Thank you @DaGeek, much appreciated. 
Or turn on āreduce latency when monitoringā, and set monitoring to on, then record on the track with the external instrument. Easier than lining up timings.
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Thanks guys, i really appreciate it!
Under Options>Delay Compensation, if enabled, latency when recording the guitar is too much. I have to disable it to record my guitar. Will disabling that affect the external instrument delay compensation that DaGeek pointed out in his steps 3 posts up?
In Live 12 you can monitor while recording, and choose to have Live automatically adjust the recorded audio to remove latency.
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With non midi instruments, probably the better approach is to use an Audio track, with input set to the instrument input with monitoring off and listen to the instrument via a direct monitoring output.
There are several ways to do this, it mostly depends on your soundcard. Many audio cards can do this using they software, or have an hardware option. You will have zero latency this way.
You can also manage it in Live but you will have a delay, it depends on the audiocard and audio settings, you could have from 3.5ms to more than 10ms delay, just to say.
It is important to set monitoring off from the track where you are recording to, anyway.
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Thanks @DaGeek, Iām actually looking to replace a broken MOTU Audio Express which has a mixer onboard and can do that. Nice that it can be used as a mixer without a computer.
Iām taking notes trying to get this setup running smooth with as little hassle as possible. I appreciate your help!
That sounds like a big improvement over Live 11. I think. Looking forward to 12.
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Found this in the manual -
Note: If the Delay Compensation option (page 328) is unchecked in the Options menu, the Hardware Latency slider is disabled.
Edit: Just a quick update,. Everythingās running smooth and in sync thanks to you all, especially DaGeek. What a great forum.
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Iām shut up. This is always an issue working with hardware. I hate messing with the compensation settings for latency and usually use hardware monitoring when recording anything external in, and thereās always a very very slight offset no matter how good the hardware. Even when I record midi with perfect timing everything is uniformly delayed and āquantizingā doesnāt simply shift everything. This is kind of a killer feature.
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Iāve asked this in the push 3 thread already:
I have transitioned from studio one to live (standard). I havenāt hooked up push yet, but have tinkered in live already to get into it. What I have noticed and found quite interesting, is that the workflow had me making techno. In studio one I normally produce techhouse / house. I had the feeling it just happened and was almost dictated by the daw.
Anybody else with similar experience?
Yeah if Live 12 can actually resolve this with a one click setting that would open everything up. My main gripe for ages. Fingers crossed.
Does anyone else have bad MIDI latency when using outboard gear with Live? Each time I open a project, I have a random amount of latency ranging from 4ā24 ms.
Edit: Iām assuming youāre referring to bad timing in recording Midi HW, if you refer to the latency from the instrument to the headphones/monitor it is another story.
Latency is normal and it is something you have to manage.
There is latency in the audio roundtrip and latency in the midi chain, also different HW devices have different latency.
If you use plugins while recording, they may introduce latency as well.
The DAW has to manage all of this, but you have to work to help the DAW.
External clock Master, like ERM Multiclock, will render your life easier, but they are not cheap and professional Master clock devices are many times more expensive than that.
For external HW (synths, drum machines, etc) in Live, it is better to use the external instrument device, where you can set the delay.
Simply record a 2/4 bar with a percussive, short tail, sound and check the latency, then adjust the delay accordingly.
For Live, to make all its work, it is better to be the master clock, but it usually do not translate well to all the external HW, in my experience, thatās where the multiclock comes in play and make a very good job in taking a high resolution clock signal from Live, correcting the jitter and all the issues, and generate a perfect, clean, midi signal to sync all the external HW devices, and it works perfectly.
I donāt think any DAW can manage a perfect midi sync without an external clock manager.
To further explain this:
you need a midi track with an external device connected to your external HW.
Set monitoring to IN. Adjust external instrument delay.
Then you need an Audio track with the input set to the Midi track, with Monitoring set to OFF.
Now you can hear the HW instrument through the Midi track, and record it with the Audio track.
The problem is that Iām getting a different amount of MIDI latency each time I close and open a project. When sending out a few bars of 16th notes and recording the audio back in, I can see that thereās 1ā2 ms of jitter, but the entire alignment can be out by as much as 24 ms. If close and open the project, often as not itāll be out by a different amount ā sometime as low as 4 ms.
It seems like whatever Live is doing to synchronise the audio and MIDI is being calculated incorrectly when I open a project.
Iāve tried the same test in Reaper and always got 3ā5 ms latency from the same outboard gear.
Itās an annoying thatās itās variable, as it means I have to calculate the latency each time I open a project.
Iāve been looking at the USAMO by Expert Sleepers as a possible sidestep.
Interesting. Iād say yes and no to this. Liveās setup does lend itself to loop based genres. And I find that compared to my short spell noodling on hardware, what I produce in there is less experimental. I think this is not because Live isnāt experimental (Iād argue the included instruments are in some cases highly experimental) but because you need to learn to ride the bike first, and sometimes thatās easier in simple musical terms. And of course Ableton say itās an instrument as well, and an instrument is likely to encourage you to create music a certain way.
I tend to work in Session View, and there I agree with you there that I (also making somewhat house inspired stuff) tend to go for often (but not always) harder stuff. What I tend to find kicks me out of this a little is working in Arrangement View. I usually have a reference track in a session, and so this encourages me to go off grid a little more. Iām undecided as to whether Iāll stick with one or the other, but I find that the softer side of music comes when working in Arrangement View. Definitley something Iāll be reviewing more when 12 comes along with the new views etc.
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Thanks for your insight. Very interesting. Iāll see if arrangement view changes this as this would be the way Iād work in studio one. But I do want to get into session view a little more, as I like getting inspired differently. I want to try āarrangingā songs a little by changing scenes.
This is often my workflow. Create some loops, create scenes out of those, and then āplayā the scenes into the arrangement view. Very quick way to create song structures from smaller elements. Helps to have something like a launchpad/push, but works fine with mouse and keys also.
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This is strange
Do you have plugins in the project?
What is the setup? Do you send Midi from ableton live to the instrument? Where do you take midi out?
I donāt have any plugins active when testing. I just send MIDI out via a MIDI track or an External Instrument.
Iāve tried sending MIDI out to various outboard gear from both my Focusrite Saffire Pro via MIDI and an Arturia KeyStep via USB. The KeyStep was generally a touch faster, but the same issue with both routings.
Ableton confirmed the issue on their end with another Focusrite device, though they think itās only a problem on Windows.
So I havenāt quite figured out whether I need a new interface, computer or clocking solution yet. I would really rather buy something fun!