What timboe said. I'd also love to have the faster transfer rates for backing up - now that would be nice, I hate waiting around watching all those little files go from one folder into the other!

deswind


USB3 will be great if it reduced midi latency.  Then I would love to have a midi interface on it.
I even wonder if a USB1 or USB2 midi interface may have less latency hooked up to a USB3 port?

USB3 will NOT reduce any perceived MIDI latency. MIDI is an inherently slow protocol compared to the speeds possible with electronics at this time. You have to remember that MIDI was created in a time when clock speeds in computers and other digital electronics was still in the 10's of MHz, not the GHz that we have now. Even MIDI over USB (any flavor) still has to conform to the old timing specs so faster USB protocols won't help. What is really needed is an update to the spec but that won't happen anytime soon - updated MIDI has been talked about for over a decade and hasn't happened.

A USB 1 or USB 2 interface won't even make contact with the new pins in the USB3 connector so hooking up such an interface to a faster USB3 connector/system won't help.

 
It is my understanding that midi latency is less using a PCI card than USB.  If this is true, if there is someone to configure the USB port to have whatever is providing the better latency of the PCI or PCI-e slot, then midi latency should improve at least a little bit.
 
When I had Lynx cards in PCI slots for my midi, I had less midi latency than any USB device I have tried.
 
 
 
 
jackn2mpu



USB3 will NOT reduce any perceived MIDI latency.
A USB 1 or USB 2 interface won't even make contact with the new pins in the USB3 connector so hooking up such an interface to a faster USB3 connector/system won't help.

I think the need for USB 3 sadly is going to come in terms of a move towards USB in general

I love Firewire, i have a MOTU 828 mkIi and its great, however as of my last laptop purchase its kind of becomming obsolete.

Laptops are no longer coming with Firewire, or sadly even PCMCIA anymore or certainly not at the lower price points, and I don't particularly want to pay out twice as much for my laptop becuase i like having one to mobile record its not my main DAW.

Previously i had the option of recording mobiliy to my laptop through the 828 then moving to the main DAW and still using the 828. Now I am going to have to look at alternative soundcard for mobile recording.

The good news is the best USB soundcard on the market for my purposes is funnily enough the V-Studio 700 by cakewalk. The only other thing that comes close is the RME USB alternative.

The fact that both RME and MOTU long term Firewire champions are moving towards USB speaks volumes.

The simple fact is that most Desktop and Laptops of the future are going to have one connector type USB 3.0 even the new Light Peak protocal is still going to use that Connector type for compatability.

I am now holding off because i am waiting for USB 3.0 to maature and to see who produces the first USB 3.0 Audio Interface with 8 mic preamps and at least 8 in/out via ADAT, ideally 16.

The other thing that this could give us would be extra DSP

Personally my ideal soundcard would be the following spec.

USB 3.0
8 Mic Preamps
16 (or more given the bandwidth of the new protocol) ADAT in and outs
DSP reverb/comp etc that can be used both for monitoring inputs so i can give vocalists a good sound while still recroding dry. But also that could be applied during mix to take some strain of the PC (i think that this would be a better use of the other Half of the v700 that the Roland Phantom they have bolted on.

This should all be possible via the new protocols bandwidth with the advantage that again in 2 years once USB 3.0 is ubiquitous that it will work with whatever computer i buy, and probably for the next 5-10 years.

If M-Audio bring out a soundcard with similar spec to which i have just described i would probably buy that becuase sadly having Pro-tools of some flavour is still going to prove useful in terms of collaboration.
 
Edit
 
INterestingly enough the new MACKie firwire mixer is now compatable with pro-tools m-powered, and this is available as a $50 upgrade driver from there website. THis suggests to me they are paying some form of license to Pro-Tools to provide compatability, I think that Cakewalk shoudl look into that. Not making it a standard part of driverware, but having it available as a download like the MP3 encoder is.
 
In that situation i would buy the V700 no questions asked, its the best thing out there at the moment, and it would still let me collaborate with the die hard Pro-toolers.
G

It is my understanding that midi latency is less using a PCI card than USB.  If this is true, if there is someone to configure the USB port to have whatever is providing the better latency of the PCI or PCI-e slot, then midi latency should improve at least a little bit.
 
When I had Lynx cards in PCI slots for my midi, I had less midi latency than any USB device I have tried.
 
 
 
 
jackn2mpu



USB3 will NOT reduce any perceived MIDI latency.
A USB 1 or USB 2 interface won't even make contact with the new pins in the USB3 connector so hooking up such an interface to a faster USB3 connector/system won't help.

you're not talking about midi latency you're talking about audio latency when using softsynths. if usb3 allows faster talk-thru times as timboe says, this will mean an improvement in roundtrip latency.

@jackn2mpu

Even MIDI over USB (any flavor) still has to conform to the old timing specs so faster USB protocols won't help.

That's not actually true.  The USB MIDI spec has no throttling mechanism built in (unlike Firewire MIDI, which does).  You can send Sysex dumps over USB MIDI much faster than you can over a MIDI-DIN connection.  Of course, if you're sending data to a USB MIDI interface, with MIDI DIN jacks - it still has to throttle-down the data coming out of the jack.  The lack of throttling only applies to a MIDI routing where data never goes through a MIDI DIN jack.

The timing issues people sometime see with USB MIDI have more to do with a) the Windows software stack that handles USB MIDI message send/receive; b) the use of the Windows MM timer for generating MIDI time stamps in the host (MM timers have a resolution of 1 millisecond at best; often it's worse); c) possible additional timing errors introduced by the 1 millisecond framerate of USB 1.0 (I'm not sure if that's an issue with USB 2.0, which supports micro-frames).  All of these things can add up....

Roland has put a lot of work into improving USB MIDI timing accuracy (in their 'FPT' MIDI drivers: for more see http://www.cakewalk.com/S...px?ID=20090330).  I'm looking forward to seeing how the new A-Pro keyboards perform.

As for USB3 improving MIDI performance - it seems unlikely, unless the underlying issues are handled better.  It's still too easy for MIDI and audio data streams to get out of sync with each other.

- Jim

usb has always been unreliable for me because it's not a steady stream like firewire, for live shows usb3 will be a steady stream and thus be more PC friendly as it is a native PC thing, where firewire isnt. and trying to get Firewire working on a PC is a FN nightmare. I cant even daisy chain 2 firewire devices (motu896mk3 and motu8pre) on my tower and on my Laptop it wont even recognize devices. even after i bought a card for it.

One must never forget that these "new improved" ports are 100% designed with mass market in mind. They will now make a fortune as everything from Printers to cell phone chargers become obsolete.
We are not even on their radar, we just latch on if it will improve our lot. Hopefully it will, but I'm afraid it will just end up costing us money and all we will gain is a ms.
They are most likely already planing USB 4.

Since both Intel and AMD are dragging their feet on USB3.0, it may be a while before we see anything of value. Personally, I prefer to stick to PCI/PCI-e.

http://www.pcmag.com/arti.e2/0,2817,2369322,00.asp

info@tomflair.com


btw: what for? are you going to record 128 tracks at 24/96 simultaneously ?

You WILL need it when we all are recording at 256bit/1536kHz !!!