Zero latency over the internet isn't possible. The laws of physics don't allow it, whatever any company claims. There will always be a short delay between you and everyone else in a Session. It isn't a fault, and no setting removes it. It's why Sessionwire is built for recording, producing and mixing together, not for playing in time with each other live.

The short answer

Record on the performer's side. The performer plays to their own DAW with no delay at all, records at full quality, and streams what they're doing into the Session with the Send plugin. Everyone else listens in HQ Audio, talks back, and gives notes the way they would from the other side of the glass. When the take is done, the performer sends the files.

Working this way, the delay only affects how quickly a note reaches the performer, which feels about the same as a talkback button in a real studio. It never ends up in the recording.

Where the delay comes from

Even over a perfect connection, a signal can't travel faster than light, and through copper or fibre it moves at about two thirds of that speed.

Take Los Angeles to New York, about 2,450 miles (3,940 km) apart in a straight line. At that speed the trip takes around 20 milliseconds one way. Playing together needs the sound to get there and back, so the best possible case is around 40 milliseconds.

Real connections are slower than that. Cables don't run in straight lines, and every router and switch along the way adds a little more. A safer estimate is about double the ideal figure. Then each computer adds its own time to encode and decode audio and video, and each DAW adds its buffer. It's easy to end up over 100 milliseconds between two people.

Why that rules out jamming

For comparison, here's how audio effects use delay:

Even the best case between two cities lands in slapback territory. Nobody can lock to a groove with a slapback between them and the other player, and a faster plan, 5G or a new router won't change the physics. Anything advertised as zero-latency jamming over long distances isn't possible.

Why Wi-Fi isn't good enough for professional audio

Distance sets the minimum delay. Wi-Fi decides how steady it is, and for real-time audio, steady matters more than fast.

• Wi-Fi is shared radio. Every device in your home, and your neighbours' networks, compete for the same airwaves, and walls, floors and even a microwave weaken the signal.
• When data gets lost over the air, Wi-Fi sends it again. That keeps a download intact, but the audio arrives late and unevenly, and that unevenness (jitter) is what you hear as clicks, dropouts and robotic-sounding audio.
• Streaming services hide this by buffering several seconds ahead. A live Session can't, because you need to hear each other now, not in a few seconds.
• A speed test only measures how much data your connection can move, not how consistently it arrives. A fast Wi-Fi result can still give you a choppy Session.

An ethernet cable gives you a private, stable link to your router, with far less jitter. For anything you care about, plug in. See Use ethernet, not Wi-Fi.

What works well

Almost everything else you'd do in a studio works at a distance:

• Overdubs, with the performer recording on their side
• Producing a band that's tracking together in one room
• Mix reviews, with the engineer streaming the mix in HQ Audio
• Writing, arranging and pre-production
• Teaching and lessons

See Ways to use Sessionwire for step-by-step guides.

Keep the delay as low as you can

• Plug into your router with an ethernet cable.
• Use a lower buffer size in your DAW while you're tracking.
• Check your connection with Network Stats during a Session. See Read Network Stats in a Session.