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I'm in the market for an new interface to replace my ageing Mackie Onyx Satellite. I'm looking at putting together a nice setup for live looping with Ableton (or some other software), including some beatboxing and guitars. For this reason, as low a latency as possible is one of my main priorities. I'd also like at least 4 input channels ideally. I will read this whole thread now, but if anyone who has this sort of setup has any particularly recommendations, I'd like to hear them.
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Jul 16, 2015 17:21
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Radiapathy posted:I haven't read all the replies, but the Scarletts' performance problems are (as far as I know) limited to Windows, due to their drivers' poor ASIO support. Mac OS uses a totally different digital audio subsystem, and I'm not aware of any big latency problems for Mac users of the Scarletts. I'm confused, they always seem to be highly recommended in this thread - in fact I was thinking of getting one soon as my old Mackie Satellite doesn't seem to get on brilliantly with Windows 10. Is the recommendation generally only for Mac owners? Latency is generally quite important to me as I do quite a bit of live looping, beatboxing, playing synths/guitar live, that sort of thing.
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Sep 7, 2016 20:48
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What are my options for a interface with decent latency that has enough output channels for me to send a separate mix with a click track to a drummer (without having to spend too much)?
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Aug 25, 2017 13:08
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Laserjet 4P posted:beep boop define "not too much" as a number OK, should have probably explained myself better. I use a laptop with Ableton Live with my band for playing synths/multisampled instruments, adding live audio effects to vocals and other instruments via a mic plugged into the interface, and occasionally triggering some drum loops. Currently when we use loops, whoever triggers them has to tap the tempo we're playing at in order to get them to drop in at the right tempo. We'd like to expand our use of electronics and whatnot in the band but to do some of the stuff we want to do, tap tempo is not going to cut it, we're going to need to send a click to our drummer (actually, beatboxer, but it might well be a drummer at some point and I don't suppose it makes much difference). So I need an interface that can output a main mix for front of house, and another mix with a click track for the beatboxer/drummer. I don't need a shitload of inputs or whatever so I guess what I'm asking is what are my 'entry level' options for a USB interface that can handle this? As an added bonus, the lower latency the better. Currently we are using an Mbox 2 Mini and for some instruments I can't have the buffer any smaller than 256 samples without getting some crackling, but I presume that since that's a pretty old interface, something more current would probably better either way?
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Aug 29, 2017 15:30
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I'm currently eyeing up new interfaces and I'm looking at the Steinberg UR44 and the Focusrite Scarlett 18i8. Of these two, would anyone particularly recommend either of these other the other? If it makes any difference, I'll be using it with Ableton Live on Windows 10. Also, are there are others in this sort of price/spec tier I should be considering? My basic requirements are: - Capable of taking 4 mics at once, i.e. at least 4 mic pres and at least 4 simultaneous input channels - At least one headphone output, preferably two, and capable of having a separate headphone mix. - Low latency - I know this is mainly a function of CPU, but I have observed that I can set my buffer smaller with some interfaces than I can on others without crackling, on my laptop. - Portability is a factor. The Focusrite looks a little more compact to me. Also, it looks as if the DSP/mixing software for the Steinberg interface works best with Cubase (better integrated), is this fair to say? I think I'm currently leaning towards the 18i8. e: I've just noticed that both of these interfaces have 12V power inputs. Does that mean they can't be powered from USB only, or is it just used for some sort of stand-alone operation? chippy fucked around with this message at 15:07 on Aug 21, 2018 |
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Aug 21, 2018 11:51
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Ah yeah, didn't think about the phantom power thing, that makes sense. I'm used to interfaces with only a couple of pres that can run off bus power. That's not necessarily an issue to be fair. I've used the 18i20 a fair bit as a friend of mine has one, and I really like it, which is what had me leaning towards the 18i8. I guess what I'm asking is, is there any reason to choose the U44 over the 18i20, and also, are there any other options I may have overlooked completely? e: Origami Dali posted:I have an old m-audio firewire 1814, and no longer have a system with firewire capabilities. Since firewire is dead as hell, is this thing useless if I don't want to build a new pc? If your machine is a desktop, you can get a PCIe card with a Firewire port. Worked ok on my old Mackie Satellie. chippy fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Aug 23, 2018 |
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Aug 22, 2018 12:52
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MrSargent posted:I can't see a reason to choose the U44 over the 18i20 or 18i8. You have a lot more Ins/Outs on the Focusrite and don't lose any functionality that I can see. One thing that I've only just noticed is that the 18i8 seems to have less output options. UR44 has the main monitor output plus two pairs of line outs, whereas the 18i8 only has the main monitor output and no additional line outs. Both have 2 headphones outs. Am I missing something? That said, it seems as though the UR44 only has the choise of sending either Mix 1 or Mix 2 to each of their outputs, they can't all have their own mix, whereas I believe you get more output mixes with the 18i8. I'm going to be using this with my band (among other things), although so far I've never had a need to do seperate FOH and BOH mixes so I suppose 2 headphones mixes and a main pair of outputs would probably be enough anyway, although I guess that could change in the future.
