Best soundcard for Ableton Live?

[redglass]

The Metric Halio is way too expensive. and the Fireface is too expensive too
Is Echo ok? Ive used a Gina 20bit some years ago and I was very pleased with the sound of the converters and the stable drivers. But the breakout box was poorly made.. the connections broke off.. and it had crackles and noise when a wire was connected.



Is it a good idea to work with ADAT only? Lets say I buy an RME with 2x ADAT in/out and connect an Alesis AI3 and an MPC4000 (and an Apogee later instead of the alesis .... or maybe 3x ADAT in/out). Im gonna have more digital pops, no? And maybe samplerate issues?
(I am not familiar with digital connections and clock)

Hi,

I use the RME Hammerfall DSP 96/52 and I am very happy with it. I connected the SPDIF out of the Hammerfall with my DAT-REC SPDIF in-analog out to the mixer and monitors. To convert my external synths, I use a Alesis HD 24 (analog in) via ADAT to the Hammerfall. It works fine. Thats why I would take the Alesis AI3 or you can also look at the Behringer ADA 8000 (with mic-preamps) - I know, nobody likes Behringer, but this product is worth its money.

Good luck

Bastian

[Lamont]

The RME card looks very good!
How is the latency? I use Live as a effects rack and looper.
I have a M-Audio audiphile soundcard which is allright, but the latency is quite high (7ms), when I decrease the output latency I get a lot of pops and glitchy sounds.

How does the RME soundcard measure up?

[redglass]

The RME card looks very good!
How is the latency? I use Live as a effects rack and looper.
I have a M-Audio audiphile soundcard which is allright, but the latency is quite high (7ms), when I decrease the output latency I get a lot of pops and glitchy sounds.

How does the RME soundcard measure up?

Hi,

well. Using 44,1 kHz/256 samples using, the latency is 6 ms (RME-display) and 11,7 ms (live's global latency). The RME-cards are probably more stable, using less samples (buffer-size). It is recommended, not to use 2 different soundcards of different manufacturers in one PC, like RME and M-Audio. 2 different drivers could cause problems. So you have to make a choice.

Greetings Bastian

ps: suggestion: use the m-audio card with a second-pc as a slave, midi from rme to m-audio, spdif-out from m-audio to rmne spdif in. dont know, if it works, but worth to try.

[ikke]

The RME card looks very good!
How is the latency? I use Live as a effects rack and looper.
I have a M-Audio audiphile soundcard which is allright, but the latency is quite high (7ms), when I decrease the output latency I get a lot of pops and glitchy sounds.

How does the RME soundcard measure up?

RME has the better drivers with the lowest latency. I m just wondering if the AD/DAs are worth it

I do the same as you with Live (buildup tracks with records and apply fx in realtime and drum sounds on the mpc) and I have an audiophile as well (pci) but Im on pc. I have no pops and nasty hickups or audio dropouts. I live loop with fx with an input latency of 2 ms.... I think you need to finetune your Macintosh a little bit.

Btw, be sure if you buy an RME, its compatible with your Mac. Cause I think the Multiface & Digiface isnt (or wasnt) compatible with Apples

Good luck

[jonpaul]

Hmmmmm. I'm looking at these now. I bought an Edirol UA101 cos I wanted a card to record bands and also that I could use with Ableton out live. I wasn't happy with the fact you can't send cues to a dedicated headphone jack; only an output jack. Bit queit ya see Does the rfe allow you to send cues to a deadicated headphone jack i.e. with its own rotary pot for level.

[TheAnimal]

+1 for RME

[Lamont]

Thanks MrMoneypenny. Looks like I'll be getting the RME 400 in the near future.

[mikemc]

wtf -- i'm confused -- who is asking the question/author of the thread? from the display it seems like it's ikke, but then he's answering the question.

[redglass]

wtf -- i'm confused -- who is asking the question/author of the thread? from the display it seems like it's ikke, but then he's answering the question.

Don`t worry folks,

this item is worth to make suggestions and collect them. I forgot to mention an important thing:

The RME cards support a rme-freeware software called digichek (see at rme-audio - downloads - tools). You can have one for the firefice 400 and another one for the pci-cards. It has a few very helpful tools like a spectrum-analyser (real-time) and a vector-audio-scope. Its all for free (ok, you need to get a rme-card) . As far as I know the calculation is done with its own hardware, i.e that it doesnt use cpu-power!

Greetings Bastian

[ikke]

wtf -- i'm confused -- who is asking the question/author of the thread? from the display it seems like it's ikke, but then he's answering the question.

dude is hijacking me thread

[ikke]

The Metric Halio is way too expensive. and the Fireface is too expensive too
Is Echo ok? Ive used a Gina 20bit some years ago and I was very pleased with the sound of the converters and the stable drivers. But the breakout box was poorly made.. the connections broke off.. and it had crackles and noise when a wire was connected.



Is it a good idea to work with ADAT only? Lets say I buy an RME with 2x ADAT in/out and connect an Alesis AI3 and an MPC4000 (and an Apogee later instead of the alesis .... or maybe 3x ADAT in/out). Im gonna have more digital pops, no? And maybe samplerate issues?
(I am not familiar with digital connections and clock)

Hi,

I use the RME Hammerfall DSP 96/52 and I am very happy with it. I connected the SPDIF out of the Hammerfall with my DAT-REC SPDIF in-analog out to the mixer and monitors. To convert my external synths, I use a Alesis HD 24 (analog in) via ADAT to the Hammerfall. It works fine. Thats why I would take the Alesis AI3 or you can also look at the Behringer ADA 8000 (with mic-preamps) - I know, nobody likes Behringer, but this product is worth its money.

Good luck

Bastian

Are you working with different digital clocks? If so, how is that going performance wise? And do you experience any audio glitches or other nastyness?

[redglass]

The Metric Halio is way too expensive. and the Fireface is too expensive too
Is Echo ok? Ive used a Gina 20bit some years ago and I was very pleased with the sound of the converters and the stable drivers. But the breakout box was poorly made.. the connections broke off.. and it had crackles and noise when a wire was connected.



Is it a good idea to work with ADAT only? Lets say I buy an RME with 2x ADAT in/out and connect an Alesis AI3 and an MPC4000 (and an Apogee later instead of the alesis .... or maybe 3x ADAT in/out). Im gonna have more digital pops, no? And maybe samplerate issues?
(I am not familiar with digital connections and clock)

Hi,

I use the RME Hammerfall DSP 96/52 and I am very happy with it. I connected the SPDIF out of the Hammerfall with my DAT-REC SPDIF in-analog out to the mixer and monitors. To convert my external synths, I use a Alesis HD 24 (analog in) via ADAT to the Hammerfall. It works fine. Thats why I would take the Alesis AI3 or you can also look at the Behringer ADA 8000 (with mic-preamps) - I know, nobody likes Behringer, but this product is worth its money.

Good luck

Bastian

Are you working with different digital clocks? If so, how is that going performance wise? And do you experience any audio glitches or other nastyness?

No,

the RME is always master (to the Dat and the HD 24).
to mahe the HD 24 Slave, I connect one Adat Out of the RME-Card to an ADAT-input of the HD 24. The slave-devive needs an ADAT in to get the sync frm the master-device.

Greetings Bastian

[Schuft]

3 RMEs in a row
...
-Ben

Ben, are you able to connect several RMEs in a row and use them as ONE (virtual) audio interface in Ableton Live ?

regards
Schuft