Ableton Forum

I'm using Live 9 right now. I'm on my laptop using the default sound card with ASIO4ALL to get rid of my latency. My CPU is i5 quad core, 2.67 GHz each and I have 4GB of ram. I don't have an audio interface. To be completely honest, I don't really understand what audio interfaces do, so bear with me.

But my question is, is there a way to reduce/remove my latency without ASIO4ALL? It's a pain only having one program output sound at a time. Would a new sound card potentially fix this? And if so, are they USB or expresscard? Or would an audio interface? I need help here guys.

USB audio interface is what you need.

distaudio wrote:USB audio interface is what you need.

Any suggestions? I'm very lost here.

Well it depends what you are doing with it?

Do you have any midi devices?
How many audio inputs and outputs do you need?
Are you on Mac or PC?

If you have no need for recording, I would go with the Native Instruments Traktor Audio 2 http://www.native-instruments.com/en/pr ... r-audio-2/

Or... the Focusrite VRM Box. http://us.focusrite.com/usb-audio-interfaces/vrm-box

distaudio wrote:Well it depends what you are doing with it?

Do you have any midi devices?
How many audio inputs and outputs do you need?
Are you on Mac or PC?

I'm on a PC (a Toshiba Satellite A665-S5173 to be exact). I use Push, a M-Audio Keyrig 49, and Maschine occasionally, but usually only two of any of the three at a time. My computer has three USB ports, but I use one for my wireless mouse. As far as audio in/outs, I'm using a Y-cable (1/8 in the computer's headphone jack, R/L TRS to a pair of Rokit 5's). So I guess I only need 1 output? I'm honestly not sure. And for inputs, I use a USB mic for when I record. I do all my sampling digitally (i.e. I download samples; I'm not recording from a turntable or anything) so I don't think I need many inputs. Would the in/outs affect my ability to get sound from more than one application at a time?

And thanks for being so patient.

EDIT: I just realized by MIDI devices, you probably meant devices with ACTUAL midi connectors, in which case, I don't.

Any USB audio interface should do the job in that case.

distaudio wrote:Any USB audio interface should do the job in that case.

So basically, as long as it has a 1/8 jack, I'll be ok?

Pretty much.

distaudio wrote:Pretty much.

Thanks a lot man, really appreciate the help. I might get that NI Traktor one that RedEngineer posted.

Wait, the Traktor Audio 2 says it's supported drivers are "ASIO, CoreAudio, DirectSound, and WASAPI" but my computer only has MME/DirectX right now. Will it still work?

Yes. Native Instruments provides ASIO drivers for the products; it's just a matter of downloading and installing them (once). Then, whenever you connect the audio interface to your computer, the ASIO driver finds it and makes it available to Live (or whatever other ASIO application you're running).

ark wrote:Yes. Native Instruments provides ASIO drivers for the products; it's just a matter of downloading and installing them (once). Then, whenever you connect the audio interface to your computer, the ASIO driver finds it and makes it available to Live (or whatever other ASIO application you're running).

And I'd still be able to get sound from multiple applications at once?

If your problem is 'Latency' buying new audio interface won't help you, I think. You need to buy more powerful computer.

If your problem is the 'Recording/Playback sound quality' it will help.

pencilrocket wrote:If your problem is 'Latency' buying new audio interface won't help you, I think. You need to buy more powerful computer.

If your problem is the 'Recording/Playback sound quality' it will help.

well the problem is sound quality (cracking and popping) when the buffer size is low enough for tolerable latency.