Ableton Forum

I have an ancient Powerbook (TiBook 550Mhz, 1 GB RAM) and I am have had nothing but trouble (latency, sluggish, crackle and pop) from firewire (MAudio 410) and USB (Edirol UA25) audio breakout boxes..

I have been told that something that runs straight off the motherboard from the PCMIA slot (i.e. Echo Indigo DJ) might run better on my machine. However, I am wondering what the sound quality difference would be between the Indigo and my built-in 1/8" jack? Is it going to sound $200 better than just using the jack?

Opinions?

Thanks,

AM

I would first try to identify why you are having these problems. Your powerbook is a little slow, but there are people on here all the time talking about how live runs fine on their old powerbooks. ALthough, im not sure what exactly your workload is like. If you are trying to use alot of everything at once, then yes, you will have problems. But I dont think that exploring different sound card options is going to make a big difference. Theres a chance it could be very small, but in the end, I think you might have to consider just getting a new computer.

Hi there,

I used to have a mac and the built in soundcard was very good. Far better than the built in audio on my PC Laptop. I think the mac built in audio is definetly good enough for using as a sound out and even as a good sound in. However, I reckon that the indigo has got to sound that bit better, not sure exactly how much better, but it will be a bit better. Just my view.

Cheers,
David

I use Live on my even more ancient 400MHz Powerbook with an Ozonic interface on Tiger.

It works absolutely fine. I can run 8-12 audio tracks (less with complex warping) without a problem.

The Indigo has 4 channels so you'll be able to cue your stuff while playing it while the built in sound is just 2 channel.

i love my motu 828mkII it works great.

but if you need only a single stereo out, go with the build-in it's quite good.
the indigo's are getting very hot - a friend of mine had a system crash because of that (maybe thats not very usual, but i'd not trust them, i neither trusted the hammerfall pcmcia. it was always really hot too, although i had no crash with it).

Okay, I had that PB so I can tell you that it has a powersaving feature that turns off the audio card every 30 seconds and when you start playing something it takes about 1 second to start up. Sounds small, but it is actually pretty bad if you want to apply Live...you know, LIVE. Also, the indigo would have 24-bit output and a better sampling rate and I think the line ins would just be massively better (although your PB doesn't have a Line in...) so I would go for it. Also the outputs would be line out rather than headphone out so you would have a cleaner signal with less distortion.

andrewlogan wrote:Okay, I had that PB so I can tell you that it has a powersaving feature that turns off the audio card every 30 seconds and when you start playing something it takes about 1 second to start up. Sounds small, but it is actually pretty bad if you want to apply Live...you know, LIVE. Also, the indigo would have 24-bit output and a better sampling rate and I think the line ins would just be massively better (although your PB doesn't have a Line in...) so I would go for it. Also the outputs would be line out rather than headphone out so you would have a cleaner signal with less distortion.

good point .. yeah i agree.
although i don't know very much people using 24bit/96kHz for live. i don't use it because of my slow tibook.

Would the 24-bit output of the Indigo card tax my system processing power more than the on-board 16-bit out?

At the moment I am just getting by with my TiBook (550, 1 GB) using the 1/8" on-board out... When I try try to use my Edirol UA-25 via USB 2.0 the CPU usage jumps 20-25%.... and that I cannot afford.!
I was under the impression that this would not happen with the Indigo using the PCMIA slot.... or not nearly as much.

Though I think the on-board sound-out on my TiBook is pretty good, and way better than most PC's, I have been recording with it and have been noticing a serious difference between it and my Machine Drum and Korg hardware units. I know that obviously the hardware would sound better, unless I was moving up to an RME or something, but I thought the Indigo cards might improve the sound - while not overloading my computer's limited system resources.

Also, I have never heard of this "over-heating" issue.... anyone experienced this on a TiBook?

lonemale wrote:Would the 24-bit output of the Indigo card tax my system processing power more than the on-board 16-bit out?

nope.

a higher sample rate, such as 48khz, or 96khz would definitely tax your system more.
but higher bit rate? hardly noticable.