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Hammer Floyd posted:Question 5) PC vs. Mac? How about PC vs Mac (vs Linux vs iPad vs Android)? I really don't want to get into any kind of discussion of the relative merits, but some of us are nerdy enough to do our audio in Linux, for which compatibility is a big deal, and there are starting to be semi-serious apps out there for tablets too. For Linux, there's a community-maintained wiki page summarising compatibility (since device manufacturers don't often list this). The more general answer for both Linux and tablets seems to be "is it USB/USB 2 class compliant?", and if it is, it should work. Also, anything that has on-board DSP that you configure using specialised PC/Mac-based software will most likely not work (or will work but only as an interface without the DSP). Maybe stuff to add to the OP? All this aside, I own a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, which seems to be the go-to recommendation for an entry-level, Linux-compatible interface. It works pretty well; the only caveat is that the guitar inputs don't deal well with very hot pickups. My passive (but moderately hot) pickups work fine with the gain on the interface turned right down, but there are tons of reviews out there from people with active pickups saying it doesn't work so well. That said, the point of hot pickups is to massively overdrive an amp/pedal's preamp, and if you're plugging that much signal into a sensitive piece of audio recording gear, you might possibly be doing it wrong.
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Jan 24, 2014 05:52
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DO NOT GET INTO A DISCUSSION ABOUT WHETHER OR NOT PC OR MAC IS BETTER FOR RECORDING!
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Radiapathy posted:The 2i2 has terrible latency and a high noise floor. I'd recommend Roland Duo Capture EX. Has a Hi-Z input and everything else the 2i2 does, plus iPad compatibility and MIDI I/O. Do you have some links to people who have tested this? I don't know how to test for noise floor, but latency's hardly been terrible. I have mine running at 2ms, and push it up to 4ms if I have a lot of effects or a full DAW running. And that's on an i5 processor from like 5 years ago. I mean, the Roland looks nice, but I don't think a throwaway statement without quantification or qualification does much to recommend it. It also looks like the Roland doesn't work in Linux (for now -- it just needs some quirk workaround, since other than some hack they put in to circumvent default drivers in Windows it's supposedly UAC compliant).
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Jan 25, 2014 08:28
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Radiapathy posted:"2ms/4ms" at what sample rate and buffer size? Input/output or round-trip? OK, you've made me go and work out how to measure RTL latency in Linux. That figure is Jack's latency, which the jack_iodelay tool I used to measure RTL latency seems to hint is only capture latency, with RTL DSP latency being three times that or something? Anyway, using jack_iodelay, my 2i2 gets 12.763ms full RTL (headphone jack out plugged into input 1), with Jack set to 64 frames/period and 3 periods/buffer, at 48kHz. No idea offhand how that would translate to ASIO buffer size, though. At 128 frames/period (what I use when I have the DAW running), the RTL latency is 19.597 ms, which is kinda creeping into perceptible range. Radiapathy posted:I own the 2i2 and the Roland, and several other current models. Below are benchmark tests I did a few months ago using the RTL Utility (the tool used for raw performance testing in the DAWBench tests). This tests true round-trip latency. This is pretty useful, although those noise floor readings for the 2i2 seem to disagree with the results some quick Googling brought up: http://www.harmonycentral.com/t5/Expert-Reviews/Focusrite-2i2-USB-2-0-Audio-Interface/ba-p/34645879 http://www.hifizine.com/2012/12/focusrite-scarlett-2i2/ Both talk about noise floors more in the -100dB range. I wonder how much variability there is among the units? Radiapathy posted:Likewise there are plenty of positive reviews out there on the Roland; my "throwaway statement" doesn't exist in a vacuum. I was only mentioning it as a price-competitive alternative to the 2i2. Totally, I'm sure this thread will be more useful to goons the more options it discusses.
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Jan 26, 2014 07:54
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