Ableton Forum

(posted this in the support forum but this forum seems more appropriate, sorry for the double thread)

Hello all! I've recently come into into the fold of Ableton Live users, and I love how its put the fun back into making music. Also, the community here is fantastic. So I come before you with my situation with hopes of the solid advice I've seen on so many other threads.
My computer:
Macbook Pro 2.33, 3 gigs of ram (maxed out), OSX 10.6.x

What I'm trying to do, similar to Depeche Mode, is run my computer essentially as the mixing board with live effects/routing etc. I just need to know what sound card will handle about about 10 ins and outs with essentially no latency issues. I won't be pushing the system that hard, just some low CPU plugins, sample triggers and some soft synths. Then I want to be able to control everything on stage and just send a stereo signal to the house.

My research thus far as led me to:
The Mackie 1620i (http://www.mackie.com/products/onyx1620i/)
RME Multiface II (posting.php?mode=post&f=2)
-I know this one doesn't have pre's, but I can run them into a 16 channel mixer I have.

I'm not clear on what exactly I should be looking for, to go in the card expansion slot in my laptop. PCI Express?
Would the PCI Express card (or similar) boost the performance of the Mackie 1620i, or is that just me showing my lack of hardware knowledge?

Please help, I can't seem to wrap my mind around this hardware conundrum. Thank you so much!

don't know about the Mackie..
but.. the MultifaceII goes down to 32-samples buffer size which means 0.7 ms of latency...
which is extremely low latency..
so...you're gonna need a strong spec computer to use that setting with 8 channels of realtime processing..

Do you think my Macbook Pro intel dual 2.33, 3 gigs ram, 7200 rpm firewire 800 drive, could handle the job? At all?

Let's say, for part of the set, I put triggers on the drums and mute the drum mics. Would this be more or less feasible with my rig?

Thanks so much for the response(s)!

horsemouth wrote:Do you think my Macbook Pro intel dual 2.33, 3 gigs ram, 7200 rpm firewire 800 drive, could handle the job? At all?

Let's say, for part of the set, I put triggers on the drums and mute the drum mics. Would this be more or less feasible with my rig?

Thanks so much for the response(s)!

Deffo not. But 0,7 ms latency is ridiculoysily low. I'm running my similar set up at 97 samples buffer just fine, doing real time 100% audio processing.

I see, I see. I obviously can't get the lowest of the low latency, plus I could live with only 4-6 tracks being processed at once, maybe even less.

@LeifonMars, do you use the Multiface II? If not, would you mind briefly describing your setup?

Yes, MFII here. At the moment I route several pieces of external gear (3 synths) + vocals to Live for further 100% wet processing. I used to route drums and gtrs and basses as well to Live, all this with 97 or 109 samples buffer @ 44100. No disturbing latency and both of my MBPs could cope just fine as long as I didn't apply excessive amounts of reverb and made sure HD has enough room (about 20% of capacity). Just design your set up smart (economically) and it will be fine.

a question i'm thinking to ask is
are you going to be always letting the dry signal through of your drums?
(assuming your using an acoustic kit)
the latency may not be so much an issue if your using the laptop as an effects box. especially if you will be resorting to using a hardware mixer for the pre's.
you could set up the mixer to route the mic signals into ableton then run the left and right wet back into the mixer. then you be able to mix the wet and dry signal on the hardware mixer. send the FOH and your monitors the mixed signal from your hardware mixer.
just a thought though..

in our set up we run
2 vox mics, 1 instrument mic, upright bass, and keys into a presonous firestudio.
a pretty heavy live set which includes, sylnth1, 2 instances of battery, some ableton instruments, mostly ableton effects, and lots of samples.

we run a MBP 2.5 ghz snow leopard and 4 gigs ram with the firestudio,
we had some glitch issues before the ram and OS upgrade but now it all seems to be running really smooth, i'm able to keep the latency unnoticeable when i run at 128 sample rate..
at 256 its mostly good but i do notice at times when i play drums,percussion but i am still able to play without issue.