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Aug 24, 2018 12:56
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I keep seeing people saying the 18i8 has 'more ins and outs' than the U44, so now I'm really confused. I was sure the U44 has more outs, so I guess I must be missing something.
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Aug 24, 2018 13:07
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MrSargent posted:The 18i8 has SPDIF In/Out and an Optical Input which can allow you to expand your Ins/Outs from what the 18i8 comes with. I don't think you have that option with the UR44. Ahh, of course.
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Aug 24, 2018 16:39
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MrSargent posted:As far as I know, your standard audio interface is not going to work as a standalone mixer when unplugged from your computer. Audio Interfaces are specifically meant to convert analog signal to digital and vice versa and are nearly always some variation of USB, Thunderbolt, or other connection to your computer. I believe you would need a mixer that has a built-in audio interface to do what you want. That's not 100% true, my old Mackie Onyx Satellite could be used stand-alone, and some of the larger capacity FocusRite Scarletts can, too (although you do need to connect it to a PC to set up the routing, initially). chippy fucked around with this message at 15:56 on Dec 17, 2018 |
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Dec 17, 2018 14:16
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Mister Speaker posted:EDIT 2: While I'm here, can anyone tell me why increasing the sample rate in my DAW (Ableton) seems to decrease the I/O latency? Let's say your buffer size is 512 samples. If your sample rate is 44100Hz, you're taking 44100 samples per second. So 512 samples is 512/44100 = 0.0116 seconds of audio. If you up your sample rate to 96000, you now need 96000 samples per second of audio, so 512 samples is now 512/96000 = 0.0053 seconds of audio - just under half of what it was before. So, you're still buffering 512 samples, but those samples now represent a shorter span of time, so your latency is lower.
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Jan 28, 2019 11:16
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Goddamn it, I've been watching the 2nd Gen 18i8 on Amazon for a while as it seems to get a price drop occasionally and I have credit to spend, but now I'm tempted to just go all-out and get the 3rd gen 18i20. That would probably be all the interface I need, like forever.
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Jul 4, 2019 12:30
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GnarlyCharlie4u posted:dude it's only like $300. Just do it. Does anyone have any idea how much the latency is improved between the 2nd and 3rd gen interfaces?
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Jul 10, 2019 15:22
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Given that it's still USB 2.0 (and even if it were USB 3, this apparently doesn't actually improve latency - https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/articles/208095469-USB-2-0-vs-USB-3-0), I can't really see the fact that it's using a USB-C connector making any difference really. But they are claiming a completely re-written even lower latency driver. It would be interesting to see some real-world comparison of the numbers.
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Jul 11, 2019 14:32
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Weird BIAS posted:Focusrite says it can use USB C but yes except for the low latency driver (which says it’s for the USB c) you won’t notice a big difference. Where do they say this? I'm failing to see why there would be a different driver for a USB-A <-> USB-C cable vs USB-C <-> USB-C. It's just a different form factor for the physical connector. Unless your device supports USB 3.0, which the new interfaces don't, USB 2 over USB-C cables/connectors is still just USB 2. Weird BIAS posted:Like bluntly, buy the gen 3 if you want the air boost, otherwise who gives a poo poo. Well I do if the latency is lower as they claim. Live performance/looping is one of the main things I use Ableton Live for and I'm really sensitive to latency while playing keys (not so much with guitar and vocals, not sure why, but I'm a much more competent and technical pianist than I am a guitarist, so maybe that's it) so I want it as low as possible. chippy fucked around with this message at 12:59 on Jul 12, 2019 |
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Jul 12, 2019 12:47
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Apologies in advance for the crosspost... I've just treated myself to an new audio interface, Scarlett 18i20 and I'm pretty pleased about it. It's not arrived yet, but I have some problems with my monitors and it's just occurred to me that they might be an issue, and I don't want to damage my new interface when I've just got it. Basically they have 3 problems, all of these things happen when are first turned on: - they thump loudly, regardless of what's plugged in and their volume setting - when the speakers are turned on, my current interface (Digidesign MBox 2) drops its USB connection to the PC, and then re-establishes it. It's as if it's lost power briefly. Which is odd since it's powered by the USB, it's hard to see how the interface could be causing this. - When turned on, there is a buzz that lasts about 5 minutes, then fades away (apparently this could be down to a dodgy solder join, which then warms up) They are M-Audio AV40s and they are about 11 years old, I think. I haven't worried about it too much up until now because my interface is old and poo poo, but it's just occurred to me that this could be damaging to the new one. So my question is, could this damage an interface? If so, then I guess I better think about replacing them before I use the new one. The thing that's made me worry is the fact that the the current interface seems to power-cycle when they are turned on. Perhaps I could work around this a bit by not plugging in the speaker cables until the monitors are powered up?
