Q: Tc Electronic Impact Twin - Hot or not?

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Post Reply
Silence
Posts: 508
Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2005 6:25 pm

Q: Tc Electronic Impact Twin - Hot or not?

Post by Silence » Tue Mar 23, 2010 6:21 pm

Just curious, saw it...thought i might get it...

i got the SOS review for 99p and shit but it didnt answer my questions and i have no practical experience with Tc stuff...

how´s the latency (roundtrip)? Conversion?

Curious if i should get that or the apogee duet...

but i do like the Ultralite too... but i dont think i need all those ins and outs... the outs are the ones i dont need...


another boring "is this soundcard the shit or not?" :P
MBP - Ultralite MK3 - Genelec 8020 & 8030 - BCR2000 - padKONTROL - NordRack 2

monobeach
Posts: 290
Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2008 9:03 am

Re: Q: Tc Electronic Impact Twin - Hot or not?

Post by monobeach » Tue Mar 23, 2010 7:03 pm

Hi!

I am using the precursor of the Impact Twin, the Konnekt 24D - on PC, Windows XP prof., SP2, since 2 years now. Never had any problems with it, and getting an acceptable latency of around 5 ms (I don't use a lot of midi, though)

the preamps are thought to be pretty clean and the conversion seems to be very good.

The routing possibilites within the Impact Twin are quite good, as I see in the description.
I think, for the money, you get a lot of quality regarding the preamps and the conversion. Also, the TC effects are very usable (channel strip and reverb) - from the manual, I didn't understand, if you could use he channel strip and the reverb after recording (like a plugin) for processing the recorded audio. But with the new drivers, you get the M40 reverb, Resfilter and Assimilator as plug-ins.
I also used the Konnekt 24D in combination with an ADAT interface to record 10 channels simultaneously - worked like a charm.

Some people have problems with general perfromance, though, and TC is not too fast with driver development, although they published a couple of new drivers since the konnekt series was released (maybe also take a look at the forum)
another thing is, that not all firewire cards seem to work well with the konnekts. A Texas Instruments chipset is recommended (my laptop has that, and as I said, I never had any problems).
edit: I see, you're on mac. the agere chipsets seem to work fine with most konnekts, there are no 64bit drivers for mac available, yet.
see here: http://forum.tcelectronic.com/viewforum.php?id=3

Another downside is, that the headphone output is hardwired to the main outs 1/2. Thus, the main volume knob on the front controls the volume for both simultaneously. A solution to control both volumes independently would be either using the TC level pilot (as I do, feels awesome) or using the main outs 3/4 as your main outs, but then, you could control the volume only in the software (TC contol panel or your daw)
This would also be the way to route when cueing (e.g. in Live). Also, the inputs 3/4 on the rear are not very hot (use it for synths and it's o.k.)

Stability- and performance-wise, there may be some problems, but I think only for a minority of users. But as always - best to try before you buy. I didn't compare it to it's direct competitors (Duet or Ultralite, as I see it - the Ultralite providing a lot more in- and outputs). Latency-wise, I think RME interfaces (firefaces) work best. Would I buy the konnekt again? Probably yes.

my 2 cents, hope it helps with your decision
Last edited by monobeach on Tue Mar 23, 2010 7:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

maze23a
Posts: 485
Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2004 4:29 pm
Location: bremen
Contact:

Re: Q: Tc Electronic Impact Twin - Hot or not?

Post by maze23a » Tue Mar 23, 2010 7:12 pm

I have an eye on the Impact Twin as well but haven't
read some reviews up to now.
Anybody has more infos?

Silence
Posts: 508
Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2005 6:25 pm

Re: Q: Tc Electronic Impact Twin - Hot or not?

Post by Silence » Tue Mar 23, 2010 7:29 pm

thanx for the info!

I have the TI chipset on this mbp.

But i wonder how it would work latency wise cuz i do use midi.

How is Assimilator. is it any good or somewhat of a gimmick?
MBP - Ultralite MK3 - Genelec 8020 & 8030 - BCR2000 - padKONTROL - NordRack 2

ethios4
Posts: 5377
Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2003 6:28 am

Re: Q: Tc Electronic Impact Twin - Hot or not?

Post by ethios4 » Tue Mar 23, 2010 7:31 pm

I'm also interested in the Impact Twin....to new for many reviews I guess.

It seems very comparable to the Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 DSP. The Saffire has better software routing capabilities, and a nice studio modeling setup for the headphones output (to simulate the sound if being in a nice studio in front of nice monitors). I'd guess the Impact Twin has a bit better preamps/convertors, but that's purely based on marketing propaganda since no user reviews out yet.

