Live Audio Setup

[penepasta]

Hello, I'm sure there are loads of posts about this but here I go.
Being broke, I haven't been able to get a hold of any decent audio interfaces for a live setup, but now that I can afford one I have no idea what is out there. My ideal is to have a lightweight system with a few MIDI in/outs, latency free usb or firewire audio interfacing with RCA/mic/unbal in/outs. I'm not sure whether or not this can be achieved with one piece of equipment or if I need to buy a whole rackload of stuff. Any suggestions at all would help, I'm sort of at a loss here.

[Piplodocus]

I'm not sure you'll get "latency free", but I assume you just mean a few milliseconds?

Also depends how many mic Ins/Outs?

Assuming that, and what MIDI stuff you want to run off it, you might want a separate MIDI interface? Are they multichannel MIDI devices? Do they also have USB connection instead of MIDI (e.g. something like a Roland Fantom you're better off connecting via USB and saving your MIDI ports).

In terms of output types take my MOTU 828mk3 for example; it doesn't have RCA unbalanced outputs, but I made up some XLR to RCA cables, so it may as well be unbalanced RCA as far as the other end of the cables is concerned. It runs a few MIDI things off the single in and out.

So it might be my MOTU with lots of analog I/O would be complete overkill for you. Or it might be you'd want one of these, AND a MIDI box (like a Midisport 4x4), AND some rackmount mic pre's including some with convertors to connect to the digital ins. In which case you'd fill up a small rack., but would have 26 mic ins at 48kHz, 10 analogue outs + 2 dedicated headphones, and 18 digital outs (+S/PDIF)!!

What I'm saying is you'll have to be more specific...

[penepasta]

Well, my plan is to have a Moog Voyager receiving midi data from live, so it seems like a MOTU is the way to go at this point, I'd like to use live to send CVs as well but I haven't quite figured out what type of output is required for that. Other than that I'll be running 3 or 4 mics and playing drum clips and other misc clips from live and I'm not sure if there's any benefit in putting the vocals through my PC or just having them separate and analog. I think I'm going to draw myself a picture so I have a better idea of what's in my head

[Piplodocus]

There's a lot more choice than just MOTU. Can't complain with mine though! I tend to go to the Digital Village website and just look at all the stuff in my price range that fits my requirements, then read reviews!

CV outs are harder to come by. If you want CV outs and dedicated conversion boxes look expensive have a look into a Novation Super Bass Station. It's got CV outs on the back so you can control older analogue synths. I've got one but not tried it though, so don't take my advice on CV control as gospel. Just though a second hand SBS might be a cost effective way to get them if other options seem expensive!

[penepasta]

How would one go about sending the master output of the MOTU (or any other I/O, DJ mixer, etc) to a regular analog mixer (The output of which would go to a sound system)? Is there a degradation of audio quality by just using the 1/4" outs?

[oblique strategies]

I think I'm going to draw myself a picture so I have a better idea of what's in my head

Good idea.

I'm a big fan of drawing pictures & diagrams, using spreadsheets, etc. It always helps me.

[Vresky]

in the past i have owned this: Few terratec, few m adio usb or firewire, few motu firewire, line 6 , digi 01 digi 02
Nothing work as expected, to much latency and crakles. on 4 different computers same result!

Now i only use a old m-audio 4 chanel pci card. and i have 1 msec of latency in 44khz.
i think its cause of usb and firewire protocol, more useful to connect a cam or a mouse than a soundcard.

So with my humble experience a desktop pc ( tyny one that matches a dj bag) with a pci or pci expres sound card, cost 3 times less than laptop and firewire soundcard, and have at least 10 ms less about latency, more dsp power.

[daaa]

focusrite are quite good. they also do midi in/out
http://focusrite.com/products/audio_interfaces/
the saffire 6 usb is a really good deal.