Best USB Audio Interface for PBG4/800, 10.2, and Live?

[Live Blindspot]

Can someone let me know what would be the best audio interface for using Live with a PowerBook G4/800? I'd like to use the Pre-listen feature in stereo and have stereo master outs. So that would be 4outs needed.

10.2's core audio doesn't seem to support multiple outs on the EMI 2|6, so don't recommend that one to me.

System: PBG4/800, 10.2, EMI 2|6 (only 2 in/2out), Oxygen8, MPD-16, Live, Reason, Peak, Recycle.

[The Kooky Scientist]

OS X 10.2 Jaguar does support multiple outs with the E-magic emi 2/6. You just have to use the Audio/Midi Utility. But that is only 3 stereo pairs out.

You'd probably be more interested in the RME/Nuendo Audiolink box instead.

[Blindspot]

Hey Scientist,

I know I'm a little late to the party. It took me a while to find your post about the Audio/Midi utility. To be honest I didn't even know that it existed until I read the post you made a month ago (which I just found). Is it new with 10.2? I'm gonna give it another go tonight when I get home.

If it works I'll report back to the forum as one satisfied user.

[The Kooky Scientist]

Yes, this midi utility is new in OS X 10.2 and quite hidden.

However, the problem I'm having with OS X is that the screen redraw latency makes Ableton Live unusable. Hopefully the next Ableton update will address this issue. Reason 2 doesn't seem to suffer from this problem in OS X.

[jazze]

Yes, this midi utility is new in OS X 10.2 and quite hidden.

However, the problem I'm having with OS X is that the screen redraw latency makes Ableton Live unusable. Hopefully the next Ableton update will address this issue. Reason 2 doesn't seem to suffer from this problem in OS X.

Could you please decribe your experience with Live on Jaguar and Audio interface that you are using - are there eny sound dropouts, diffrence in CPU usage compared to OS 9 , and what do you mean by screen redraw latency? What is your Mac configuration?
I am on Pismo PowerBook G3 500Mhz/Jaguar 10.2.1 /Motu828/TascamUS428(as MIDi controller) testing Live on Jaguar since yesterday it kinda works but general feel is more fragile than in OS 9.2.2.
Maybe it's due to all the 3D graphics and animation mambo-jumbo in OS X.... wish there was an option to revert to OS 9 look and to shut all the networking and unnesesarry backgrownd services in Jaguar (OSX) to free up CPU.
Eny ideas?
jazze


jazze

[stew]

wish there was an option to revert to OS 9 look and to shut all the networking and unnesesarry backgrownd services in Jaguar (OSX) to free up CPU.
Eny ideas?

There's not much you can do about the ugly gumdrop look except a few patches from Unsanity; You can turn off the background services with some basic Unix knowledge, but I wouldn't expect too much of a performance boost.

[cr_tH]

hi there,

jut wanna know: what lateny you got under 10.2 with the emi (and how many in/out's) and is the spdif out independent?
How is the MPD-16? I didn't know it is allready out.

greetz,

cr_tH

[The Kooky Scientist]

What I mean by screen redraw latency is that. If I have 8 loops going at the same time the meters on the faders are very slow and unnatural looking. The difference between moving a midi fader and seeing the fader move on screen is enormous and the difference between using the keyboard to mute a channel and seeing the button mute onscreen is also very slow.

I am using an Apple Titanium G4 laptop 550. With an Emagic emi 2/6 for audio outs. This occurs with the emi set to use only 2 outs of the emi.

[jazze]

The difference between moving a midi fader and seeing the fader move on screen is enormous and the difference between using the keyboard to mute a channel and seeing the button mute onscreen is also very slow.
.

I am on the PowerBook G3 500Mhz (Pismo) Jaguar 10.2.1 Motu 828, Tascam US428 midi controller.
Same here: if i play no more than more than 4-5 tracks with 3 EQ4 plugs / Compressor and two filters on the output its OK , the CPU meter is arpwnd 30% ........ 6-8 tracks CPU meter 40% - MIDI latency becomes huge and general sluggishness.
jazze

[Sven [ableton]]

What I mean by screen redraw latency is that. If I have 8 loops going at the same time the meters on the faders are very slow and unnatural looking. The difference between moving a midi fader and seeing the fader move on screen is enormous and the difference between using the keyboard to mute a channel and seeing the button mute onscreen is also very slow.

I am using an Apple Titanium G4 laptop 550. With an Emagic emi 2/6 for audio outs. This occurs with the emi set to use only 2 outs of the emi.

hi kooky scientist,

i just tried it out myself:
Ti-Book 550, OSX 10.2.1, Live 1.52, Reason 2.0, emi 2/6
8 loops some fx (about 56% cpu usage)

Everything works fine for me. the meters are pretty good. not as good as on my p4 desktop machine, but still very good.
are you using 10.2?

sven [ableton]

[Blindspot]

Conclusion: PBG4/800, 512MB RAM, EMI 2|6, Live 1.5 works well for me.

Went home and tested it out last night. I was able to get the 6 outs and two ins! Thanks Kooky. It was a little flaky at first. But eventually it seemed that if I left the Sound Preference AND the Audio/Midi Utility both open but minimized to my hidden dock that everything was cool.

I loaded the demo session (just the clips, right?) and assigned midi notes with the MPD-16 to all the "scenes" and some of the clips. Set the global quantization to 16th notes. Then I started jamming. You woulda thought you were hearing DJ -freaking-Shadow! Live gave me no problems and I saw no screen latency whatsoever. Everything was smooth as hot butter.

I'll try to get back a report of all the latency and CPU data using the demo session and arrangement.

Thanks ya'll

[The Kooky Scientist]

Hi Sven,

I'm using

Ti-Book 550, OSX 10.2.1, Live 1.52, Reason 2.0, emi 2/6

Using the Demo session which is running 9 samples at same time in Scene 1 I'm getting 47% but still having slow movement of faders and buttons.

[Geraldo]

It seems the drivers for the EMI 2/6 have improved a lot. I stayed away from it and bought the MOTU 828 instead because there were a lot of complaints the 1st year, but it was definately my 2nd choice and now seems to be working well with LIVE and Logic. Does anyone still have problems with pops and clicks?

[jazze]

It seems the drivers for the EMI 2/6 have improved a lot. I stayed away from it and bought the MOTU 828 instead because there were a lot of complaints the 1st year, but it was definately my 2nd choice and now seems to be working well with LIVE and Logic. Does anyone still have problems with pops and clicks?

So , the EMI 2/6 OSX drivers have improved , nice to hear that ..
How reliable is EMI2/6 and Jaguar in a live gig situation?

I am currently using MOTU828 with OS9.2.2 with no problems.
MOTU828 and OS 10.1 was useless - lots of pops clicks and sound dropouts.
Motu828 and Jaguar a definite improvement no obvious sound drops ( maybe sometimes very slight sound stuttering though) i am still testing it by running for a 10 hours nonstop.... still have my doubts about going live with OSX(Jaguar) i still use OS9.2.2 for live gigs.
Hope there would be a way to free the PowerBook'sG3500Mhz CPU power by disabling the OSX look and reverting to OS 9 interface......
jazze

[The Kooky Scientist]

Not reliable for a live gig @ all. I don't even bother using it in the studio.