RME Babyface Pro

Wow!
I just bought one; the original.
Think there might be an upgrade path?
Tom

batsbrew
that looks really nice,
but why not usb 3?

The unit is nowhere even close to saturating the bandwidth of USB2.
The extra bandwidth wouldn't buy any additional performance.
 
The Babyface is USB3 compatible.
 

It's cost vs. return
If no performance is to be gained, RME has little incentive to spend the time/resources to make the Babyface USB3.
 
 
 

batsbrew
maybe bandwidth isn't an issue now.
but a year from now?

Only in case the number of inputs/outputs will magically increase within the year or they start support 64bit/1MHz sample rates...
 
But in case the specification in your signature is still correct, USB2 bandwidth is not the bottleneck 

azslow3

batsbrew
maybe bandwidth isn't an issue now.
but a year from now?

Only in case the number of inputs/outputs will magically increase within the year or they start support 64bit/1MHz sample rates...
 
But in case the specification in your signature is still correct, USB2 bandwidth is not the bottleneck 

HEHEH,
 
yea, 
but i'm still cranking out tunes, no problem, with good ole sonar 6PE and win xp on an old timey machine......
so, there's that.
 

batsbrew
why not make it usb3?

Other than using a different cable, what would the real-world difference be? RME state their products all work correctly when connected to USB3 ports (many interfaces don't) amd as for bandwidth I can run 20 24bit/44.1KHz mono inputs into Sonar and monitor several of them via track echo with plenty of USB2 bandwidth left over.
 

batsbrew
still haven't heard a good argument against it...

There's no compelling argument for it either. Compatibility with USB3 sockets is an obvious must, but in terms of bandwidth there's no particular problem with USB2. Unless you want to record a huge number of tracks at the same time perhaps, in which case you're probably a commercial studio or otherwise well enough funded to run several interfaces or go down the PCI card+multiple ADAT units road.

No doubt manufacturers will eventually move towards USB3 but the interfaces would still need to function with USB2 to meet the USB spec. Though some USB2 interfaces don't actually conform to spec, which is one reason many work with USB2 sockets but are dodgy with USB3.

There's also the arrival of Thunderbolt to consider. As/if Thunderbolt becomes more commonplace and prices drop it might be better for a manufacturer to support that rather than develope an interface to USB3 specs.

This looks pretty cool. He said retail should be about $749 EU and should show be available around June.
http://www.soundonsound.com/news?NewsID=18292
 
Rocky

Currently that 749 euros = $806usd, so $799 might just be the US price. The video was cool. Thanks for that one Rocky. For as short as it was, it was quite informative.
 
Michael

The new look is nice, however I would think cables sticking out of each end of this thing would make it a little unwieldy if you plan on keeping it in a studio
 

batsbrew
then why does usb3 exist?
 
especially if no one is using it?

 I feel that way about Thunderbolt. You can find more computer hardware with USB3 than TB.

USB2 and USB3 are both very fast serial buses with plenty of bandwidth for digital audio.  The problem as I understand it is that they both introduce guaranteed latency in the front and back clock buffers (circa 6ms for both).  That's a 12ms round trip latency time before you start to factor in latency created by conversion and audio driver input/output buffers. 

That implies that they're getting in and back out of the USB buffers in about 1.9 ms.
 
I'm genuinely interested in how they can do that, it's right on the edge of what is possible with a millisecond timer interrupt.  (Well, I guess that's how they did do it, trim the USB buffers down to the minimum possible without causing stability issues, probably the same size as the ASIO buffers you mentioned).  Pretty cool stuff :-)
 
 

I need to put my interface purchasing on hold with this news. I was close to grabbing a Tascam UH-7000, but with RME's strong rep for great drivers and the announced improvements, this one might be a better long term choice.

musicroom
I need to put my interface purchasing on hold with this news. I was close to grabbing a Tascam UH-7000, but with RME's strong rep for great drivers and the announced improvements, this one might be a better long term choice.

You might (also) want to checkout MOTU's new Ultralite AVB.
Low round-trip latency, solid drivers, and noise-floor of -112dB.
 

Do people use the headphone outs (on the Babyface) as "normal" analog outs? (into a mixer for example?)
I'm looking for a new USB interface (for Windows) and the RME ones seem to be the best for latencies (although I'll need to look at the MOTU one that Jim recommends too)

I really only need 4x4 analog io, but a few more ins and outs never hurt ;-)

If using the headphone outs doesn't make sense, I was looking at the Fireface UC. It seems to be a good few years old now (which probably is no big deal re: sound quality) - but there still seem to be current drivers for it it.

Does anyone have any opinions about this? I've never used a RME interface before, or USB for that matter (I'm still using a Maudio Delta66) - but I'm really interested in low latency. I really "feel" the lag between hitting strings on my guitar, and the sound coming out of SONAR - when latencies are higher than 8-10ms.

Thanks.