What is sped up/improved by an Audio Interface?

[Marmelador]

I have a MacBook Pro (4 x 2,5 GHz / 16GB RAM) and a Steinberg UR12 Interface.

I am thinking about buying a new external audio interface. But I wonder if it will actually improve my Live experience. I am unsure about the relationship between CPU speed and audio interface quality.
Which of these aspects are determined by the audio interface used?

- Output latency (eg drumming on Push etc)
- Using a higher Sample Rate while keeping latency under control
- Loading a big drum rack into a track
- Playing many MIDI tracks with complex effects simultaneously

[Tarekith]

The first two only.

[Synthbuilder]

Using lower latency settings seems to improve midi timing when sending midi data through Live. That is, playing a midi controller (or external sequencer) and letting Live then send that data out to an external instrument can corrupt the outgoing data. You can get sloppy timing and even hanging notes if continuous controllers are being heavily used. At the lower latencies afforded by the better interfaces the amount of data corruption is minimised. Recorded midi data, thankfully, is sent out the same regardless of the audio interface settings. VSTi playback, either played live or recorded, is also unaffected by this problem.

I have not tested this with Live 10 but every Live version that had midi up to 9 has this problem. It's been confirmed by Ableton - something to do with the way Live packets outgoing midi data giving priority to the audio. It doesn't seem to be considered a problem since I've been moaning about this for years and it's never been fixed. Maybe it is in Live 10...

[yur2die4]

Some interfaces have some really nice hardware built in like quality input and output audio connection and midi in and out. These are convenient when most computers just have basic 1/8” jacks and no midi connectors (except USB). You also get a physical volume, and some interfaces offer built in fx processing which will reduce CPU demand.

[Pitch Black]

An external audio terrace will allow you to do Direct or Zero-Latency monitoring when recording external audio. This is not possible using your computer’s built in soundcard.

[Tarekith]

How about an audio veranda ?

[Marmelador]

How about an audio veranda ?

What is that? Google does not seem to turn anything up.

[Pitch Black]

How about an audio veranda ?

What is that? Google does not seem to turn anything up.

My auto-correct nightmare: "audio terrace" for audio interface.

Tarekith's reply: "audio veranda"

My retort: "well... gain staging is important!"


**pause for laughter and applause**

[Marmelador]

How about an audio veranda ?

What is that? Google does not seem to turn anything up.

My auto-correct nightmare: "audio terrace" for audio interface.

Tarekith's reply: "audio veranda"

My retort: "well... gain staging is important!"


**pause for laughter and applause**

But I already have one. My question is about how a better one will improve Lives performance.

[Tarekith]

How about an audio veranda ?

What is that? Google does not seem to turn anything up.

My auto-correct nightmare: "audio terrace" for audio interface.

Tarekith's reply: "audio veranda"

My retort: "well... gain staging is important!"


**pause for laughter and applause**

Glad I didn't I didn't use terrace!

[jestermgee]

How about an audio veranda ?

What is that? Google does not seem to turn anything up.

My auto-correct nightmare: "audio terrace" for audio interface.

Tarekith's reply: "audio veranda"

My retort: "well... gain staging is important!"


**pause for laughter and applause**

Then the poor chap that googled it

[Nokatus]

A more efficient audio interface (as in, being more efficient as a whole, including the drivers) will have a positive performance impact on all realtime audio tasks. It naturally won't effect the loading speed of complex instruments, but it will have an effect on how many instrument/effect instances you are able to use, especially at low latencies. How much of a difference, it depends on what interface you are upgrading from, and what interface you are replacing it with. The change can be quite dramatic, or quite minuscule, depending on the interface

[login]

The problem is that the only one better than the steinberg would be an RME, steinberg is already quite good at drivers in both Windows and Mac. RME is better but on Mac the difference between both isn't as huge as on windows. Focusrite, Motu, or apogee won't deliver better performance than Steinberg.

In my experience RME could for example allow you a smaller buffer size, if you are at 128 it could allow 64, but that would be it. Maybe if you remain at 128 it will allow less clicks and pops with more tracks.

But a Babyface Pro is like 7 times the cost of a UR12, and it won't be 7 times better.

Your system specs are high so I really doubt it can get significantly better with any other audio interface, maybe streamline your project.

[Stromkraft]

But a Babyface Pro is like 7 times the cost of a UR12, and it won't be 7 times better.

There's also the original Babyface. No need to go pro as this is already great (I'm a very biased and happy owner and user since years). And RME keeps releasing driver updates…

[jlgrimes]

I have a MacBook Pro (4 x 2,5 GHz / 16GB RAM) and a Steinberg UR12 Interface.

I am thinking about buying a new external audio interface. But I wonder if it will actually improve my Live experience. I am unsure about the relationship between CPU speed and audio interface quality.
Which of these aspects are determined by the audio interface used?

- Output latency (eg drumming on Push etc)
- Using a higher Sample Rate while keeping latency under control
- Loading a big drum rack into a track
- Playing many MIDI tracks with complex effects simultaneously

I think it depends on what you are trying to do.

If you are on a Mac, you will already have low latency for general soft synth playing in most cases.

Even on PC using asio4all will give you low latency but an interface usually can get you lower latency but it depends on the interface. Not every interface have great low latency performance.

Connection type, driver quality, interface chipset, interface niche all plays a role.

If you are recording live audio, doing effects processing on instruments live, need advanced routing/monitoring options or the lowest possible latency then an interface is helpful but honestly for playing synth a using a stock Mac or PC with ASIO4ALL might be all you need and will help keep your setup simple for live performance but it depends on DAW, OS, Computer used.

I would weigh all options you can afford vs what you need.

If you aren't taking your show on the. Road and not recording you might not need one.