Why remote DJing has latency
When you play with a friend over the internet, their sound reaches you a moment after they play it. That gap is latency. You notice it the moment you try to blend: your friend's kick lands a little after yours, and two records that should sit together start to flam.
Where it comes from
- Distance. Data takes time to travel, even at the speed of light, and it never takes a straight path.
- The network. Your audio is cut into small packets that queue up at every hop between you.
- Uneven arrival. Packets don't arrive at a steady pace, so the receiver holds a few back to play them smoothly. That holding adds delay too.
Why a video call doesn't work for mixing
Calls are built for talking, where a little delay doesn't matter. Mixing is about timing, beat by beat. A call gives you their record late, and late by a different amount from moment to moment.
What helps
You can't remove the delay. What a mix needs is for your friend's record and yours to line up in your ears, so you can blend into their track instead of chasing it. In Mix//Sync, you hear your partner's decks in time with your own. See Partner audio.
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