Recording vocals with touch of reverb....

Hey guys - need some help getting this set up in Reaper. I'm using the latest version of Reaper. Vocal/recording chain is Peluso 2247le->A-designs Pacifica->Fireface 800->Reaper. When I add a verb plugin to the track, I can only hear the effect while record monitoring is set to "on" and there is a delay. With my setup, using the Fireface TotalMix routing software, I do not have to set record monitoring to "on" in order to record a track. I simply have to un-mute the input in TotalMix and route to the track in Reaper. So, not sure why I have to set record monitoring to "on" to hear the plugin. I've also tried using a send to another track in Reaper with the plugin. Any ideas??? Thanks... Another Reaper newbie :)

You're monitoring from two different places: the Fireface, and Reaper. When you monitor from the FireFace, you're monitoring directly through the hardware; there is no latency. When you monitor through Reaper, the signal has to travel through all the software, and two different ASIO buffers, before it returns to the hardware. So there's latency. Your choices are pretty slim, I'm afraid... 1) You can get a hardware reverb to use while tracking (expensive). 2) You can do without the reverb (free, but suboptimal). 3) You can turn your ASIO buffer down as low as possible, minimizing the latency (not perfect, but free). Those are pretty much your options, as far as I can tell. Don't quote me on that, though; there are greater minds than mine on this forum. :)

Thank you! Hmmm, yeah I have plenty of delay pedals I could probably get by with using directly with the Fireface/TotalMix - I should try that and see how it works for me since I'd likely not keep or use the effect on the final track anyway. Good idea. Open to other suggestions anyone has.

4. Buy the cheapest reverb unit you can find and only use it on your monitored vocal signal.

5. Use a Line 6 Toneport device. You can put FX in the signal chain, monitor the wet signal with no latency and record the dry signal.

lexicon mx400 are pretty cheap and you can two different reverbs at once, i usually use 1 ambinece reverb and 1 large reverb and balance the sends and record it back to the puter and then use the lexicon to do 2 separate delays and record live dub mix back to puter using aux sends on a mackie 1220, i wouldnt usually record the reveb with the vocals unless on a separate track unless i wanted to change it later.

Actually the problem is the reverb plugin you're using. Let me guess Reaverb? Takes up too much juice. I can track with the this with no latency.

Thanks for all the suggestions! I really appreciate it. Yeah, I'm using a CSR plate mostly and I've read that it's low CPU usage, so don't think it's the plugin - but maybe I should try a free one. However, I want zero latency tracking vocals, so I should probably just figure out a way to use a cheap hardware device. Yeah, it would be nice if more interfaces had a solution for this.

I almost invariably use direct monitoring through my hardware but add a little bit of reverb from a plugin. I really don't mind the latency with the reverb. Simply turn down the pre-delay (if there is one) to nothing and let your latency add some for you... So my setup is: Direct monitoring on Pre-fader send to reverb Fader pulled all the way down to infinity and I'm good to go. I do this even though I do have lots of hardware I could use instead. It's simply too convenient not to. ;)

Awesome! Thank you!