Ableton Forum

Hey all. I perform live with ableton and my audio8 dj seems a bit unreliable. Any suggestions for a cost effective, portable soundcard? At least 2 inputs and 2 out plus headphone

I'm using a mac

drifta303 wrote:Hey all. I perform live with ableton and my audio8 dj seems a bit unreliable. Any suggestions for a cost effective, portable soundcard? At least 2 inputs and 2 out plus headphone

I'm using a mac

RME Babyface. Is what I use for everything. You have to manage the cable run-out though. Comes with a bag.

I've run it on 64 samples. If that works with a specific song is very much dependent on the computer hardware though and competing resources running during the performance. That is of course exactly the same with any other interface.

cheers for the heads up, however that is out of my price range and I don't need so many inputs.. 2-4 inputs, 3-4 outputs would be sufficient.

Surely there must be other low latency options out there???

What is your budget?

Does it need to be bus powered?

Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, 4 outs on RCAs (2 also on 1/4"), USB, bus powered, $200 in USA.

hey,
my budget is under $450

and bus powered is better but not essential.

It seems the firewire makes lower latency and ive heard RMA and MOTU are good options.

I was hoping for more people with experience on this to reply, but perhaps not many people are looking for low latency soundcards for live use on here?

drifta303 wrote: my budget is under $450…

It seems the firewire makes lower latency and ive heard RMA and MOTU are good options.

What OS version? What Live version? You need to assure there are updated drivers for the audio interface. I like RME because of their lengthy support.

I hear good things about Focusrite. That's what I didn't buy though. When I heard the babyface I just had to have my own.

im using ableton live 9 64bit. i have a macbook pro with the firewire port

I'm currently using the audio8 DJ but id like to get something with lower latency..


i only need 4in 4out.. I've heard the focusrite has glitch/buffer problems


anyone had experience with the new novation soundcard?

im surprised not many people here have experience with different soundcards. I've decided to go for a saffire pro 14 firewire card.

Have previously owned a NI Komplete Audio 6 (currently own an RME) and can thoroughly recommend it as an excellent value for money audio interface with good features, great sound and fairly low latency.

Novation and Focusrite are the same company so I'd imagine the Novation interface will be pretty similar in sound quality etc to Focusrite.

Seriously, save up and get the RME Babyface. Nothing else has the quality build and drivers, and they support their gear for seemingly ever with new updates.

Otherwise, you are getting about the same level (cheap)components no matter what you spend under $600. The other thing to consider, you most likely will outgrow a cheaper card and then upgrade to something slightly better, but it still will not be as good as the RME. The real shame then will be that you have now spent as much as an RME and still have a poor card.

I have to echo the suggestion to go RME Babyface. The stability and overall feature set of RME is worth holding out for.

Focusrite can have stability issues at low latencies. Beyond that, they are an okay daily driver.

Save for the Babyface. Most anything less will be a false economy. I tried the MOTU Track 16 and Focusrite 18i8 previously and returned them both. I could not get acceptable latency for soft synths with them. Found the Babyface for cheap from Juno Records, and I could not be happier! I usually get to 8 tracks with it set to 96 samples latency, which works out to 7 ms, using an i7 notebook computer from early 2013. No glitches. Rock solid USB driver, and the mixer software is very useful for direct monitoring.

+1 for RME, I use a UFX for live performance with 8 inputs, including all my acoustic drums, a clarinet, sandouri, and vocals.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAE388Nb1Do


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOMDrmg-tG8