1. Install it with administrator rights.
2. In your amp simulator’s audio settings, choose ASIO as the driver type and ASIO4ALL v2 as the device.
3. Open the ASIO4ALL panel with the button your program offers (its name varies), or by clicking the ASIO4ALL icon in the system tray.
4. In the device list, switch on the device your guitar comes in on and the device you listen through. Switch off everything else.
5. Move the ASIO Buffer Size slider down from the default of 512 samples. The ASIO4ALL manual suggests staying under 10 ms, which is under 441 samples at 44.1 kHz. Go back up a step if you hear crackles.
6. Restart your amp simulator after changing devices.

What goes wrong:

• YouTube and everything else goes silent. That’s by design: ASIO4ALL takes the sound device for itself. Since version 2.20 you can right click the tray icon to pause it and give the device back.
• Your device shows as Unavailable. Another program is using it, often a browser tab that played a video. Close it, unplug and replug the USB device, or restart the program. As a last resort, the manual suggests ending audiodg.exe in Task Manager.
• ASIO4ALL isn’t in the list. Either the program doesn’t support ASIO, or ASIO4ALL was installed without administrator rights.
• Crackles that start after a few minutes, or a few hours. This happens when your guitar comes in on one device and you listen through another, say a USB guitar cable in and the laptop’s headphone jack out. The ASIO4ALL manual explains that both devices have to run from the same clock, and two separate devices drift apart until the buffers overflow.
• Settings that don’t carry over. ASIO4ALL saves its settings for each program separately, so you set it up once in each one.

3. Want YouTube And Your Guitar Together? Use FlexASIO

ASIO4ALL’s biggest annoyance is the silence: while it runs, you can’t play along with a YouTube lesson. FlexASIO, a free open source driver by Etienne Dechamps, can do something ASIO4ALL can’t. It can open your sound device in shared mode, so other programs keep playing. Its documentation says other universal ASIO drivers always take the device for themselves.

After installing, choose FlexASIO as the driver in your amp simulator. Its default settings are built for reliability rather than low latency, and changing them is the unusual part: there’s no settings window at all. That’s why clicking Configure next to FlexASIO does nothing. Settings live in a small text file called FlexASIO.toml in your Windows user folder, for example C:\Users\YourName\FlexASIO.toml.

For the lowest latency, the FlexASIO FAQ suggests this starting point:

backend = "Windows WASAPI"
bufferSizeSamples = 480

[input]
suggestedLatencySeconds = 0.0
wasapiExclusiveMode = true

[output]
suggestedLatencySeconds = 0.0
wasapiExclusiveMode = true

Here’s the trade off. With wasapiExclusiveMode set to true, you get the lowest latency, but other programs can’t use the device, just like ASIO4ALL. Leave those two lines out and YouTube keeps playing, but the shared Windows audio path has that 10 ms buffer built in, so you won’t get below about 10 ms. For playing along with lessons, most people won’t mind.

If editing a text file puts you off, a third party tool called FlexASIO GUI gives you a settings window instead. It needs Microsoft’s .NET Desktop Runtime 6, and it isn’t made by the FlexASIO author.

What goes wrong:

• A misspelled setting is ignored without warning, while a wrong value stops FlexASIO from starting at all.
• Input and output on different devices lead to glitches sooner or later, and FlexASIO’s FAQ calls that an inherent limitation of ASIO.
• Two buffer settings. If your amp simulator has its own buffer size setting, use that instead of bufferSizeSamples.

4. Lower The Buffer Size

Whatever driver you end up with, the buffer size is the number that matters most. You’ll find it in your interface’s control panel, on the ASIO4ALL slider, or in your amp simulator’s audio settings.

Start at 128 samples. Native Instruments recommends 128 for recording, and Universal Audio suggests 128 or 256. If 128 plays clean, try 64. If you hear crackles, pops or dropouts, go back up one step. Native Instruments puts it simply: increase the buffer gradually until the sound is clean.

Crackles mean your computer can’t fill each buffer in time. Smaller buffers make it work harder, so a heavy amp simulator with lots of effects may need a bigger buffer than a simple one. Turn off effects you aren’t using while you play, and raise the buffer again when you mix a recording, when latency doesn’t matter.

And remember the number on screen isn’t the whole delay. The converters, Windows and the second buffer all add to it.

5. Match The Sample Rate Everywhere

Pick 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz in your amp simulator, then make Windows agree with it. Native Instruments warns that different sample rates in Windows and your audio software can lead to massive problems in audio processing.

In Windows 11 or 10, open Control Panel, then Hardware and Sound, then Sound. On the Playback tab, choose your device, click Properties, open the Advanced tab and set Default Format to the same sample rate. Universal Audio says to do the same on the Recording tab for your input.

