what firewire interfaces are working well -macbook pro user

mstan420 · Post by **mstan420** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 3:38 am

Hello-

Im a new user for Live 6. I have used live 6 on my pc with a lexicon omega usb interface. Have been having issues with delay and latency. I just got a new macbook pro and have started using live 6 on it. It's working well, however i was just wondering if anyone could recommend a good 0 latency firewire interface? Let me know your thoughts?

Thanks,

Matt

Hardtoe · Post by **Hardtoe** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 4:19 am

anything by motu is good on the mac - Ultralite is what I have and it allows zero latency monitoring of all of it's inputs (plus it sound good and just WORKS!!!)

nonnus · Post by **nonnus** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 4:22 am

beware about audiofire 2/4...

looks promising but some serious issues have been reported on the mbp....

motu ultralite has been considered the cheapest real workhorse availble...
alot of people over here swear over sound quality and driver performance / stability

but i am sure more experienced people like owners can provide you with more info

i am just seriously considering returning my brand new audiofire 4 for an ultralite...

nonnus · Post by **nonnus** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 4:30 am

Hardtoe:
can you please report your latency values please ?
is it possible to work properly at 128 samples or even lower ? (with cpu < 60 %)

btw, the ultralite has alot of ins and outs, most of wich i would not need most of the time

is it possible to disable unused channels or they are always active, and therefore using the limited fw bandwidth ?

in the audiofire for example, despite having fewer channels they seem to be always active, all of the ins and all of the outs
i suppose this will be reflected in latency values and stability as it seems an unnecessary stress on the audio system

hacktheplanet · Post by **hacktheplanet** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 7:40 am

nonnus wrote:Hardtoe:
can you please report your latency values please ?
is it possible to work properly at 128 samples or even lower ? (with cpu < 60 %)

btw, the ultralite has alot of ins and outs, most of wich i would not need most of the time

is it possible to disable unused channels or they are always active, and therefore using the limited fw bandwidth ?

in the audiofire for example, despite having fewer channels they seem to be always active, all of the ins and all of the outs
i suppose this will be reflected in latency values and stability as it seems an unnecessary stress on the audio system

Disabling unused ins/outs reduces CPU usage, so I think it would probably reduce latency as well. You do this in Live.
The Ultralite is awesome. I'm using it on this shitty Dell right now until I can afford a new MBP, and latency is about 7ms.

nonnus · Post by **nonnus** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 8:13 am

thanx,
but i wasn´t talking about the audio setup in live

although it says there that you can save cpu resources by disabling unused channels i see no change at all in cpu usage between having everything on and just 2 outs...

it just seems to me that all audio channels are always streaming thru the firewire bus
this is what i was trying to avoid...

you mention 7ms latency with the ultralite
is it audio out latency or in + out latency ?
is it 128 samples@48khz ?
no ? what is it then ?

heheh, lots of questions...

128 samples@48khz is what i am using right now and live reports 6.71 ms audio out latency

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 12:29 pm

I use an Ultralite with no issue. Typically running at 512 buffer at 44.1. NEver had any issues with it, sounds great. It can go lower in terms of latency, I just usually have no need.

kenn michael · Post by **kenn michael** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 12:33 pm

The IntelMacs can go down to really low latencies reliably - much more than the G5s could. I frequently run Logic and Live at 64 samples on my MacPro and 128 samples on the Macbook Pro (which can go to 64 as well).

Synthavaganza · Post by **Synthavaganza** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 7:53 pm

kenn michael wrote:The IntelMacs can go down to really low latencies reliably - much more than the G5s could. I frequently run Logic and Live at 64 samples on my MacPro and 128 samples on the Macbook Pro (which can go to 64 as well).

Kenn, what kind of audio interface do you have? I am interested in this, I also have a MacBook Pro but I doubt I can go that low in latency buffer..could you please tell me what rig do you have? (HDs, audio card etc.)

Also, did you have some optimization in the OS?

Thankx!

sebovzeoueb · Post by **sebovzeoueb** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 9:00 pm

+1 MOTU Ultralite, couldn't tell you the settings offhand (I'm not in front of my macbook pro right now), but I get low enough latency to be playing bass live through it using effects in Live. Great sound too, definitely not something I regret buying. I don't need all those ins and outs either, but hey, they're there if you need them one day! (for live recording you can easily use 8 inputs...)

mstan420 · Post by **mstan420** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 9:52 pm

Sweet! Thanks guys! Sounds like that motu ultralite is a good setup. YOu don't have to use the BUS power, right? You can still plug it in to a wall ac/dc adapter, right?

Any other recommendations that you might have for studio recording with live 6? I really just need to record a track, then overdub, then record another track, then overdub, so on and so on until I pass out.

Thanks again! Looking for to rip this bad boy up!

what firewire interfaces are working well -macbook pro user

what firewire interfaces are working well -macbook pro user

Motu Ultralite