Ableton Forum

Hi!
I've a powerbook 867 and i use it under osx primary with live and reason (waiting for reaktor 4).
Now i dont have any soundcard: i dont need more inputs or outputs so i think i dont need it: the latency is really low but what about the quality of the minijack output of powerbook?
I'd like to know if someone is doing livesets in club or at home without any professional-24bit soundcard. Finally, adding one should i have low or more cpu consuming?
Thanks for now. Bye.

Hi,

I would go for an external soundcard. The sound quality is obviously much better. I have a Ti-book 667, and the mini-jack is very noisy. Other people i know use it in live situations without an external soundcard though.
Depending on what soundcard you're using, CPU usage will probably be a bit higher, but it won't let you run into trouble.

what is the lowest stable latency u can run Live on with Ti Book 867???

curious pc user

i didn't use an external when i had my tibook, and i don't use one now with my ibook. the tibook output did seem to be a bit noisier than the ibook though. that could be attributed to the fact that i was a early model (400). funkstorung said in their interveiw in the artists section that they don't use an external when they gig. i haven't gigged yet on this machine, but the tibook worked fine over a p.a. i suppose i could have been quieter, but i thouhght it sounded good enough.

k

Yes,
I have used the built in output with the powerbook for live gigs. It was fine sonic quality easily good enough in my opinion. Latency wasn't an issue as i was using my trackball and a kenton control freak, but i would imagine if you are playing vsti's live, via a midid keyboard you will encounter latencies. i havent done so my self so am not clear on that point.
As for latencies when triggering clips in Live this shouldnt be aproblem for as y live can quantize clip triger rates to 1/16, 1/8 etc etc or no quantization value at all depending on your choice or choices per clip. So a simple feel of the mouse or powerbook keypad will keep you straight on that one.


best

J~F

I used the internal card (PB 867) for live gigs with live, as well in rewire mode with reason. Sounds good enough for me, latency is not an issue - I get proper results at about 6-8 ms (not too much tracks running)
I use a M-Audio USB Duo for recordings, though. It's output may sound a little more pristine, more defined in the low mids, but needs a little more buffer (higher latency). I think that's due to the USB bandwight, but as a technical moron I may be wrong?!
But I think the internal card is very usable.