Rhythm/timing issues

Hey all- So I just wanted to see if anybody ever has any rhythm or timing issues in reaper? I am having a boatload full of problems, and I can't figure out why. It just seems that the timing in the program is off when I play my guitar or bass. I don't think it's latency, because the timing can be off before or after, so I just don't know. I seem to have the most problems when I import a beat from fruity loops, then I can't play over it without it messing up. I can record my guitar through my mic fine, but after that my timing just seems to get all crazy. Any help/input would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks! (PS- Operator error is the first thing that came to my head, but I don't think that's it. I'm pretty brutal, but I lined up a 4/4 beat with my strokes of the guitar and it was still off haha. )

Go to "Project Settings" (Alt Enter) and then project setting again and set timebase for items to "beats (position,length and rate). See if that helps. Good luck

Under Preferences/Audio/Recording, is it possible that your driver reported latency is incorrect. You could check things by doing a loopback test. However, that wouldn't explain why you can get an offset in either direction. Pete

As for doing loop-back testing for measuring the true latency, I've made a JS FX exactly for that. here project included that is (hopefully) runnable out-of-the-box.

ever played to a click before? I used to be great at it, but it's been awhile. My band has recently been throwing a click up on the pa to get a few things straightened out. Even the seasoned players are having some difficulty.

Thanks so much for all of your great suggestions so far! I'm away from my main computer today (thanks school) but hopefully I can try it out tonight. And partonkevin- what do you mean by playing to a click? Just a metronome?