KVR Audio

ataraxia89 · Post by **ataraxia89** » Tue Dec 05, 2017 12:37 pm

I've currently got an M-Audio ProFire 610 FireWire interface, which is starting to fail. This has been happening for a very long time and has caused me no end of problems, mainly just stopping production dead because it doesn't work. It struggles to load samples quick enough and I'm therefore getting choppy sound and, whilst using it with Cubase, it will often freeze and sometimes crash the project I'm working on.

I've seen in a few forums that this could be just as much the FireWire card as the interface itself, but it's too much of a hassle to buy a card online, get it, test it, find that it makes no difference, send it back and start again. I've had 3 cards so far.

So I've had enough, has anybody got any recommendations for an audio interface? All I really need at the moment is 2 x 1/4" outputs and a facility for headphones, anything else is a bonus (my MIDI keyboard plugs in via USB). I'm not particularly concerned if it's FireWire, USB, PCI or PCIe, it just needs to be able to keep up. I have East West's Symphonic Orchestra and Pianos VSTs, which can be quite demanding. Cost is whatever it is, if it's expensive I'll save up for it!

Any suggestions?

Edit: Forgotten that I'd done this, here's what I have to put up with!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWu8tEPEYB0

Gosh · Post by **Gosh** » Tue Dec 05, 2017 12:47 pm

ataraxia89 wrote:I've currently got an M-Audio ProFire 610 FireWire interface, which is starting to fail. This has been happening for a very long time and has caused me no end of problems, mainly just stopping production dead because it doesn't work. It struggles to load samples quick enough and I'm therefore getting choppy sound and, whilst using it with Cubase, it will often freeze and sometimes crash the project I'm working on.

I've seen in a few forums that this could be just as much the FireWire card as the interface itself, but it's too much of a hassle to buy a card online, get it, test it, find that it makes no difference, send it back and start again. I've had 3 cards so far.

So I've had enough, has anybody got any recommendations for an audio interface? All I really need at the moment is 2 x 1/4" outputs and a facility for headphones, anything else is a bonus (my MIDI keyboard plugs in via USB). I'm not particularly concerned if it's FireWire, USB, PCI or PCIe, it just needs to be able to keep up. I have East West's Symphonic Orchestra and Pianos VSTs, which can be quite demanding. Cost is whatever it is, if it's expensive I'll save up for it!

Any suggestions?

i'm happy with my steinberg ur22 mk2. it sounds good, the drivers work excellent and the cpu load is low (plus the reviews confirm my observations)
cheers

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Tue Dec 05, 2017 12:54 pm

Which 3 cards have you tried already?

ataraxia89 · Post by **ataraxia89** » Tue Dec 05, 2017 1:04 pm

thecontrolcentre wrote:Which 3 cards have you tried already?

Can't remember the first one, second one was cheap and nasty crap from eBay (admittedly, my fault)(the auction page for this one has expired), the third one is here >> Amazon link

Zexila · Post by **Zexila** » Tue Dec 05, 2017 1:22 pm

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Tue Dec 05, 2017 1:45 pm

Buy a good quality asio audio interface, rather than cheap soundcards and you'll be fine. Native Instruments, Steinberg, Mackie, etc ...

ataraxia89 · Post by **ataraxia89** » Tue Dec 05, 2017 1:50 pm

thecontrolcentre wrote:Buy a good quality asio audio interface, rather than cheap soundcards and you'll be fine. Native Instruments, Steinberg, Mackie, etc ...

Is it the audio interface? Or the FireWire card that it's connected to? FW cards I have no idea what's good and what isn't, I only found out that it needs to have a Texas Instruments chipset, which mine does.

