octa capture

I bought an Octa-Capture about two months ago, to replace a dead Saffire Pro 40 (firewire).   Craig Anderton has a very in depth review of the Octa-Capture on harmony central.   It's been working without problems, basically I power it on and it works.  It's set at the initial default buffer size and I haven't had a need to change it, although I could get lower latency if I needed it.

I was done with firewire (which many say is on the way out) and it's finickyness with firewire chips in the PC (I have a T.I. chipset) (and higher latency than USB).

The hardware section of the forum has some threads on the Octa-Capture

It looks like both are evenly matched as far as latency is concerned. The Fireface lacks the effects the OC has which is not a big deal IMO.

It depends what you want. You'll probably get better quality with the FF but the OC is no slouch at all.

+1 with the octa capture, and it has nice preamps!

Ken,

I don't have the octa capture yet, but was saving up for one, with further plan to get the second octa to link up. However after the firmware upgrade and reading about the problem you're facing, I decided not to proceed at the moment, till Roland solve the issue.

I've written to Roland support about this, with a link to this thread, hopefully they will resolve the issue.

The RME is the bets choice, but OctaCapture is the next choice imho!

Lance

Thanks guys , some very interesting answers there. 

I do use a fair amount of virtual inst, such as steven slate drums, garritan strings, plus all the x1 bundled stuff, so a playable latency is important to me. I only have a home studio so im not sure i would notice the audio quality difference in the RME that is indeed if there is one and at £750 instead of just over £500 for the Octa, im not sure thats justifiable, when i can probably spend the difference in ££ making my signal chain better quality elsewhere.

I would actually like to do away with my huge mixing desk, as i have no real need for it, so the octa seems like an ideal solution. Real shame it only has one headphone ouptput tho

Bibs

yeah the babyface is kick ass, and so is the Octa offerings

Lance

Hadn't considered the babyface, looks good!

Tascam US-1800 here. 8 XLRs and 6 jacks = 14 analog inputs. Very good pre's, low noise and uncomplicated to use.

I use Sonar like a tape recorder and latency has never been an issue.

If you could tell me how one measures it, I'll try find out. Does it have to do with the smallest buffer samples count before breakup?

fireberd


I bought an Octa-Capture about two months ago, to replace a dead Saffire Pro 40 (firewire).   Craig Anderton has a very in depth review of the Octa-Capture on harmony central. 

Indeed I do...it's a pro review with specs and all that good stuff.
I've been very happy with it. You can't go wrong with either the Octa or the RME so the feature set is what will make the difference. My fave Octa-Capture features:
 
* Auto-sens. At first I hought it was a gimmick, I was wrong.
* 5-pin MIDI I/O
* Expands the V-Studio 700 with zero issues
* Eight mic pres with individual phantom power for each mic
* Doesn't take up much space
* Low latency

How are the OctaCapture preamps compared to the old Laya24? Noticeable difference?

inaheartbeat

Hey Craig,
Have you expanded your V700 with an Octa-Capture with the latest firmware without any issues? If so I would love to see what your settings and physical interconnects are to compare them to my failed attempts to get this to work properly with the newest firmware. They used to work flawlessly together. Now it is a disaster still and no support from Roland. I am about ready to dive in and try to beat on it again to make it work right but any help would be greatly appreciated.


Ken

First of all, have you downloaded the 2.0.1 driver for the VS-700? If you're still on 2.0.0, then trying to do expand will give a "version does not match" error message.
 
Second, in Preferences, Sonar does not show the words "Octa-Capture." The OC I/O is referred to as "VS-700 EXP" so if you just glance at preferences, you might not think the OC is there.
 
If you have the 2.0.1 driver and are still experiencing problems, circle back and we'll go to the next level. Do remember the VS-700 and OC USB have to feed off the same USB contoller.
 
Everything works perfectly here, so it's definitely possible :)
 

 

Anderton

inaheartbeat

Hey Craig,
Have you expanded your V700 with an Octa-Capture with the latest firmware without any issues? If so I would love to see what your settings and physical interconnects are to compare them to my failed attempts to get this to work properly with the newest firmware. They used to work flawlessly together. Now it is a disaster still and no support from Roland. I am about ready to dive in and try to beat on it again to make it work right but any help would be greatly appreciated.


Ken

First of all, have you downloaded the 2.0.1 driver for the VS-700? If you're still on 2.0.0, then trying to do expand will give a "version does not match" error message.
 
Second, in Preferences, Sonar does not show the words "Octa-Capture." The OC I/O is referred to as "VS-700 EXP" so if you just glance at preferences, you might not think the OC is there.
 
If you have the 2.0.1 driver and are still experiencing problems, circle back and we'll go to the next level. Do remember the VS-700 and OC USB have to feed off the same USB contoller.
 
Everything works perfectly here, so it's definitely possible :)
 

 

Craig,
My bad on the way I worded this so let me be more specific. I am trying to use two Octa-Captures together at the same time rather than a VS-700 and an Octa-Capture. I have had major problems making them play together since I updated the firmware and driver to 2.0. They had been working perfectly with the original 1.0 drivers and firmware.


Ken

Anderton

inaheartbeat

Hey Craig,
Have you expanded your V700 with an Octa-Capture with the latest firmware without any issues? If so I would love to see what your settings and physical interconnects are to compare them to my failed attempts to get this to work properly with the newest firmware. They used to work flawlessly together. Now it is a disaster still and no support from Roland. I am about ready to dive in and try to beat on it again to make it work right but any help would be greatly appreciated.


Ken

First of all, have you downloaded the 2.0.1 driver for the VS-700? If you're still on 2.0.0, then trying to do expand will give a "version does not match" error message.
 
Second, in Preferences, Sonar does not show the words "Octa-Capture." The OC I/O is referred to as "VS-700 EXP" so if you just glance at preferences, you might not think the OC is there.
 
If you have the 2.0.1 driver and are still experiencing problems, circle back and we'll go to the next level. Do remember the VS-700 and OC USB have to feed off the same USB contoller.
 
Everything works perfectly here, so it's definitely possible :)
 

 

Hi Craig!
 
I hope your system (VS-700 + Octa-Capture) still works as nicely as described and you might help me out as I cannot get mine to work even reasonably.
 
FYI, I did read the manual, install everything as documented (2.0.1 driver), hook it up accordingly, set sync source to DIGITAL 1 on the VS-700 ...
 
What I get is a totally mediocre / practically unusable latency i.e. I have to increase the ASIO buffer so much (up to 1024 as 512 still pops and cracks) that the latency is beyond anything you could use for tracking real instruments.
 
This really puzzles me as the Octa-Capture did work nicely when paired with the VS-100 in my mobile rig, but with VS-700 it does not (same PC, only longer COAX cable and different USB 2.0 hub ... but I tried to swap the later 2 without success).
 
Is my PC so under-spec'd for VS-700 + OctaCapture (manual say Intel(R)Core(TM)2 Quad or better) or is there something else that's wrong ...???
 
I'd very much appreciate help from your end or from other fellow VS-700 owners
 
Rob