Does using an external audio interface improve CPU?

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imagineowl
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Does using an external audio interface improve CPU?

Post by imagineowl » Wed Oct 15, 2014 10:37 pm

Does it really make a difference? Performance wise, is there something that audio interface does better than the built in one? Does Firewire, USB 3.0, thunderboldt effect anything? I'm not really recording more producing using synths and plugins.

I get dropouts 4-5 instruments deep and have to constantly freeze everything and wondering if this would make a difference.
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Re: Does using an external audio interface improve CPU?

Post by login » Thu Oct 16, 2014 12:44 am

I suppose you are on windows, have you tried using the Asio4all driver?

A good driver can give better stability to a system and make proper use of the resources, specially at low latencies but overall performance depends a lot in the CPU.

imagineowl
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Re: Does using an external audio interface improve CPU?

Post by imagineowl » Thu Oct 16, 2014 5:27 am

Thanks, I'm on OSX
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Pitch Black
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Re: Does using an external audio interface improve CPU?

Post by Pitch Black » Thu Oct 16, 2014 6:18 am

Hi imagineowl,

What buffer size (latency) are you running?

What instruments/plugins are you using that causes your system to falter with 5 tracks?

With a MBP Retina + SSD + 8GB you should be getting MUCH MUCH better performance, regardless of the audio hardware.

Something's seriously not right here. More info please... :)
Last edited by Pitch Black on Thu Oct 16, 2014 6:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Steve Glen
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Re: Does using an external audio interface improve CPU?

Post by Steve Glen » Thu Oct 16, 2014 6:23 am

Yes, it can. I don't know the solid details of it, but for my OSX experience it seems like when the sound (soundcard) processing is done externally, it can take a load off the general cpu.

Results are lower latency and lower (no) dropouts with my fireface UCX, firewire or usb connected. OSX 10.5.8 or osx 10.9.5

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Re: Does using an external audio interface improve CPU?

Post by login » Thu Oct 16, 2014 1:35 pm

Steve Glen wrote:Yes, it can. I don't know the solid details of it, but for my OSX experience it seems like when the sound (soundcard) processing is done externally, it can take a load off the general cpu.

Results are lower latency and lower (no) dropouts with my fireface UCX, firewire or usb connected. OSX 10.5.8 or osx 10.9.5
Just to be clear: No processing is done in the audio interface.

The difference is that the audio application will use the interface drivers wich are better designed for working with audio and make better use of resources.

The only things that are done in the interface is the AD/DA conversion.

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Re: Does using an external audio interface improve CPU?

Post by imagineowl » Thu Oct 16, 2014 4:26 pm

Pitch Black wrote:Hi imagineowl,

What buffer size (latency) are you running?

What instruments/plugins are you using that causes your system to falter with 5 tracks?

With a MBP Retina + SSD + 8GB you should be getting MUCH MUCH better performance, regardless of the audio hardware.

Something's seriously not right here. More info please... :)

I'm at 512 buffer and usually use a mixture of Massive, Omnisphere(big CPU hog), Sylenth. I use FabFilter eq pretty much on every track along with a couple others.

I wonder if switching to the 64-bit version of live may improve some of these dropouts.
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alpertt
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Re: Does using an external audio interface improve CPU?

Post by alpertt » Fri Oct 17, 2014 6:09 pm

Disable spotlight, turn off wifi, disable FileVault protection (if enabled), disable all energy saving settings (computer sleep & hdd sleep).

AFAIK 64 bit is all about ram, not cpu. But since you have 8Gig ram, i think you should use 64 bit. At the moment you can only use 4 Gig with live.

Steve Glen
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Re: Does using an external audio interface improve CPU?

Post by Steve Glen » Sat Oct 18, 2014 2:14 am

Just to be clear: No processing is done in the audio interface.

The difference is that the audio application will use the interface drivers wich are better designed for working with audio and make better use of resources.

The only things that are done in the interface is the AD/DA conversion.
Good to know

david.barker
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Re: Does using an external audio interface improve CPU?

Post by david.barker » Sat Oct 18, 2014 6:00 am

Hi there :D

Just to make a worthy mention

In Lives preferences,you can use the built in tone,to set the correct buffer size,but adjusting the slider

Also grab the free Latencey checker,(non commercial use,of course)
that will look at your system for any high latency that could cause glitches etc

http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

I had problems like this,but I had to adjust the power management settings on my PC.

Hope that helped

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