low latency windows 7 64bit usb soundcard recommendations

[gilesw]

Hi all,

I would have thought this would have been an easy google but it seems not.. I've been looking at various soundcards for my new laptop purchase but none of them seem ideal:-

m-audio transit
Terratec DMX 6 Fire USB
EMU 0202 USB 2.0

I'm not fussed by multiple inputs at all I just want it for monitoring what I'm producing.

Or should I just see how I get on with the onboard and asio4all?

cheers,

g.

[gilesw]

I see that m-audio have just released a 64bit driver:-

Transit USB 11/14/2009 6.0.1_5.10.0.5131 Transit_6.0.1_5.10.0.5131.exe

[XTremeDaddy]

I've been shopping the same. Most existing cards had a hard time with Vista 64 bit drivers and/or have many complaints for their Windows 7 drivers. I've found good Windows 7 64 bit feedback on:

Anything MOTU - but expensive
Edirol UA-25EX

I've also been watching the new Focusrite Saffire 6 which comes out tomorrow and also advertises a Win7 64 bit driver - but no reviews or feedback I can find yet.

Hope this helps.
EG

[drsooty]

From personal experience I highly recommend you do not get anything from terratec... Poor overall quality imho..

[chis]

Terratec made pretty solid PCI cards, but I had one of their firewire products and it worked sporadically.

Don't go USB, would be my recommendation, consider an Expresscard-based solution. Echo Indigo IOx, or if you need more connectivity, something by RME.

[leedsquietman]

If it's for a PC LAPTOP and you don't have a TI or VIA firewire chipset (99% of machines built in the last 2 years don't), then definately do NOT go the firewire route. The Echo Indigo is a great card for low latency playback but it does not have any preamps, meaning you have to buy a preamp or run your audio through a mixer first. And then, it's only one channel in.

The RME Fireface UC (USB 2.0) actually outperforms the Fireface 400 (the firewire interface the FF UC is based upon) in many systems, and the Edirol UA25-EX, EMU 0404 USB and Native Instrument Audio Kontrol 1 all have decent low latency performance (although not sure about win 7 and can't be arsed to google). If you only need 2-4 inputs these work fine.

If you have a desktop system with a TI based firewire chipset, or go out and buy a PCIe to FW card with TI chipset (costs around 30 bucks) then a firewire based system is better (although the Fireface UC is still better but has a max of 8 inputs). However, one thing firewire can do which USB 2.0 can't do (as well) is stream/record lots of simultaneous IO (say you needed more than 8 inputs).

[mode:masters]

The only one of these I've used is the Edirol UA-25.

Good cheap interface, good drivers, but latency isn't spectacular. Useable though.

Go Firewire if you can.

[leedsquietman]

Or get an RME fireface UC, which can run as low as 32 samples on win xp (48 samples on Vista and win 7 and 14 samples on Mac OSX). The Native Instruments Audio Kontrol too can run very low latencies.

Most firewire interfaces of similar price run similar or worse latencies than the Edirol UA25-EX.

And while Mac users are OK with their firewire solutions, PC laptops are typically fitted with super cheap integrated firewire/SD card/expresscard which are not designed for performance, ruling it out as a viable option. Even getting an expresscard to firewire card with TI chipset is no good because the expresscard is integrated within the FW buss anyway meaning it still has to pass through the dud circuitry.

[mudmaxx]

Sometimes if your driver isnt working at all or at least not very good. definitely check out www.asio4all.com - i have a saffire pro 10IO and it works much better then the native drivers from focusrite.

[mr.ergonomics]

RME fireface UC +1, but I guess you want a more "money friendly" solution, right?