I just bought a Focusrite Saffire 6 interface and realized that this device uses a USB 1.1 interface. I had expected USB 2.0 for some reason. Latency is ok, but not as good as I had hoped (although the preamps rock!). I can upgrade to a Focusrite Scarlett for about $70 more. My question is this-

For this application, is there a significant latency advantage to USB 2.0 vs 1.1?

I'm assuming that you must have bought this second hand right? I mean your right that there must not be any USB 1.1 stuff sold in the last 5 years or more. I believe this means it's data transfer rate will be slower which I also believe does not matter as much to recording audio as it does to copying files to a hard drive. Try the Centrance RTL test on it.

Cactus Music

...there must not be any USB 1.1 stuff sold in the last 5 years or more.

As far as I know, most Line6 interfaces are still USB1.1, e.g. UX2.

Cactus Music


I'm assuming that you must have bought this second hand right? I mean your right that there must not be any USB 1.1 stuff sold in the last 5 years or more. I believe this means it's data transfer rate will be slower which I also believe does not matter as much to recording audio as it does to copying files to a hard drive. Try the Centrance RTL test on it.

Yeah, I would have assumed that, too. That's why I was surprised to learn it was USB 1.1. But no, this is a current product. GC had 4 of them brand new on the shelf.
 
I tried running the Centrance test on it, and it came back with an error that said it could run the test? Producer is reporting a round trip of 27ms, which I can feel (and don't really like), but it doesn't totally kill my groove. I can set it lower (around 17ms or so) and be ok with guitar, but when I do that, I can't audition any midi drum loops through Session drummer- it'll play 1 or 2 notes and stop. Oddly enough, I can take the same loop and put it in the track view and it'll loop just fine.
 
I tried all the recommended XP tweeks for audio and what not (the computer is a laptop, Dell Lattitude with an Intel Core Duo and 3 gig of ram and an 80 gb SATA drive). Just seems like I ought to be able to do better in the performance department :)

Are you using the Asio drivers?

There should be no difference in latency between USB 1 and 2, at least not because of the different USB standards. 

I think I'd get my money back. Sounds more like bad Divers. Sonar adjusts for latency as far as while your recording goes. You need to monitor at source. Do not use input echo. Another simple test to check Sonar is adjusting latency is to plug an output back into an input. Play and re record to a new track a Kick or snare drum.Something spiky. Zoom in on the wave form peaks and check if they line up. They should be bang on or something is wrong.