Hi All, have just ordered i7 3370K /Asus P8Z77-V/16gb Ram (2x8)/ 120Gb SSD/ 1TB HHD and will be running Cubase 7.02 with Halion 4.5. Will also be running hand full of other VST instruments as whole set up is based around Virtual Instruments. Seen some interesting stuff on DawBench regarding latency as this will be a major factor running all VST stuff. I just sold my Tascam US122L which was a nice little unit but a few years old. I dont want to fork out for a new unit just to see same performance that would have got from old US122.
I dont think the above motherboard has firewire and many people shy away these days as USB 2 is not too bad. USB 3 and Thunderbolt wont be readily available for a year or so (apparently) so I am looking for a USB 2 unit for under £200 that will do a good for me. I picked out the NI Komplete Audio 6 as it is mid table on the DAW Bench list, is affordable at £189 and comes with Komplete Elements (which i dont rate so much having listened to a demo on Youtube).
It would be nice to have MIDI also as I have an Roland SPD-6 drum pad I like to play with. Its not essential as can buy a cheap midi interface. I like the Steinberg UR28M but a little more than i would like to pay and is down the list on DAW Bench. Not sure when this list was compiled but there is also a Roland UA-55 QUAD i like the look of.
I would only ever at most have 1 mic and 1 guitar connected. There are some cheap Focusrite stuff out there but dont score great.
Any advice on interface and set up listed above would be really appreciated.
Yeah that one has the midi also which is a plus. Just a little bit worried as its a low price and probably a few years old. I notice you have the sapphire 40, what’s your experience so far with this, do you use a lot of vast instruments and fx?
Hi, considering i only need at max 2 inputs at anyone time I thought £200 was a sensible amount taking into consideration the equipment i am using?
The main problem being is that most manufacturers simply advertise zero latency which is true if you are direct monitoring I believe.
reading the DAW Bench pages although very informative has kind of made me think that most cheap units say sub £100 will be similar performance but some having a few more feature s than others. Similar say between £100 to £250.
I am wondering if keeping settings to say 16bit/44.1 would give better latency performance than say 24bit/96?
any thoughts on that one as currently think between the Komplete Audio 6 and same priced Roland UA-55.
Both look same spec, Komplete has Elements which I may or may not make use of and is also mentioned on DAW Bench with a half decent score (and its very pretty lol).
The UR22 a few years old? It was just released this year. The “low” price seems about right to me for the features you get. I would probably consider it or a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (I don’t need MIDI I/O) if i was to replace my Tascam US-144 MKII.
I’ve had my Pro 40 for a couple years and have been really happy with it. It’s firewire, though. Running on my onboard Gigabyte T.I. firewire with no issues. Most of my projects aren’t that complex - usually a mixture of audio and VSTi with a fair amount of effects but nothing close to what many people use. Superior Drummer, AmpliTube3, HALion Sonic, IK T-RackS are pretty commmonly used among others from Audio Damage, Nomad Factory …
What is your idea of acceptable latency, and what are these figures you keep referring to? Can you provide a link?