USB audio interfaces that work with Windows 7

[notbryanadams]

I wasn't able to find much info with the search function regarding Windows 7 versatility with audio interfaces, though I'm not very good with the search function. What I'm looking for is a simple audio interface that is compatible with Win7 that works with USB and has a very low latency. I'd like to run a few live instruments into Ableton that in-turn will be modified by abletons' effects. I'm hoping I'll be able to play the instruments and have ableton alter their sounds with minimal latency, zero if possible. Most of this will be done with a pair of headphones on, but I'd like to ability to run everything into a single pair of monitors if the opportunity arrived. Built-in effects would be novel but far from a necessity. Should the day arrive that I have a computer with Firewire, having the built into the interface as well would be wonderful, though I know this is beginning to ask a little much from a $300 piece of hardware.

I'm looking for advice from others that are using a similar setup and would love to hear some feedback as to what has worked for them thus far. I've heard nothing but applause for anything MOTU but it has a lot of features I'll rarely use.

If there's a topic elsewhere on this forum that covers this, please post that as well. Any and all information would be appreciated.

[Faldoe]

I'm using a EM-U 0404. Though they haven't released Win7 drivers, they haven't cause they say the last updated driver they released works fine in 7. I haven't had any terrible issues with it. Every now and then I loose audio - sounds like a ring modulator, not sure if that is on account of the Audio Driver or something in Ableton. Anyways, its a good interface, good preamps. It doesn't have enough outputs for my liking, other than that, I got no complaints..

[michaeldodd]

have a look at the focusrite saffire 6 usb. it's a great little interface; the fact it's usb shouldn't matter to you as you don't need the bandwidth afforded by firewire unless you are dealing with multiple i/o, and it has great mic pres aswell should you ever need them. rock solid windows 7 drivers and quite a sturdy unit well suited for both studio and mobile use. can't recommend it enough!

[agent314]

I'm using the Cakewalk/Roland UA-25EX. http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/UA25EX

24bit/96khz (although only half-duplex for 96), 2 inputs with great preamps, solid Win7 drivers (both 32 and 64bit), MIDI I/O, SPDIF I/O, okay onboard compressor, phantom powered, bus-powered with very nice latency response (at least, on my system).

All for $250, and less with coupons/deals you can find.

Been using it for 6months, between Win7 Home premium (32 and 64-bit) and Ultimate (64-bit), and had no complaints.

[mbenigni]

...sounds like a ring modulator...

I've started having this same problem (and for the record, I think this qualifies as a "terrible issue" ) with my Native Instruments Audio Kontrol, along with all kinds of weirdness ("Device is already in use" type stuff) when I try to reconfigure sampling rate/bit depth. I think it's because I've now got Windows set up to use this device as its default sound card, as well as assigning it as the audio device in Live. I'd expect as much except that this nonsense persists even when Live isn't running. (Previously I had monitors with two inputs each, so I could run Windows audio through the onboard Mobo sound and to the 2nd inputs, but when I upgraded monitors I lost that luxury.)

Whatever you're using, if you have trouble, try getting Windows audio off the device and see if that doesn't improve matters. You will of course, have to improvise with a mixer or 2nd pair of speakers for your other audio needs, or reconfigure sound options back and forth between sessions... which is a total bummer. I do wish I could just find some drivers that would straighten this out.

[notbryanadams]

...sounds like a ring modulator...

I've started having this same problem (and for the record, I think this qualifies as a "terrible issue" ) with my Native Instruments Audio Kontrol, along with all kinds of weirdness ("Device is already in use" type stuff) when I try to reconfigure sampling rate/bit depth. I think it's because I've now got Windows set up to use this device as its default sound card, as well as assigning it as the audio device in Live. I'd expect as much except that this nonsense persists even when Live isn't running. (Previously I had monitors with two inputs each, so I could run Windows audio through the onboard Mobo sound and to the 2nd inputs, but when I upgraded monitors I lost that luxury.)

Whatever you're using, if you have trouble, try getting Windows audio off the device and see if that doesn't improve matters. You will of course, have to improvise with a mixer or 2nd pair of speakers for your other audio needs, or reconfigure sound options back and forth between sessions... which is a total bummer. I do wish I could just find some drivers that would straighten this out.

Can you post your computer specs? I was considering the Audio Kontrol but have heard about this from more than one person.

[deepee]

Not really advice, but this site is useful as a reference for compatibility...

http://rainrecording.co.uk/windows-watch/

[mbenigni]

Not really advice, but this site is useful as a reference for compatibility...
http://rainrecording.co.uk/windows-watch/

Extemely helpful - thank you!

Can you post your computer specs? I was considering the Audio Kontrol but have heard about this from more than one person.

It's just a homegrown PC based on an Intel Q9550 chip on a Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R motherboard. I think based on my experience, and the chart deepee posted, the Audio Kontrol is something you'll want to avoid for the time being. Native Instruments may sort this out eventually, but they are *not* a company you want to hold your breath waiting for. The general situation w/ the AK seems to be that the ASIO drivers function OK talking exclusively with Live, but if you want it to double as your Windows sound card you're in for trouble.

