Most reliable, low latency, USB soundcard?

[tim harper]

Looking for a new soundcard for live rig, twill be running vocals thru Ableton so need something as low latency wise as possible (incl the limitations of the PC). Only need something with a stereo in and out (vox mic comes thru mixer). Was thinking of either NI Audio 4 DJ, Emu 0404 or F Saffire 6.
Could anyone with any of these pass on their two cents worth?

[agent314]

I can't speak for either of those, but I use the Edirol/Cakewalk UA25EX, and I can run with 192 samples (total latency something like 18ms) with no hiccups or dropouts.

Stereo in/out, onboard compressor/limiter (which is decent, if unremarkable), 24bit, 44.1/48/96 (half-duplex for 96 though), and super stable drivers. Been using it for the better part of a year and (knock on wood) have had no problems with it.

[Donnie]

Saffire 6 has suprisingly been rock solid from my experience. I havent used the others personally.

[tim harper]

Nice one, will have a gander at that, cheers for the info

[gosinisha]

recently i got fireface uc, fantastic. you can expect output latencies around 2,5-3ms with this one, plenty I/O, stable drivers...

[leedsquietman]

The RME Fireface UC will fry anything on USB2 for low latency drivers. It also has the best pres and conversion and it's totalmix software for routing is very powerful. Costly but the best quality.

The Saffire has great pres and good conversion, but not the best low latency drivers (this could be improved in a software update or by using asio4all).

How many inputs and outputs do you require.

The Edirol and EMU 0404 and NI AudioKontrol all have fairly decent low latency drivers, but are not as good pre amp wise.

I don't normally recommend M-Audio stuff, but their Fast Track ULTRA R8 is a decent USB interface.

[jallan99]

I had awful problems trying to use EMU 0404 USB with Ableton Live running under Windows 7. With the "delay" [cant remember the name of the setting] at around 10ms, I could get about 30 seconds of clean audio playback, then some distortion would creep into the sound and after about 45 seconds the soundcard would go silent. With the "delay" set much longer I would get clean audio for much longer, but I whatever I recorded would be about half a beat behind.

Ableton offered some suggestions but none of them worked - their hypothesis was that the problem might be caused by Aero, which is related to graphical display in Windows 7. Emu did not respond to my query.

I have changed PC and moved to 64-bit Windows 7 and Live 8 and with this new setup, I have discovered (by chance as I had given up on the EMU) that the problem is nowhere near as severe. I can record with no latency but the distortion still does creep in after a time, but a long time (tens of minutes). So I rarely use the EMU 0404. I use it only for recording audio and then switch back to using another soundcard.

There is another thing to consider on the 0404, something I did not realise when I bought the card. I wanted 4 outputs so I could create a DJ set-up but 2 of 4 outputs are digital not analogue. The key point for your microphone set up is that and 2 of the four inputs are digital. So, if you plan to use 4 microphones as inputs you will need something to convert 2 of them to provide digital inputs to the O404.

[leedsquietman]

The problem was (not sure if still is) that the emu 0404 worked great under XP and even Vista 32 bit, but they didn't even have win 7 drivers for a long time and then beta ones and many audio interfaces don't have mature win 7 64 bit drivers yet.

If you're DJing and need 2 cue outputs, you need to research this stuff in advance as it can be a game changer, a lot of audio interfaces are only designed from a studio perspective where there is less need for that feature. Things such as the Native INstruments DJ range, or the Echo Indigo DJ for expresscard etc, have these features as do some other soundcards (or at least an output which can be modified for this purpose, for example Alesis allow you to change a setting in their control panel software to allow a second cue out).

So make sure you do ALL the research, especially if you are running win7 or snow leopard. The above poster makes good points based on his own experience on this and ALL of us at some point have bought some type of gear which surprises us by not quite functioning how we expected (often through getting over excited and not doing enough research).

[4.33]

i've heard some great reviews on Native Instruments Audio Kontrol 1 and I bought it to discover:
- headphones out is scratching like hell
- input 1 is scratching like hell
- midi in causes feedback loop - had to use another midi interface instead
- drivers are all flaky, especially the latest update - have to use ASIO4ALL

all of this happened after the garanty has ended. and i wasn't even cracking hazelnuts with it

looking to get focusrite 6 usb. i've heard some great reviews

[leedsquietman]

Most people I know LOVE the Audio Kontrol One. The main critical point is it's lack of I/O but it has Cirrus Logic Pres (like the TC Konnekt and Alesis IO26) and many commentators have said it's win drivers are the next best latency wise to RME. Again, these are reasons to research and try and test out if you can some ahead of purchasing.

It (AK-1) definitely (typically) has lower latency drivers than the Focusrite although again, latency is affected on a per computer basis so some people will experience the opposite based on their setups. ASIO4ALL works better with the Focusrite 6 USB with the 3 people I know who have it on PC than the native XP and win 7 drivers.

The Focusrite pres are among THE BEST out there though, they have been a stock in trade in most major recording studios for years.

Really, if you're having such problems though, the RME Fireface UC is probably where you should be looking to upgrade, in spite of it's huge price (the more affordable but less I/O Babyface USB2, RME's answer to an Apogee Duet should be around soon too).

[MIDIpanic]

I second the notion of the RME Babyface (due out soon). I am a happy user of an RME Multiface, but the Babyface will provide the additional mobility of a USB powered device (should work with 1 USB port on most systems, but may take 2 ports for adequate power). If you haven’t experienced RME’s TotalMix (new GUI to be released with Babyface), that alone is worth the price of admission. RME’s forum support is also top notch with regular input from the RME expert staff.