The Great Interface Hunt

[re:dream]

I have an EDIROL FA 101. 8 audio ins and outs, firewire, MIDI, no USB.

Dead cheap.

Good sound quality.

But best of all - RUGGED. I have had it for years, and I use it when I go out to play. Wrap it in a cloth and bung in a backpack.

I was recently looking at replacing it with a focusrite and the salesman at my local music store said to me no - keep the EDIROL. So I did.

Just sayin'

[eyeknow]

I guess I don't understand "low latency"

In fact, my profire 610 had just slightly higher latency than my saffire 14.

@48k/128buffer I get about 7ms round trip. I thought that was pretty good. I'm suspicious that rme/etc are THAT much lower in latency for those specs.

[david.barker]

I use a Focusrite Scarlett 8i6,very happy with it,very low latency,great features,powered via wall socket not usb
but no dramsa there

Really pleased with it and sensible price too.

[clydesdale]

I guess I don't understand "low latency"

In fact, my profire 610 had just slightly higher latency than my saffire 14.

@48k/128buffer I get about 7ms round trip. I thought that was pretty good. I'm suspicious that rme/etc are THAT much lower in latency for those specs.

You've made a good point there. @48k/128buffer the Babyface shows 7.79ms and I usually run @48k/48buffer which is 5.46ms. Those are probably indistinguishable from each other from a user's perspective.

[Willyum]

Happy with my Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 DSP. 8ms total latency on my 3 year old average desktop.

[Donnie]

I think there is more to latency than just low numbers though. Its also stability at those low numbers and what the device (most importantly its drivers) can handle before it starts having errors.

[Willyum]

I think there is more to latency than just low numbers though.

I'm pretty sure all the people posting latency numbers, are posting them because they are showing what they found to be stable on their system.

[eyeknow]

I think there is more to latency than just low numbers though. Its also stability at those low numbers and what the device (most importantly its drivers) can handle before it starts having errors.

This is true. I like to run at 128 because I know for a fact it won't futz up my performance. I'm sure I could go lower if I felt I really needed to.

[Donnie]

I think there is more to latency than just low numbers though.

I'm pretty sure all the people posting latency numbers, are posting them because they are showing what they found to be stable on their system.

This is still subjective to an extent though. For instance...

What is that users typical usage scenario? Project size? Track count? CPU type?

How often do they crash? Never? Daily? Once a week? Only when loading projects of x size?

Also, if using Asio4All, how are they determining actual latency? (asio4all doesn't report latency properly in many circumstances)

Other factors like Serial Bus chipset type and compatibility? (TI vs other chipsets for Firewire performance, USB version and port quality reducing stability, etc)

[oblique strategies]

Another factor to consider is the software that works with the interface.

RME has TotalMix FX, which is incredibly flexible.


RME also has DigiCheck, which is a suite of 10 metering & measurement tools. I've been getting a lot of mileage out of the Surround Audio Scope. Here are a few examples:

[Schmidi]

Well, two ways you can go, on a budget and take the good with the bad, or get a damn good interface now and not worry for a long time.

Budget: I personally have owned and tested a number of devices (presonus firepod [decent but not great], the Roland "capture" line [which were VERY nice BTW], Maudio firewire 410 [crap]) and settled on a Focusrite 8i6. It had the best sound quality to my ears, latency was decent <15ms depending on other settings in your DAW, and it didn't break the bank. I have had my share of crashes over the years with it, but that isn't saying that the interface was the sole source of said crash. All in all, it's been a good interface, but there is always a feeling that an alternative could be better and at 3 years old I am already contemplating replacing it.

If I had it to do over again, I would go the...

"damn good interface" route: something like an RME Babyface would work great for my needs as FW is now ultra uncommon on PC as are PCMCIA slots. Had I gotten a Babyface, I would probably have an interface that could last me for well over 15 years as RME is great at updating old products to new OS. The sound quality is VERY good per EVERY single review online, as is their included software.