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Oct 2, 2019 17:35
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I'm a bit confused about this talk of some interfaces having better latency. When I've asked in the past (in various places, not casting blame on here!) about which interfaces have the best latency I've generally been told that it's down to how small your CPU allows you to have your buffer, not the interface itself. Is this not the case? Or is it down to how efficient the drivers are or something?
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Nov 20, 2019 12:50
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Flipperwaldt posted:Driver efficiency is a major thing. Just look at this image from earlier in the thread where interfaces from different manufacturers are tested on the same computer with the same buffer size. Last column is round trip latency (in+out). Well that's kind of annoying, I asked around when I was researching my last purchase and everyone told me the same thing, it makes very little difference, it's down to your computer. I ended up with a 3rd Gen Scarlett 18i20 and I'm happy with it so far, so I'm glad to hear they have improved. It's definitely better than the Mbox 2 Mini it replaced, with that I couldn't play certain instruments live in Ableton with a buffer size of 64 without getting crackles and popping, and i can with the Scarlett, so there obviously is some difference. chippy fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Nov 21, 2019 |
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Nov 21, 2019 16:22
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Weird BIAS posted:I would give up an arm for more testing for audio interfaces that do shoot outs like that. Ah it's alright, it wasn't only here that I was asking, and we were mainly chatting about the difference USB-C would make as opposed to the difference between different interfaces.
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Nov 22, 2019 11:18
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If recording an active bass as opposed to a passive one, would you use a Line or Hi-Z input? I was tracking a little live session with my Scarlett 18i20 and I wasn't sure whether to hit the INST switch or not. I tried both ways and the only difference I could hear was that I got a hotter signal when I used INST, but I didn't hear any of the tone issues I'd associate with an impedance mismatch. The bassist felt like he was getting a slightly better tone when I didn't use the Hi-Z. I couldn't hear a difference myself, so I ended up leaving if off to keep him happy. I did a bit of googling and got mixed results - a lot said it depends on the spec of the active electronics in the instrument, and i couldn't find those. What do you guys think? chippy fucked around with this message at 00:50 on Dec 16, 2019 |
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Dec 9, 2019 15:39
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This is a faintly ridiculous question. Do you guys think it's ok to stand a monitor (screen, not speaker) on top of an interface? Specifically a 24" on my Scarlett 18i20. I've held off doing it for ages because I'm always super precious about new electronics but I tried it last night and it clears so much space on my desk. Seems like the enclosure is sturdy enough. I guess my main concerns were heat build-up (it does get a little warm on top), or bending the top panel inwards and shorting something.
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Apr 21, 2020 12:29
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Thanks. There is a little air gap because the monitor has feet on its base. I was more worried about the weight than anything but it does seem ok. Might get a little desktop rack mount box thing just to be on the safe side.
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Apr 21, 2020 19:05
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When I plug my crappy little desktop gaming mic with a 3.5mm jack into my interface (using a 3.5mm to 6.35mm convertor) the interface seems to get no signal at all from it. Does this kind of mic put out too small a signal for it work or something? It's not really an issue, I just plug it into my on-board sound instead, I'm just curious. Although it would be slightly more convenient for me if it did work. I guess I could plug in a proper mic but that seems like massive overkill for gaming and I don't really want mic stand in my face the whole time I'm playing.
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May 13, 2020 17:27
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Flipperwaldt was right, both the mic jack and the converter are stereo/TRS. Don't know why that didn't occur to me! I was going to get the correct convertor but maybe I won't bother if it's going to sound bad? The interface (Scarlett) does have an INST mode, the mix doesn't have an impedance written on it. I assumed it would at least sound better than it does plugged into the onboard sound.
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May 15, 2020 01:01
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Having done a bit more reading, it seems that the PC mic is probably expect 5V "plug-in power" on its middle pin, and I would something to convert 48V phantom power to this. https://sound.stackexchange.com/questions/35798/trs-3-5mm-microphone-not-working-in-mixer https://www.amazon.co.uk/VXLR-Minij...99&sr=8-2-fkmr0 Definitely doesn't seem worth it at this point!
