KVR Audio

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Thu Aug 16, 2012 8:57 am

forget about a soundblaster for anything real working with a DAW. Period, full stop.

RME makes PCI-e cards. there is your answer unless you can't afford. Multiface 2 isn't that expensive considering.

osiris · Post by **osiris** » Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:52 pm

Creative updated their ASIO driver. I have the X-Fi and I get 2 ms latency. If you can get lower, congrats. The only think I don't like is no RCA outputs. Makes my monitors useless unless I get a 2.1 gaming system (not), or an amp with digital in.

bronxsound · Post by **bronxsound** » Thu Aug 16, 2012 1:00 pm

ESI 1010 PCIe

highkoo · Post by **highkoo** » Thu Aug 16, 2012 4:11 pm

robotmonkey wrote:First, there really isn't any. Well, of course except some really expensive stuff from RME, SC and TC. I think I have seen a cheaper card or two from Maya/ESI though. But not sure.

Second, Creative Sound Cards are not proper audio interfaces. You could use them, but not an ideal solution.

Exactly.
And it is not really fair to say that the new alternatives to the old king of the non-pro market, the $95 M-Audio 2496, are the current $300-$500+ options available now.
I doubt RME saw a huge jump up in sales once the M-Audio/Maya options werent around. However, I bet sales of all externals are now through the roof.

jdnz · Post by **jdnz** » Sat Aug 18, 2012 8:20 am

highkoo wrote:
robotmonkey wrote: I doubt RME saw a huge jump up in sales once the M-Audio/Maya options werent around. However, I bet sales of all externals are now through the roof.

Esi still have the maya and julia in production though - both pcie and pci. Sure they're not in he same league as an rme, but a perfectly viable replacement for the m-audio at the same price level

Kaboom75 · Post by **Kaboom75** » Sat Aug 18, 2012 1:00 pm

X-Fi Titanium has phono out for none digital stereo amplifiers you dont need a digital cable for it.

ASIO on the creative X-FI Titanium is 2MS in total. I have to set it higher so the 3.6Ghz i7 has time to keep up with it.

It can run a DAW at 44khz 48, 96 or 192khz

I use U-he DIVA and Omnisphere and many others in Ableton live 8 also tried Studio One 2 with mixes 9GB in size and many tracks no problems with this card.

The only diference I can see on cards for music production is they have many sockets to plug hardware synthesizers in and thats it.

highkoo · Post by **highkoo** » Sat Aug 18, 2012 1:50 pm

jdnz wrote: Esi still have the maya and julia in production though - both pcie and pci. Sure they're not in he same league as an rme, but a perfectly viable replacement for the m-audio at the same price level

Are they actually still making them?
They Maya is listed on their site, but the only places that seem to have it 'in stock' are lesser known sites. Its not at many places and it lists as discontinued at some.

jdnz · Post by **jdnz** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 4:36 am

highkoo wrote: They Maya is listed on their site, but the only places that seem to have it 'in stock' are lesser known sites.

thomann.de show plenty of stock : http://www.thomann.de/gb/esi_maya_44_xte.htm

Ashe37 · Post by **Ashe37** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 5:28 am

So did Creative fix their ASIO drivers under 64-bit Windows?

osiris · Post by **osiris** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 12:38 pm

Mine have run like a champ.

Kaboom75 · Post by **Kaboom75** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 1:19 pm

Never had driver problems with creative cards in 11 years using them.
Some people use the low budget X-FI gamer which is an 8 year old card with a driver that runs proper X-FI features on one of your CPU cores maybe thats why some are a bit iffy with DAWS.

Ashe37 · Post by **Ashe37** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 8:32 pm

I was asking because when i tested an HP z400 with a Creative PCIe card in it a few years ago, ASIO was disabled in 64-bit windows.

P.T. · Post by **P.T.** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 8:51 pm

Kaboom75 wrote:X-Fi Titanium has phono out for none digital stereo amplifiers you dont need a digital cable for it.

ASIO on the creative X-FI Titanium is 2MS in total. I have to set it higher so the 3.6Ghz i7 has time to keep up with it.

It can run a DAW at 44khz 48, 96 or 192khz

I use U-he DIVA and Omnisphere and many others in Ableton live 8 also tried Studio One 2 with mixes 9GB in size and many tracks no problems with this card.

The only diference I can see on cards for music production is they have many sockets to plug hardware synthesizers in and thats it.

This makes me question the latency of 2ms.

If you can't run it at 2ms I would think that it isn't capable of 2ms.
Why wouldn't a 3.6 Ghz i7 not be able to keep up?

I'd like to think that this card is an option because just about every other manufacturer has abandoned the internal card market in the lower price ranges.

highkoo · Post by **highkoo** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 9:48 pm

jdnz wrote:
highkoo wrote: They Maya is listed on their site, but the only places that seem to have it 'in stock' are lesser known sites.
thomann.de show plenty of stock : http://www.thomann.de/gb/esi_maya_44_xte.htm

So does that mean they are still making them or what?

osiris · Post by **osiris** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 10:52 pm

I run mine at 3 ms, but if you want any lower.....

PCIe soundcard?