lowest round trip latency audio interface os x 2017

LOWEST ROUND TRIP LATENCY AUDIO INTERFACE OS X 2017 DRIVERS
LOWEST ROUND TRIP LATENCY AUDIO INTERFACE OS X 2017 PRO
LOWEST ROUND TRIP LATENCY AUDIO INTERFACE OS X 2017 PROFESSIONAL

This appears to be the ideal performance situation, but they are expensive and physically clunky. Using a TB interface you can expect PCI performance but they usually use adaptors like Apogee Symphony IO + Thunderbridge ($3000 total), or RME HDSP + Sonnet Echo PCI -> TB ($1200 and up). It’s also important to note that Thunderbolt is actually PCIe. I don't know what this is like now, but the Apple chipsets are great. Various tech forums report that lots of older or even current PCs are built with sub-standard chipsets, and there are enough differences to make publishing latency numbers impossible. The quality of your USB chipset will affect your latency. USB 2.0 is plenty sufficient for say 16 channels, but USB 3.0 will make more channels available (although at the same latency as USB 2.0). Firewire is being phased out and USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt are starting to build momentum. We are currently in a period of minimal innovation for audio interfaces. I found lots of dirt on Apogee, have so-so personal experience with M-Audio, and have found absolutely nothing but praise for RME’s speed and stability.

LOWEST ROUND TRIP LATENCY AUDIO INTERFACE OS X 2017 DRIVERS

From tons of forum searching, I became convinced that nobody’s drivers can compare with RME. This basically includes Apogee, LYNX, RME, and some M-Audio interfaces.

LOWEST ROUND TRIP LATENCY AUDIO INTERFACE OS X 2017 PROFESSIONAL

Ideally we would have a professional Ableton-centric round-up of interfaces on MacBooks (or PC!).įirst thing: if an interface is going to be fast, it must have optimized drivers from the manufacturer.

LOWEST ROUND TRIP LATENCY AUDIO INTERFACE OS X 2017 PRO

For example, it’s extremely difficult to find hard interface latency numbers even for the very popular macbook pro / Ableton combo. Most reviews are several years old (2006-2008?) and on hardware that doesn’t compare with what we have today. Shopping for interfaces is extremely hard right now. The goal is to find the fastest small-format interface possible. I only need a few channels, but am also willing to pay for quality. It’s also not possible to play perfectly in sync with a Ping-Pong delay.

When trying to use Ableton Looper with a MIDI pedal, it is impossible to lock in the loop on time. My band-mates were constantly complaining about timing. The lowest buffer size I could use in Live was 64 samples 44100, which gave me about 8-9ms round trip latency.ĭespite the word on the street, this latency is not acceptable for live work. I have a latest model retina macbook pro with maxed out options, and was using an old Edirol FA-101 over FW400 (FW400 -> FW800 -> TB).

Please feel free to tear this post apart if you feel like anything in it isn’t correct. I'm not an expert but did spend a lot of time researching and shopping. Sadly if you * really want to know the facts about what’s out there today, you have to dig really really deep into endless forums and technical data, and even still can only infer the information that will actually make an impact on your purchase. I am a live violin / bass / soft synth looper, and spent over two years researching audio interfaces to find the lowest latency possible for a macbook.

Lowest round trip latency audio interface os x 2017