How does direct monitoring work with a directly plugged in guitar in the Scarlett Solo?

Question

I am thinking of buying a Focusrite - Scarlett Solo interface to record my guitar. I would like to plug my guitar directly to the interface and hear me playing while I'm recording, but would like to avoid latency.

I read that the Scarlett solo has a direct monitoring feature that is able to output the sound without the signal going through the computer, thus decreasing the latency. I guess this wouldn't work with my guitar plugged in, as it'd require the signal to be amplified by a software amp.

Does that mean that there's no way to avoid latency when plugging the guitar to the interface? Or maybe latency is not such a problem these days because of processing power?

Answer 1

You are correct. Using a software amp will introduce a degree of latency. It may not be very noticeable in an empty recording project, but as you record more tracks, and use more software instruments and plugins, your computer may have trouble keeping up, and the latency will become more and more noticeable.

EDIT: After clarification in the comments, you can still monitor the dry signal of the guitar through the direct monitoring feature. You will be able to hear yourself playing with no latency during recording, but won't be hearing the final tone that your DAW will be producing with the plugins.

EDIT: Referring back to latency with software plugins, this issue is highly dependant on the processing power of your computer. Your computer may have trouble keeping up, and you will have to increase the latency in your settings to prevent dropouts. The interfaces in the price range of the scarlett probably won't play a significant factor in decreasing the latency.

Many DAWs (logic, ProTools, etc) will have a "low latency mode" setting, that when toggled will bypass "non-essential" plug-ins to reduce the CPU load. I suggest enabling that feature when recording with software instruments and plugins.