REAL

Generally speaking, the latency refers to the delay between the time the sound is created and when it is heard. Consequently, having low latency can be considered critical in various situations, including listening to music, creating tunes, mixing, communication, games – especially the online ones – and virtual reality.

REAL or Reduce Audio Latency is a tool designed to address a common sound problem specific to Windows 10, namely the latency users notices on the default playback device. As Microsoft recognized a couple of years back, all applications in Windows 10 have by default 10m buffers to render audio. However, the latency issue begins when an app in use requests the use of small buffers, as the standard audio engine is designed to transfer the audio using this precise buffer size. All tools that rely on the same device and mode are going to switch to the smaller buffer size.

The application is quite simple the use despite the fact that it is designed to work with the Windows console. Before you get started, the developer recommends you update the drivers for the audio devices and preferably have the Windows in-box HDAudio driver installed on your system, as the latter is assumed to improve latency. Afterward, launch the app and the latency is solved automatically and for as long as the app is running.