What Firewire Audio Interface has the best value to feature ratio

[gjvti]

Motu 828mkIII is great and if it had midi control in stand-alone mode it would be heaven! RME has full midi control, obviously better sound quality, but have no built in per channel eq/filter and compressor (what was important for me) - though I understand you can use send-return strategy, if you have an external effect processor, on RME as well. Of course, all these effect things are more important for mixer and not so important to interface.

[Hollowcell]

Originally Posted by feedingear

I'm using desktop only, so Firewire cross compatability isn't an issue - so you think PCI/PCI-e is the way to go? Any recommendations as to what sort of brands/gear to investigate?

Compatibility still can be an issue even on a PC destop as it all depends on what FW chipset your mainboard has. Even if you buy a PCI to FW card you still need to make sure of the chipset - that's FW for you though.

On a desktop I would always go PCI unless you want to buy something for both a laptop and desktop straight off, as it might be cheaper to kill two bird with one stone. Although if I add it up, it was actually cheaper for me to get the Echo and the 9632 over say an FF400.

My needs are maybe different though as I still run an old analogue mixer, outboard compression, FX and hardware synths and samplers. If you need the on-the-interface processing for FX and complex mixing you might want something different.

[Timo]

I think PCI is favourable to USB/Firewire if you have a desktop PC only due to having more bandwidth available and being directly addressable. Stands to offer lower latencies and more channels at those lower latencies.

That said, I can run my firewire Motu at the lowest buffer and get away with it, even at 96KHz @ 128 buffer (1.3ms) or more usually 44.1Khz @ 64 buffer (1.5ms), but have not tried it under a greater amount of multi-channel load yet, which is where the real test begins.

[TheHobbit]

Historically I agree with regarding PCI(e) for interfaces/bandwidth however i finally stretched myself to a RME FF800 and do not regret it.
Very clear sound, excllent configuration (especially it using input/outputs for external buses/effects/synths/outboard gear in general).

The nice thing with firewire is being forunate enough to have a macbook pro i can play around with samplers/reason/cubase on the move and hook it up FF800 between the lappy and desktop pc so suits me.

I read loads about audio interfaces and tbh the RMEs are highly spoken of on every forum i visited. Went to the local store to hear it vs motu and echo audio, rme won hands down for me. Loving it ...

Links :

http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards...interfaces.htm


http://www.gearslutz.com/board/music...ml#post3839726





d•.•p

[fgimian]

Originally Posted by TheHobbit

Historically I agree with regarding PCI(e) for interfaces/bandwidth however i finally stretched myself to a RME FF800 and do not regret it.
Very clear sound, excllent configuration (especially it using input/outputs for external buses/effects/synths/outboard gear in general).

The nice thing with firewire is being forunate enough to have a macbook pro i can play around with samplers/reason/cubase on the move and hook it up FF800 between the lappy and desktop pc so suits me.

I read loads about audio interfaces and tbh the RMEs are highly spoken of on every forum i visited. Went to the local store to hear it vs motu and echo audio, rme won hands down for me. Loving it ...

Links :

http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards...interfaces.htm


http://www.gearslutz.com/board/music...ml#post3839726





d•.•p

What sort of latency can you achieve with the RME?

[TheHobbit]

Ah latency well that really depends on your PC rig...

On the Pentium 4 desktop my latency is as : 3ms / although run at 5ms

On the I7 rig it is approx 2

All depends on what buffer sample setting you are set to...

Higher buffer setting (ie 1024 = higher latency/longer time) but handle more plugins/sounds/audio streams

Lower buffer ie 128 = lower latency and less plugin/sounds/channels streaming simultaneously

Do a search (I know you been looking) there is loads out there.

On DPC Latency checker I am getting approx 213us (2ms) on 512sample buffer.

Guess it depoends on how many instances of audio your are intending to record at once and your cpu overhead when running plugins and the like.

If youare doin many audio streams it has Firewire 800 or 400 - 800speed provides more bandwidth so more audio streams at once with lower latency settings.

(Im not a pro - so if I am wrong sure others will nip in with an ammendment).

@_@ Of course you have to add the whole routing which can double so a 3ms latency will actually be 6-8 depending on processor latency/midi interface/cbaling/routing and any other hardware/proesses the signal goes through before reaching it destination!?

[fgimian]

Originally Posted by TheHobbit

Ah latency well that really depends on your PC rig...

On the Pentium 4 desktop my latency is as : 3ms / although run at 5ms

On the I7 rig it is approx 2

All depends on what buffer sample setting you are set to...

Higher buffer setting (ie 1024 = higher latency/longer time) but handle more plugins/sounds/audio streams

Lower buffer ie 128 = lower latency and less plugin/sounds/channels streaming simultaneously

Do a search (I know you been looking) there is loads out there.

On DPC Latency checker I am getting approx 213us (2ms) on 512sample buffer.

Guess it depoends on how many instances of audio your are intending to record at once and your cpu overhead when running plugins and the like.

If youare doin many audio streams it has Firewire 800 or 400 - 800speed provides more bandwidth so more audio streams at once with lower latency settings.

(Im not a pro - so if I am wrong sure others will nip in with an ammendment).

@_@ Of course you have to add the whole routing which can double so a 3ms latency will actually be 6-8 depending on processor latency/midi interface/cbaling/routing and any other hardware/proesses the signal goes through before reaching it destination!?

Very impressive figures mate, I'm generally running at 6ms with my Layla3G and never have any issues, it can go down to 3ms but gets less stable on bigger projects.

[absynth]

rme fireface400 and everything is good

[feedingear]

Bit the bullet and got a MOTU Ultralite MKIII off ebay for 800 AUD almost new. Thanks for all your help and information.

Exciting times! Now I have to put my Tascam US 144 up for sale .

[MKUltra]

someone on another forum recommended an RME expresscard PCI bus with one of their external interfaces
http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_hdspe_expressc ard.php
I havnt checked the price yet but was also considering a few different firewire interfaces

but I need it for a Macbook pro