Anyone have any experience with any of the following: Presonus Audiobox, Presonus Audiobox 22VSL, ART USB Dual Tube, Focusrite Saffire 6, Focusrite Scarlet 2i2, Focusrite Scarlet 2i4? Which one has the lowest latency? I have a laptop with Windows 7 64bit, i3 2330M 2.20GHz processor, 4.00GB RAM and 443 GB hard drive. These all fall in the range of $150-$200. I will be using it with Music Creator 6. Not doing anything fancy. Starting with acoustic guitar and vocals. Thanks for the help!

I believe all but the ART will give you low latency. I say that about the ART because it states in the ad, "no special drivers needed". Kinda like 'plug and play'. It may be fine, though.
I use an older Focusrire Saffire and it has worked almost flawlessly for... 3 or 4 years.
I've heard good things on these forums about the Scarlett, too.
Shucks, I'll go ahead and say it; get a Focusrite.
 
You might want to pose this question in the Cakewalk Hardware forum for a wider range of opinions.

Thank you for the response Greg! I think Focusrite is the way to go and I will take your advice and post my question over on the hardware forum

Yeah... ditto....

I too use the same Focusrite interface Greg uses..... I've had it for the entire time I've been here.... 5 or 6 years now. 

I don't even use a mixer board.... plug straight in to the Saffire, hit record and go.  Pristine and super clean vocals and guitars recorded with a mic..... I absolutely love this interface.  The Focusrite line has superb, world class pre amps built in so no mixer is needed. 

I don't think the exact model is available any more but if it dies, I would be at the big box music store tomorrow buying another Focusrite. 

Thanks Guitarhacker! I am looking at the Saffire 6. Is the 24bit/48KHz good enough?

philamag87


Thanks Guitarhacker! I am looking at the Saffire 6. Is the 24bit/48KHz good enough?

CD quality is 44.1 kHz @ 16-bit.
Most advise here to use 24-bit, and more samples can't be bad.
It should be good enough.

yeah... I record at 24 bits...... 44.1khz

It's good enough for crystal clean recordings.... higher sample rates are not really audible to the human ear and suck up more real estate on a hard drive. 

In a home studio 44.1/24 is where you want to be.  I think the Saffire goes clear up to 96khz.... but that is overkill. 

57Gregy


I believe all but the ART will give you low latency. I say that about the ART because it states in the ad, "no special drivers needed". Kinda like 'plug and play'. It may be fine, though.
I use an older Focusrire Saffire and it has worked almost flawlessly for... 3 or 4 years.
I've heard good things on these forums about the Scarlett, too.
Shucks, I'll go ahead and say it; get a Focusrite.
 
You might want to pose this question in the Cakewalk Hardware forum for a wider range of opinions.
 
Hi All!!
 
Just to agree with Greggy; My Scarlet (18i6) has been flawless with X2 and it must be Idiot proof because it literally set itself up for me!!
 
No discernable latency/lag--I have mine set to 2ms.
 
I'm really delighted with the Scarlet.
 
ETA:  Isn't the Saffire still USB 1??  I know it is older?
 
 

Isn't the Saffire still USB 1?? I know it is older?

 
This particular Saffire is FireWire.