what is an affordable audio interface with lowest latency?

[scheffkoch]

...although i have a firewire external hd i don't plan on buying a dock especially for that...i bought an usb-c dock from plugable but i had to send it back because there was a problem with the power delivery...
what i tested last weekend was the usb-c to usb adapter from apple to connect my old usb hub (to connect maschine, push and two ipads) and the usb-c to thunderbolt 2 adapter from apple to connect my rme multiface...both were absolutely rock solid...we had two live sessions of 1 hour each with zero problems!

[fishmonkey]

the dongle situation is pretty tricky at the moment. personally, and especially for a live machine, i would get a previous gen model and avoid dongle hell for now. in a couple of years the whole Thunderbolt 3/USB-C thing should be more settled.

[makaruk]

Thanks @sheffkoch @fishmonkey for replies

Just to confirm some facts - maybe they will be of use to other people.

I just tested my old RME Fireface 400 interface with the new Mac Book Pro 2016 15' Touch Bar edition in the Apple Store - works OK no problems at all.

The connection chain was: Apple Thunderbolt 3 -> Thunderbolt 2 adapter, Apple Thunderbolt 2 -> Firewire 800 adapter, a standard Firewire 800 to 400 cable.

I tested it using external power supply on the RME - don't know how it would work without the ext power supply - I heard that the dongles don't give enough power to the device.

The latency was very low, although more than often I experienced a click/glitch when arming channels in ableton. A quick search on this forum allowed me to eliminate it partially by disabling Reduce Latency When Monitoring option in live. However in short buffer settings (like 64) and in high sampling rate settings (96000 Hz) the click/glitch is still there... (on both RME and internal audio card).

Interestingly enough I compared it with MBPro 2016 Retina 2.2Ghz - the latency was still low, but I couldn't select very high sampling rate options for RME in the audio driver settings in Live (96 Hz was max on 2015 Retina) (in the MBPro 2016 Touch Bar I could go as high as around 176,400 Hz sampling rate!).

This still does not solve my problem whether or not the 2016 MBPro is the right investment for the future as regards music and video performance - the dongle nightmare I could experience on tour scares me off quite a bit... Hence - any advice would be welcome!!

[scheffkoch]

...if you can wait for a year, then wait...there's possibly a new mbp with a 32gb ram option coming...other than that: the 2016 mbp is awesome!...the specs don't look like an upgrade on paper but the lower power consumption / less heat of the cpu is a massive advantage...really...i would say throttling because of heat issues is a thing of the past...

[makaruk]

thanks @sheffkoch

I actually can't wait longer than until the end of january 2017 It's just more economic for me tax wise now and I know I won't have such next opportunity to upgrade my 2010 MBPro anytime soon...

My hands on tests confirm what You say - the speed and efficiency is totally great! Essential for working on stage with video and sound.

My ONLY concern now is the connectivity: I often travel with gigs, work with old equipments in theatres or age-old techniques that will NEVER upgrade to USB C So - if I forget a dongle then I'm screwed

[makaruk]

i would say throttling because of heat issues is a thing of the past..

what exactly do You mean by that?

[scheffkoch]

...when a computer gets hot the cpu gets throttled (e.g. by reducing the cpu's turbo boost) so that the computer doesn't get damaged...this could be the case e.g. when you do heavy work for a long period of time (in a live situation)...on my old mbp i was able to reduce the computer's heat by disabling the dgpu and only running on the igpu...
the new (late 2016) mbp (resp. the skylake cpu and new amd gpu) run so much cooler that the fans kick in much later (and even when they kick in you can hardly hear them!)...

[scheffkoch]

...regarding the adapter / docks: i don't know why it's such a big problem for so many people...on my old mbp i had an usb dongle, thunderbolt and power supply connected to my computer...now i could have one dock connected to my computer for all of that...as long as there is no "perfect" dock for my needs on the market i just work with apple's standard adapters...usb-c to usb-a for my old usb dock (to connect push, maschine and ipads) and usb-c to thunderbolt for my soundcard...both work perfectly fine!...

[makaruk]

Thanks for the info sheffkoch

It now seems like a reasonable solution for me - and when some new docks are on the market I could just upgrade...

Did you experience the same as me while testing - the clicks/glitches when arming tracks in Ableton? Or is it plainly the software issue and a matter of disabling Delay Compensation and Reduced Latency when Monitoring options in the software?

[scheffkoch]

...no clicks/glitches here when arming tracks...

[makaruk]

OK thanks sheffkoch - must be a configuration of Ableton then - I'll investigate.

[makaruk]

Perhaps this info will be of use to others:

I just made a comparison test on a 2016 MBP Touch Bar, 15inch, 2.6ghz on Ableton Live, 44channels of software instruments, tested when idle:

44100 khz sample rate, 512 buffer
RME Fireface 400- 13.2 ms latency
Focusrite Clarett 4Pre - 12.2 ms latency

88200 khz sample rate, 64 buffer
RME Fireface 400- 3.2 ms latency
Focusrite Clarett 4Pre - 1.24 ms latency

Playback and playing software instruments live with the config above without problems. Reduced latency when monitoring must be turned off to avoid clicks when arming tracks.