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May 15, 2020 12:55
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GnarlyCharlie4u posted:It will not work without using using your laptop though. You can connect other things to the inputs, but nothing will get to the monitors unless your computer is on. That depends on what Scarlett you get. Everything from the 6i6 upwards can operate stand-alone. Although you would need to turn on the PC and use the software to alter any of the routing.
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May 29, 2020 15:32
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TVsVeryOwn posted:I'm looking at instead extracting the audio from a Chromecast HDMI signal and then RCA to 1/4" into the mixer for other reasons. Does that help the noise issue? What's your ultimate goal here, out of interest? Maybe there's an easier way to do what you're doing. I think a device to extract audio from a HDMI signal will be an active, powered one, given that a HDMI signal is a digital one.
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Aug 31, 2020 13:45
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TVsVeryOwn posted:Bigger picture I'm trying to stream VJing and I thought it would be neat to bring in Youtube music videos as a source. I am struggling to understand why a Chromecast is required to be involved in this at all to be honest!
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Sep 5, 2020 18:29
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Subyng posted:Hey thread, new to this whole thing. Got an electric guitar I'm plugging into a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4. Two questions: Depends what you mean by crackle; if it's an occasional little pop, I get these when my buffer is smaller than my computer can keep up with.
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Sep 24, 2020 10:38
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GnarlyCharlie4u posted:That's a TS cable. I was thinking maybe you were picking up radio interference due to using a TRS cable but that's definitely not it. Is that the right way round? I thought it was TS cables that were susceptible to interference, and TRS cables less so because they are balanced.
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Sep 30, 2020 17:48
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Radiapathy posted:TRS cables offer better protection, but only when used between TRS connectors. If you use a TRS cable for a TS connection, you actually lose a fair amount of signal down the third wire and have to increase gain levels to compensate, which increases any noise present. The quality of the cables matters too, of course. (I've gotten off-the-shelf XLR and TRS cables from Guitar Center that had terrible shielding; caught a huge amount of RF interference.) Anyway, a TS cable is the correct one for the job if we're talking about plugging a guitar into an interface's instrument input... just wanna make sure it's well shielded. Gotcha.
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Oct 2, 2020 12:09
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Rotten Red Rod posted:So, I just purchased a dedicated laptop for my electronic music production (this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Y5PK8SC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ) because I'm spending a lot of time away from home. I normally work on my gaming PC, and I thought this one would be powerful enough, but I just tried playing some of my songs on the new laptop (my DAW is FL Studio) and it's slowing down and lagging. I know I can render some of the tracks to avoid this problem, but I'm wondering if an audio interface would also work - I've not needed one up until this point. They essentially work as external sound cards, correct? So would it take some load off my laptop? If FL Studio is slowing down, it's probably because your CPU can't keep up, and I don't think an audio interface is going to help you with that. The soundcard or interface is just an I/O device, its main job is converting audio between digital and analogue, it can't do any of the processing for your DAW. The spec on that laptop seems ok (although I'm not that familiar with current AMD processors), maybe there' s some other problem. You could start by making sure all your drivers are up to date? Also, have you got it plugged in? Sometimes laptops don't run things at full power when they are on battery, although you can configure them to do so usually.
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Dec 12, 2020 18:22
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Too Many Birds posted:Are we gonna run into problems having the Mio and Scarlett 2i2 running simultaneously? Since the Mio device is just MIDI, it should be really just the same as using one (or more) MIDI controllers/devices as well as an audio interface, which is a totally normal thing to do.
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Dec 26, 2020 17:13
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the numa numa song posted:The more tests I run, the more I'm convinced it's nothing to do with latency. For a laugh I switched to 192khz/16 bit buffer, and now I get the occasional audio glitch when playing in my DAW that sounds a lot more like a latency drop. A half-second of noise, not like the clean pops I was previously complaining about. And the ones I'm complaining about occur even in lighter, non-sample-based VSTs. (In fact I'm surprised how few latency-based glitches I'm hitting at this cranked setting. Really would be nice if I could solve this distortion, because the Scarlett appears to be whooping rear end otherwise!) I have a 3rd Gen Scarlett (18i20) and I haven't had the distortion you describe, or problems with pops/clicks etc. and I tend to use either 48kHz/256 or 48kHz/128 with an CPU and less RAM than you. However, I have found it fussy about which port I plug it into. On one of the USB 3.0 ports in my system, everything appears fine (shows up in Device Manager and Focusrite Control, Ableton etc, USB light on the device is lit) but I get absolutely no sound out of it, no matter what I do. On the other USB 3.0 port, it's absolutely fine. So there's obviously some potential for weirdness there. No idea if it's the interface or my computer, which is quite old (built in 2012 iirc), and has given me problems in the past with USB 2.0 devices no working on those ports. Not sure if this is useful information but seemed vaguely relevant.
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Feb 3, 2022 19:10
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