Anyway, the Saffire....
http://www.focusrite.com/products/saffi ... ro_24_dsp/

Silence
Posts: 508
Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2005 6:25 pm

Re: Q: Tc Electronic Impact Twin - Hot or not?

Post by Silence » Tue Mar 23, 2010 7:38 pm

what i wonder is, how the latency compares between the Saffire Pro 24 DSP and the Impact Twin.
MBP - Ultralite MK3 - Genelec 8020 & 8030 - BCR2000 - padKONTROL - NordRack 2

monobeach
Posts: 290
Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2008 9:03 am

Re: Q: Tc Electronic Impact Twin - Hot or not?

Post by monobeach » Tue Mar 23, 2010 7:51 pm

Silence wrote:thanx for the info!

I have the TI chipset on this mbp.

But i wonder how it would work latency wise cuz i do use midi.

How is Assimilator. is it any good or somewhat of a gimmick?
haven't tried assimilator yet, cause at the moment I am more concerned with composing than mixing. I'd consider more of a gimmick, though. I read some good stuff about the Resfilter
I use midi, too, sometimes. In Live (7), I can get down to 128 samples which gives me a latency of around 5 ms (I had it down to 2.7 ms, I will try again and post the figures - the konnekt is not connected at the moment :) )

rikhyray
Posts: 3644
Joined: Wed Aug 25, 2004 12:13 pm
Contact:

Re: Q: Tc Electronic Impact Twin - Hot or not?

Post by rikhyray » Tue Mar 23, 2010 9:18 pm

monobeach wrote:Hi!
Another downside is, that the headphone output is hardwired to the main outs 1/2. Thus, the main volume knob on the front controls the volume for both simultaneously. A solution to control both volumes independently would be either using the TC level pilot (as I do, feels awesome) or using the main outs 3/4 as your main outs, but then, you could control the volume only in the software (TC contol panel or your daw)
They fixed that routing already in later models,Desktop and Live,so should be in Impact as well.r.
TC sound is superb, Focusrite is using same TC chips (also presonus and M audio) and is Focusrite quality. TC has better latency then Focurite but are really bulky. If in/outs dont matter Duet would be my choice.

BoxDJ
Posts: 261
Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2009 9:38 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada

Re: Q: Tc Electronic Impact Twin - Hot or not?

Post by BoxDJ » Tue Mar 23, 2010 9:34 pm

Anyone have Windows experience with this device?

monobeach
Posts: 290
Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2008 9:03 am

Re: Q: Tc Electronic Impact Twin - Hot or not?

Post by monobeach » Wed Mar 24, 2010 12:52 am

Silence wrote:what i wonder is, how the latency compares between the Saffire Pro 24 DSP and the Impact Twin.
so, I installed the latest drivers and with the Konnekt 24D I cannot go below 128 samples for crackle-free performance (I tried the EIC Strings Ensemble) which results in an input latency of 4.40 ms and an output latency of 4.15 ms giving a global latency of 8.55 ms. I consider this playable, though.
two things to consider: I am on a rather old machine (Pentium M, 1.7 GHz) and I don't know hao the firewire 800 compatibility of the Impact Twin contributes to lower latencies.
what rikhyray says is true, the konnekt 24D is rather bulky and quite heavy...

@BoxDJ: I'm on windows XP - no problems with performance (Konnekt 24D)

monobeach
Posts: 290
Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2008 9:03 am

Re: Q: Tc Electronic Impact Twin - Hot or not?

Post by monobeach » Wed Mar 24, 2010 12:54 am

rikhyray wrote:
monobeach wrote:Hi!
Another downside is, that the headphone output is hardwired to the main outs 1/2. Thus, the main volume knob on the front controls the volume for both simultaneously. A solution to control both volumes independently would be either using the TC level pilot (as I do, feels awesome) or using the main outs 3/4 as your main outs, but then, you could control the volume only in the software (TC contol panel or your daw)
They fixed that routing already in later models,Desktop and Live,so should be in Impact as well.r.
TC sound is superb, Focusrite is using same TC chips (also presonus and M audio) and is Focusrite quality. TC has better latency then Focurite but are really bulky. If in/outs dont matter Duet would be my choice.
I don't know - the Impact manual says the main volume knob controls main outputs 1/2 as well as the headphone output, so I am not too shure if this has really been solved

Post Reply