Apratim · Post by **Apratim** » Tue Dec 05, 2017 2:24 pm

ok
1.after seeing your video it seems like you cpu usage is clipping not the audio audio interface (may be i could be wrong just check that in cpu meter)
2.if you are able save money then get xite-1 (not the d model) from
http://scope.zone/index.php?id=1347&lg=en
they also provide some awesome instruments which do not use the cpu(routing of signal might be pain in the ass but its worth it)

or any uad interface (but they dont have any instruments only have effects)

3.why did you buy a m-audio interface in the first place ?? those are awaful as hell

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Tue Dec 05, 2017 2:31 pm

ataraxia89 wrote:
thecontrolcentre wrote:Buy a good quality asio audio interface, rather than cheap soundcards and you'll be fine. Native Instruments, Steinberg, Mackie, etc ...
Is it the audio interface? Or the FireWire card that it's connected to? FW cards I have no idea what's good and what isn't, I only found out that it needs to have a Texas Instruments chipset, which mine does.

Sorry. I was talking about USB audio, not firewire. I've only ever tried one firewire interface, and it was awful. I replaced it with a NI Audio Kontrol 1 which I'm still using. Its outlived 2 laptops ...

Slaapstadseun · Post by **Slaapstadseun** » Tue Dec 05, 2017 2:33 pm

Zexila wrote:

Does this mean the Saffire6 USB is the best or the worst?

ataraxia89 · Post by **ataraxia89** » Tue Dec 05, 2017 2:38 pm

Apratim wrote:ok
1.after seeing your video it seems like you cpu usage is clipping not the audio audio interface (may be i could be wrong just check that in cpu meter)
2.if you are able save money then get xite-1 (not the d model) from
http://scope.zone/index.php?id=1347&lg=en
they also provide some awesome instruments which do not use the cpu(routing of signal might be pain in the ass but its worth it)

or any uad interface (but they dont have any instruments only have effects)

3.why did you buy a m-audio interface in the first place ?? those are awaful as hell

Fairly certain it's not the CPU meter, I think that's the ASIO meter you're seeing which, yes, is failing badly. I have dual quad-core Xeon E5450 3GHz processors and 32GB RAM, everything running 64-Bit.

I bought the M-Audio as it had good reviews! I'm still a beginner at this so I'm at the mercy of other's opinions and reviews.

I also seemingly have no concept of what is "cheap" or "expensive" in terms of interfaces

Apratim · Post by **Apratim** » Tue Dec 05, 2017 3:08 pm

ataraxia89 wrote:
Apratim wrote:ok
1.after seeing your video it seems like you cpu usage is clipping not the audio audio interface (may be i could be wrong just check that in cpu meter)
2.if you are able save money then get xite-1 (not the d model) from
http://scope.zone/index.php?id=1347&lg=en
they also provide some awesome instruments which do not use the cpu(routing of signal might be pain in the ass but its worth it)

or any uad interface (but they dont have any instruments only have effects)

3.why did you buy a m-audio interface in the first place ?? those are awaful as hell
Fairly certain it's not the CPU meter, I think that's the ASIO meter you're seeing which, yes, is failing badly. I have dual quad-core Xeon E5450 3GHz processors and 32GB RAM, everything running 64-Bit.

I bought the M-Audio as it had good reviews! I'm still a beginner at this so I'm at the mercy of other's opinions and reviews.

I also seemingly have no concept of what is "cheap" or "expensive" in terms of interfaces

just go and check the prize of all products i mentioned and see weather you can buy that or not thats all

and damm those cpu are powerful

Zexila · Post by **Zexila** » Tue Dec 05, 2017 7:14 pm

Slaapstadseun wrote:Does this mean the Saffire6 USB is the best or the worst?

Worst.

pljones · Post by **pljones** » Tue Dec 05, 2017 8:05 pm

It still seems really hard to find a good primarily MIDI audio interface (i.e. I need MIDI plus one audio out, with headphones, with low latency and low noise). Also, that list seems to have a lot of discontinued items.

rod_zero · Post by **rod_zero** » Tue Dec 05, 2017 11:04 pm

If you want stability and the best performance out of your system get an RME; yeah they are expensive but totally wirth it, specially if you are on windows.

In mac many brands get good latency, specially the ones using thunderbolt.

What is the best (fastest, low latency) audio interface?