Software monitoring

The phrase software monitoring refers to the process of monitoring a signal in real-time (such as a microphone or line signal) "through" a DAW or other audio software. The benefit of this is that it allows the user to hear any additional real-time effects that have been added to the software monitoring channel such as reverb or EQ. The drawback is this usually introduces latency making it difficult to record in time with previously recorded tracks. The alternative to software monitoring is hardware monitoring.