New Audio Interface

I don't have the audiobox, so I can't comment directly on that.  I will make some general comments on PCI vs USB, however.

I've found that some systems can handle lower latencies using PCI instead of USB.  if latency is important to you, then I would suggest paying Jim Roseberry a 1/2 hour or so consultation fee and get him to evaluate your computer and then decide if a USB device is good for you or not.

latency is not really important to me for home recording, as I monitor everything via external hardware, not running softsynths or FX thru sonar for monitoring, so the system I have is sufficient.

If I ever decide to use a system for live playing, I know my current tower would not handle a USB system sufficiently.

I'm not trying to scare you off of USB, however, just want you to be aware that you might not get the same latency/buffer performance out of a USB device that you do currently on your PCI device, but it depends on your system.

regarding USB cable length: 
maximum USB cable length is 5 meters (~16 feet).  you can extend that, however, if you use a POWERED USB hub.  but sometimes those hubs will also cause problems with soundcards.  personally I would not want to risk my soundcard with a hub, but you might do just fine with it.

firewire isn't any better - the max length is 4.5 meters.

i prefer PCI myself, i think it's a less obtrusive, more robust way to go....

but there are some advantages to USB, it just depends on how you use it.

i would think, for a stable non-moving setup, the PCI would be best.

or PCI-e, if you can.

I have USB 2.0 by RME. It works fine, but drivers are important. Have ran a 8ft. cable to computer but usually use the 3ft. one with Babyface on the desk above the computer. Can not use any ol' USB cord, must be a good one in the first place. Don't do software synths so far, so can't tell that way about the computer, but my new computer (only being a second generation Intel I3) is running fine with some music I am doing with 52 Tracks in Sonar 7. IF the ASIO drivers work good (whereas ASIO4ALL is not going to usually be as good as a manufacturer's driver), then the latency probably will not matter. But that is the trick with USB 2.0, the manufacturer has to have good drivers for the audio/interface and the jitter can not be pronounced either with the drivers and audio/interface. That's about it. Drivers are the key I guess with that stuff and the computer being fast enough if using soft-synths a lot. I would say it is not slower then PCI or PCI-e.

Dave King


Thanks for the info.

I was under the impression that PCI was "old school" at this point and everyone was using USB (or firewire) at this point in time.

One thought I have had is that by getting the interface "out of the box" it may help to reduce a slight noise problem I've been having.

I'll have to check in with Jim on this.

Thanks.

dave, i use a Maudio Audiophile 192 card.


it has breakout cables, so that the 'interface' is technically 'out of the box'.


i have used many usb interfaces at other studios, and have never seen anything particularly powerful enough about that setup to make me think my setup wasn't as good.


sometimes, old school, is the best.






http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile192.html

Interesting...  That M-Audio interface is very reasonably priced too!  I see that it has been available for quite a while.  Are there any other newer PCI cards available that would be worth considering? 

In another thread Jim Roseberry made good comments about the Audiobox 1818 VSL latency wise, I suppose that the 44 should be the same being from the same family.

The Audiobox cards have "near zero" latency monitoring with FX using the compurer CPU, so that should help if you like to monitor with FX.

I have a FW presonus interface and also thinking on getting a new USB interface because my laptop doesn't have integrated FW and I have to use an express card to connect it, but I' am not sure what to expect latency wise from a USB audio interface.

Dave,

I have the Audiobox 44VSL. If it is compatible with your machine, it does a great job of recording. It is a little noisy while monitoring and seems to pickup interference from the computer when the computer is busy (blips and other noises way in the background when disk writes or screen redraws occur). However, these are not recorded and are very much in the background. I only ever notice them when no audio is actually playing. I have read on Presonus' forums that swapping USB cables may help, but since I've gotten my system stable, I don't want to mess around with it.

Which brings me to my caveat: this interface is very finicky about which USB busses it works well with. When I first got it, I could not play back without pops and clicks and/or distortion. Over time and with a lot of tweaking in Windows, I was able to get pops and clicks to stop. I now record at 24/96 and the interface performs beautifully. As of today, Presonus only has a beta driver that appears to solve most issues in Windows 7. If you buy this, make sure you get it from a shop with a liberal return policy, just in case.

Regards,
Dan

they have not discontinued the 192

its cables are easily found