Internal sound cards are fading fast! Same with firewire. So no new drivers for most (except RME for now). An EMU 1212m might work but don’t pay more then $80 for it.
If you can get the HDSP9632 for $200 that would be a good price. Easy to sell without to much loss later on. But there is a chance you won’t need to upgrade for a few years if the RME works as expected. I have an even older machine, a Q9550, OC’ed to 3.6ghz, that still does the job. Unless you do video coding newer cpu’s don’t bring to much and your CPU is easy to over clock.
I have a feeling with USB3.1 and thunderbolt (also 3 versions) and USB C that buying an interface for a long and stable life will be more difficult. But since you don’t need many ins and outs an RME babyface might be a solution! USB2 might be here to stay (not on apple though…)
What do you mean by revision, firmware upgrade? sorry wrong card not the hdsp9632
Literally none of those EMUS can be found anywhere, all the ones on ebay or craigslist are above 100, especially in Canada.
I thought the whole purpose was to avoid external soundcards and get better latency with PCI. I would imagine this obsolete now with USB C and thunderbolt? Also is my focusrite 2i2 that bad in comparison that I’m getting poor results? Mixing at 2048 is even annoying!
Yes your focusrite is that bad. Not only bad generic driver, but also 128 is not really 128 but 128 plus a very big safety buffer. Latest Focusrite are better.
The hdspe AIO or raydat are futureproof in that regard. PCIe will be around for a while I think.
Thunderbolt already went from v2 to 3 and now a v2 device needs an adapter to 3, that isn’t ready yet (or just now) and might give issues with audio or not. Standards change to fast to be called standards! USB2 and 3 seem to be saver bets!
And about usb vs PCI(e). USB does not have more latency per se. It is all about the certainty a buffer is delivered in time. Access to the PCI bus is more certain the the USB port, plus USB has some CPU overhead. But on faster machines this overhead becomes more and more insignificant. Most USB audio devices use a generic usb chip. RME builds their own hence the better low latency performance.
I think there are pro PCIe to PCI adapters but they are multi PCI slots and external boxes (which is not a bad thing). But they are expensive and you would still have to investigate.
Thanks for the info. You said to ask the seller of that hammerfall if they can send me a revision version. What does this mean, how do they revise the board?
I talked the owner of the store down to $250 including shipping, instead of the original $330 including shipping. Probably going to just do it once you elaborate on revision.
That was a mistake by me. Another card had that problem. So don’t worry
Ok great. I just talked the owner down to $250CAN ($190 USD) including shipping. Before it was 300CAN +30 shipping = $330CAN
Probably going to just do it. Since there is no warranty and incase it breaks, are these boards possible to fix through 3rd party vendors? Sort of like when you break your phone.
Thanks!
First they are very hard to break. Only thing that breaks in these kinf of devices is the PSU and it doesn’t have one. Also the breakout cable is a weaker point as any cable is. Depending on what is broken it can be fixable even by you, but if it is a special rme part it will need to be done by I believe syntax.
Price is good I think.
Ok one last question. I currently have XLR to quarter inch cables for my Mackie HR24 old version monitors. I also have a RCA cable that is L/R 1/4 inch to single RCA quarter inch, Scarlett 2i2 headphone out to L/R speakers, all 1/4 inch. Can I use my current cable to go from RME stereo headphone out, to my L/R speakers using all 1/4 inch? Or do I need this:
If you get the unbalanced breakout cable with the card I would get the cable you linked to, but as you describe it the cables you have should also work with the headphones output of the rme (it is 1/4inch).
If you get the card, don’t forget to turn the volume of the mackies way down at first. The RME could be much louder.
The RME gets here monday, I’ll let you know how it goes. Can you recommend some stereo cables for this RME that will have longevity? I’ll be using the headphone outs for my senheisers.
Thanks.
No I am a cheapass with cables.
But hope it works great for you
Well my friend you were correct. I’m getting 256 latency using ASIO guard + RME. When guard is off I need to set it at 500. Huge improvement from the Focusrite, where I was at 2048 with zero ability to PLAY even if times. For $250CAN it was a steal.
Ve Pros % shoots from 90% to 60-70 in some large sessions, even more with Asio gaurd. This is running sessions higher than 40gb, no slaves needed. Some of my ports are even still sata 2, can’t wait to see what a 10 core and better intel sata ports does for me!
Thanks!
Great!
The only really annoying thing now is the spin wheel when hitting stop in big sessions. It can spin anywhere between 2-10 seconds. Is there any solution to make Cubase snappier or is it a software bottleneck? I thought maybe PCIe ssds, or a slave. Also, when moving notes in dense piano rolls, it can be extremely laggy dragging the notes up an octave or across the screen.
How much of your ram is used if that happens?
Around 20 gb the wheel will start spinning but end quickly. 30-40gb is when it gets annoying. 1600mz DDR3, this has happened on every machine I’ve had. Part of me thinks PCIe ssds and a new DDR4 chipset could help a bit.
If I understand you correctly all the samples (and thus RAM) are in VEP? If yes how does cubase behave if you disconnect VEP, with such a lagging session?
Oh wait I have an idea. Autosave? Autosave kicks in when you stop. And saving will take a while with big sessions and VEP.
If this is it, then the note dragging is unrelated.