Ableton Forum

I'm looking at a replacement (8 Mic Pre) Interface for Mac. If they all use the Audio Core Mac driver....... does it really matter which I choose - stability wise?

Put another way I need the most stable Firewire and or USB 8 pre interface for Mac. Is there an advantage (not sonically but stability wise) in using RME or Metric Halo over say... MOTU/M-Audio/Presonus/Focusrite or Echo?

Thanks

I know that RME, MOTU and Metric Halo all have Core Audio drivers, and all of them are solid as a rock.
Those would be the brands I would be looking at.

I guess I'm wondering if there's any advantage latency and stability wise between any of these manufacturers that are using Apple's Core Audio driver?

For instance..... does RME write a different/ better driver for Mac than the default Core Audio driver?

Thanks!

analogcabin wrote:I guess I'm wondering if there's any advantage latency and stability wise between any of these manufacturers that are using Apple's Core Audio driver?

For instance..... does RME write a different/ better driver for Mac than the default Core Audio driver?

Thanks!

OK the default Core Audio driver is used by every audio hardware maker except Avid Pro Tools native and HD.
What this means if you're coming from Windows is that you don't have to choose WDM, ASIO etc. then instal a specific driver for the hardware device etc. you just instal a driver for the device. There are a handful of companies that use only the Core audio support, but mostly that's for prosumer stuff where you just want to replace the internal system sound.
MOTU, RME and Metric Halo all have super low latency and great stability, I can't vouch for the other manufacturers...

Same applies with MIDI, it's built in and 99% of the applications out there get their information from Core MIDI.

Core MIDI is the low-level audio interface that is built-in to Mac OS X. at some stage any audio interface needs to talk to Core Audio (with the couple of exceptions mentioned above), and it is still possible to screw the implementation of that up.

so yes, drivers do matter. the driver between the audio interface and Core Audio, and the firmware/hardware of the audio interface itself, will also impact latency and stability.

I'm very happy with my Focusrite Saffire Pro 40. Drivers rock solid, low latency, works great in Core Audio.

After having to shell out this week for yet another portable interface (my older mBox mini 2 and Tascam US-224 suddenly don't work at all with Mountain Lion) I would say take nothing for granted..

Ya, that's the thing.
My Audiofire 12 has been working great for a long time but never stellar latency wise. I'm looking to get a portable 8 preamp interface that is as Mac friendly as possible.

Metric Halo, RME and MOTU are always mentioned as being tightly integrated driver wise.
Whereas it looks like the M-Audio 2626 is now at the end of life.

Anyone have anything to say about MOTU Pre8 mic pre's?

Thanks again

nebulae wrote:I'm very happy with my Focusrite Saffire Pro 40. Drivers rock solid, low latency, works great in Core Audio.

hey man...I'm about to buy a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40..how do u like it? any issues? I'm digging online and I really like it....

Core Audio = ASIO

Not rly. Core audio is the whole framework, while asio are just the drivers.

The point of asio is to omit the whole windows architecture and thus the audio framework. Core audio can't omit itself so it's kinda hard to say that asio=core audio

Zygi wrote:Not rly. Core audio is the whole framework, while asio are just the drivers.

The point of asio is to omit the whole windows architecture and thus the audio framework. Core audio can't omit itself so it's kinda hard to say that asio=core audio

It's confirmed by engineer. They are technically same. They are just used and maintained by different company, and called differently. If you add ASIO Positionning Protocol to CoreAudio that'll be called ASIO. CoreAudio lacks APP.