[ardour-users] Effects and latency

[Joseph Dell'Orfano]

I am probably just confirming what I already know, but I'd like to throw
this out to everyone to see if there are any ideas.

I am running PlanetCCRMA on an athlon 1300 system with delta 1010LT
card. This card uses envy24 mixer app and provides zero latency h/w
monitoring. 

I would like to record a wet track with some software plugins. But
obviously when I monitor this, there is a fair bit of latency (I use a
decent sized buffer with Jack to avoid xruns).

Possible solutions include 1) reducing my buffer size (and thus my
latency) and do software monitoring as I have been, 2) accepting the
latency, which is fine if I am recording someone else, but really
distracting when I am recording myself, 3) get real and buy a decent
effects unit for my rack, 4) record the wet mix but monitor dry via h/w
monitor, or 5) stop being stupid and record all tracks dry and add the
effects later.

Have I pretty much hit the salient points here or am I missing some
trick which lets me do this?

Sorry if this is a dumb question. I thought I had a good handle on the
signal pathways here, but just wanted to pick the brains of the vastly
more experienced users on this list.

-Joe Dell'Orfano