If your interface has its own control panel, set the rate there instead. Focusrite says the rate chosen in Focusrite Device Settings becomes the only option Windows shows.

Two things to watch. The setting is greyed out while a program is using the device, so close your programs first. And ASIO4ALL quietly converts 44.1 kHz to 48 kHz when your sound card can’t run at 44.1, which costs a little processing power. If your device only offers 48 kHz, set everything to 48 kHz.

6. Hear Your Guitar Twice? Turn Off The Extra Copy

A delayed echo or a phasey, doubled sound usually isn’t latency in your amp simulator. It’s a second copy of your guitar reaching your ears by another route, and there are two usual suspects.

The first is the Direct Monitor button on many interfaces, the one in the video above. It sends your dry guitar straight to your headphones without going through the computer. That’s great for recording vocals, but your amp simulator still plays through the computer, so with both on you hear the dry signal and the amp a moment apart. Focusrite describes the result as an echo, or a signal with phase issues. When you play through an amp simulator, switch Direct Monitor off.

The second is a Windows setting called Listen to this device, and it catches people who plug in with a USB guitar cable too. Open Control Panel, then Hardware and Sound, then Sound, and go to the Recording tab. Select your input (the interface, the mic or line input, or the USB guitar cable), click Properties, open the Listen tab, and untick Listen to this device. Focusrite explains that when it’s ticked, Windows sends a second copy of your signal through its own driver, which adds latency.

7. Tune Windows For Live Audio

If you still get crackles at 128 or 256 samples, the computer needs a little help. These tips come from Native Instruments’ and Universal Audio’s own Windows guides:

• USB: plug your interface or USB cable straight into a port on the computer, not into a hub, and keep a laptop’s original charger connected.
• Power: in Power Options, choose High performance. Under the advanced settings, set USB selective suspend to Disabled and the minimum and maximum processor state to 100%. Laptop makers’ own power apps can override these, so check theirs too.
• USB power saving: in Device Manager, open each USB Root Hub, go to Power Management and untick Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
• Background programs: close your browser and anything else you don’t need, and pause cloud syncing while you play.
• Drivers: update your audio driver and firmware, plus the chipset drivers and BIOS from your computer’s maker.
• Headphones: use wired ones. Native Instruments says Bluetooth latency is often too high for playing.

If it still crackles, a free tool called LatencyMon checks whether your PC can handle real time audio and names the driver causing trouble. Close everything else and let it run for at least five minutes.

8. Still Lagging? Get An Audio Interface With Its Own Driver

Some built in sound cards and cheap USB cables never get clean at a low buffer, whatever you do. At that point, a small USB audio interface with an instrument input and its own ASIO driver is the fix that always works.

Two examples I checked on 12 October 2026: the Focusrite Scarlett Solo (4th generation) was listed at $169.99 on Focusrite’s site, and the Universal Audio Volt 1 at $149 on Universal Audio’s. Both have a proper high impedance guitar input and an ASIO driver for Windows. There are cheaper ones in my list of budget audio interfaces for guitar.

Whichever you buy, install the maker’s driver, choose its ASIO driver in your amp simulator, plug your headphones into the interface, and switch Direct Monitor off. Skip the USB hub here too; some can’t supply enough power.

Mac Users: Core Audio Makes This Easier

Macs don’t need any of the driver hunting. Craig Anderton’s advice for the Mac is simply to choose Core Audio, which every Mac audio program uses. Select your interface as both the input and the output device in your program.

The sample rate lives in Audio MIDI Setup (open Finder, then Applications, then Utilities), though your programs can override it. The buffer size lives inside each program. In Logic Pro, go to Logic Pro, then Settings, then Audio, then Devices, and set the I/O Buffer Size; Logic even shows the resulting latency. In Guitar Rig, it’s the same Preferences, Audio, Latency setting as on Windows.

GarageBand is different. Apple’s GarageBand guide lists no buffer size setting at all, so there’s nothing to lower there. Turn on Monitoring on the track so you hear the amp, and use headphones to avoid feedback.

Conclusion

Most of the time, guitar latency on a PC comes down to the driver. Get an ASIO driver running, set the buffer to 128 samples, and turn off anything that plays your guitar twice.

There’s also help on the way. Microsoft announced in November 2025 that it’s building an ASIO driver into Windows 11 for USB audio devices, together with Qualcomm and Yamaha. When I checked on 12 October 2026, its GitHub page still said there was no public release yet. Until it arrives, ASIO4ALL and FlexASIO do the job for free.

Once it feels right, the fun part starts. My lists of free amp simulators and free guitar VST plugins will keep you busy for a while, and if you play late at night, here’s how to play electric guitar with headphones.

Good luck and keep on rockin’!

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