[mbenigni]

So by last night I was fed up, uninstalled the Audio Kontrol drivers. (Nice coincidence that this thread popped up the same week my system started griefing me.) I had a Mackie Onyx Satellite in storage, which I had purchased because of its alledged compatibility with Vista 64-bit last year. (Mackie did indeed have Vista 64 drivers, but Vista was such a handful otherwise that I never used that setup.) Anyway, despite the fact that the Onyx Satellite is discontinued, Mackie has already got a driver supporting Windows 7 32 and 64-bit up on their website. I downloaded, installed, and preliminary tests (as a Windows interface) have been positive. I'll be burning this in over the weekend and will post back with my results. The Onyx Satellite is a cool 2-channel deal with a docking station and lots of monitoring features for < $200 - if you can find one these days. The only downside vs. the Audio Kontrol is that it doesn't have an integrated MIDI interface.

Anyway, just a PSA since this unit isn't on the compatibility list above. I'll be back with further info once I've done some Ableton recording via ASIO.

[Tekkas]

Hi all. Just to let you know i installed WIN7 64 bit a couple of days ago and have been running ableton 8.1.3 through my
Audio Kontrol 1 and it has been smooth sailing so far.Latency is not great (18.5 ms overall latency)but i might be able to get it down with some tweaking.I did however get an error trying to install the drivers for the AK1 stating that the installation was not successful but strangely enough it appears to be doing what it is supposed to with no issues thus far.

regards,
Marty.

[smaucher]

Unfortunately all the Windows drivers for USB audio devices lack stability to handle a certain amount of tracks/plugins/effects etc. together with the CPU. Also the USB chipset busses (mostly just one) in standard and budget laptops are really chock-full as there are many devices which are plugged "internally" to USB like built-in smart-card readers, security chips, HD audio devices and others. You really have to dive deep into the system to make it work smoothly for audio production.

I've quit using USB a few days ago and switched over to Firewire - works like a charm! Just kept my M-Audio FastTrack pro for "field" Recordings.

(and believe me, if I had the budget, I would buy a MAC book pro!)

[leedsquietman]

Not completely true.

For desktop computers, with a TI based firewire chip, this is true but this is not what you get with PC laptops.

The RME Fireface UC usb 2.0 often gives better performance than the FF400 firewire device it is based upon and also has a better version of the Totalmix routing software.

Firewire in PC laptops is often a far worse problem than USB, with super cheap generic controllers from ricoh, ene, o2, and various other generic manufacturers, often integrated with expresscard buss, SD card and various other hardware interfacing, and leaving you with no upgrade option (firewire to expresscard controllers don't work because the expresscard is integrated with the internal firewire, so everything still has to pass through the crappy firewire). These non Texas Instruments chipsets compromise performance much more than USB. Most PC laptop computers with firewire have SDcard and smartcard integrated into firewire, not USB, these days.

At least the USB busses are all one common standard (Intel), whereas several cheap crappy firewire chipsets with varying levels of support and performance cause many more issues, IMHO. (you can always disable devices in control panel hogging a USB buss but cannot do this with devices on an integrated firewire chip). PC laptops also tend to use 4 pin mini FW ports which cannot provide buss powering and can be more flaky than 6 pin FW as found on macs (even macbooks) and desktop PCs.

I have run an Audio Kontrol 1 on my laptop (my buddies' AK1 not mine) on Vista 32 with 6.8 seconds latency in Live with a medium sized set (16 tracks, 4 vst synths, several audio FX) with no issues (core2duo T8100 dell xps1530 4GB ram, Vista 32 sp2 Ultimate).

[Tekkas]

Guess i shoulda mentioned i'm not using a lappy.

[mbenigni]

So, dug in with the Onyx Satellite last night and it's solid, with a couple of caveats. (There are *always* caveats.) First is that I was getting the old snap-crackle-and-pop treatment during mouse movement, changes in graphics, etc. and managed to improve matter by doubling my input buffer size. Fact is, I never experimented with this with the Audio Kontrol (I adjusted Live latency, but not Windows 7 buffer size) so it's possible that this would also have resolved the "vocoder" effect described previously.

The other caveat is that the Onyx insists on granting exclusive control to Live while Live is open. In other words, I can't pop over to explorer and listen to an MP3 for reference while I'm working in Live; there is no Windows sound support until Live is closed. I may be getting confused, but I'm pretty sure I was able to do so with the Audio Kontrol. I know this is going to wind up irking sooner rather than later.

My original advice still holds - if you can, use one interface (eg. outboard ASIO) for Live, and another (eg. integrated mobo WDM stuff) as your Windows sound device. So... can anyone recommend a very small 2X stereo mixer, preferably passive??

[creature]

I have this puppy

http://www.lexiconpro.com/product.php?id=153

and it has windows 7 drivers.

Very nice and straight forward interface