KVR Audio

AstralExistence · Post by **AstralExistence** » Tue Apr 14, 2015 9:58 pm

am i the only one that noticed this? or is just me? i just did a test using fl studio and bitwig studio. in fl studio

with the latency set at 2ms with 2i2 drivers i get 39 under runs. and that not even even using the lowest setting vs asio 4 all. why? because the focusrite drivers can't go the same low 2ms as the asio 4 all. its like the focusrite drivers only do a very high latency version of 2ms, and with the latency that low, the 39 underruns occur. now i realize that i don't need to have my latency set at 2ms and considering i don't do real time recording its not even a requirement.

the point im trying to make is, both fl studio and bitwig studio using the asio4all drivers can go so insanely low latency with so few underruns thats its not even possible to go any lower technology wise and the focusrite drivers, which are commercial, and also include a dongle in the case of the interface crap out when using such low latency settings. also the focusrite latency settings are controlled by the focus rite drivers not being able to go nearly as low latency wise as the asio4all, and only being able to go as high as a laughable 10ms where as the asio4all drivers can be raised to a maximum of 2048 ms for a higher cpu load.

how is this possible for a free product to not only out gun, but obliterate a commercial product like the 2i2 drivers. i see focusrite has a public rep *cough* enforcer who appears on public forums to defend the amazing focusrite products and if he is reading this, i would love nothing more then to see how how explains this away. i have a very powerful pc by modern standards and this is something that should not be.

UltimateOutsider · Post by **UltimateOutsider** » Tue Apr 14, 2015 10:35 pm

AstralExistence wrote:am i the only one that noticed this?

No, the 2i2 has a terrible ASIO driver. It's three times slower than RME USB interfaces at the same sample rate/buffer size and around two times slower than any "average" competing USB interface. (It's even slower than the Access Virus TI running in interface mode, and that's a USB 1.0 device.)

ASIO4ALL just wraps Windows WDM audio in ASIO format; it bypasses the interface manufacturer's ASIO driver- that's why you're getting different performance.

Also, I hate the Scarlett's control panel, where you have an "ms" slider instead of just a powers-of-two sample buffer selector like nearly every other interface has. It's misleading and confusing.

AstralExistence · Post by **AstralExistence** » Tue Apr 14, 2015 11:09 pm

is there any benefit to buying a new usb interface vs just using the hardware box as an er audio interface for connectivity through my studio monitors and utilizing the asio4all drivers. its amazing how well focusrite has swept this issue under the rug because of there 'forum enforcer' i hope all the kvr users read this and word gets out how much these drivers well, suck.

what about the actual hardware in the interface? besides the piss poor driver, and i don't use the word 'beside' lightly but the build quality seems really strong of the actual hardware. like a small tank. to bad they put more effort into building the hardware then developing the software

UltimateOutsider · Post by **UltimateOutsider** » Tue Apr 14, 2015 11:38 pm

AstralExistence wrote:is there any benefit to buying a new usb interface vs just using the hardware box as an er audio interface for connectivity through my studio monitors

If you're happy with your results and performance when using ASIO4ALL I'm guessing you wouldn't feel much of an improvement by replacing the 2i2 with another interface? You're already getting the benefit of pro balanced outputs. But honestly, other than just occasional experiments, I've never used an interface via ASIO4ALL- I always use the native ASIO drivers- so I can't comment on any limitations or quality issues you might have with that method. Maybe it's fine? Just don't know.

The 2i2 is super popular because it's inexpensive and reliable. Its ASIO performance is the worst, but that's not always a showstopper if you're able to use direct monitoring (not everyone likes to work that way).

Build quality is fine, although I don't like the gain pots- they seem to get sloppy when you've got them turned up most of the way. Plus the preamps aren't very strong (but most USB interfaces don't have very strong preamps anyway).

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Tue Apr 14, 2015 11:49 pm

Using ASIO4ALL here too, even though my sound card also comes with an ASIO driver. I get the same latency, and i'm able to control the volume when i'm using ASIO4ALL which i'm not able to do with the native ASIO driver.

Deep Purple · Post by **Deep Purple** » Wed Apr 15, 2015 12:03 am

ASIO4ALL here too. Better than my sound card drivers and I can configure it to use a different input soundcard than output soundcard which is really useful.

DJMashbot · Post by **DJMashbot** » Wed Apr 15, 2015 12:10 pm

Wow, I'd never considered trying this. I also have the 2i2, but I assumed performance would be better using the focusrite drivers, so I never tried asio4all. I guess I'll give it a shot.

Greg Houston · Post by **Greg Houston** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 4:43 am

I had TAFKAT test the Focusrite Saffire 6 USB some time ago for the "Audio Interface - Low Latency Performance Data Base" on Gearslutz and it scored at the very very bottom of the list! Haha. The current drivers for the Focusrite firewire devices are excellent however.

crashedthecar · Post by **crashedthecar** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 5:21 am

Actually the op makes sense.
When I used samplitude with my 2i4 using its asio driver, threw up errors but using asio 4 all worked without a hitch

SLiC · Post by **SLiC** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 6:09 am

Alesis IO USB interface doesn't even come with an AISO driver, they just tell you to download AISO4ALL !

arkmabat · Post by **arkmabat** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 6:59 am

SLiC wrote:Alesis IO USB interface doesn't even come with an ASIO driver, they just tell you to download ASIO4ALL !

I can confirm this. Maybe even the printed manual does. After much frustration, I threw my used 4 channel (but only 2 channels in 24 bit mode) Alesis device in the garbage. I was Much happier with the UR44. The Alesis was cheap. Cheap plastic. Cheap drivers. I was worried it was going to mess up devices plugged into it. I did buy it used and old so YMMV. I just didn't have a good experience.

gamecat666 · Post by **gamecat666** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 7:35 am

interesting, I always assumed an external USB with dedicated ASIO drivers always assumed to be the de facto standard for low latency. (and that ASIO4all was just a temporary thing to use onboard soundcards at best)

seriously surprised to hear that such a popular device has poor drivers, I was considering one as a future purchase.

I currently use a little Roland/Cakewalk UA-1G and surprisingly they still do ASIO drivers for it (up to windows 8.1). As far as I remember the latency for me is lower then ASIO4all but now i'm going to have to check it to be sure...

natufian · Post by **natufian** » Thu Dec 03, 2015 11:30 pm

Sorry to resurrect a dead thread but I figure it might be useful for someone else in the future (or eventually get enough attention for someone at Focusrite to chime in).
Like you guys, I've been using the Asio4all drivers with my Focusrite Scarlett 18i6 for years, but recently decided to revisit the issue... maybe I must be doing something wrong. No such luck, the Asio4all places me a little over 10ms-- the Focusrite drivers have me at 28ms! I was strongly considering upgrading to the 18i20, but absolutely not with this kind of latency

liquidsound · Post by **liquidsound** » Thu Dec 03, 2015 11:54 pm

Long ago I used M-Audio FastTrackPro and I couldn't get close to Asio4All performance.
I thought that I was doing something wrong or had the wrong drivers, setup, windows craps etc. going on.
Nope.
Asio4All was just better those days as well as now.

DeBro · Post by **DeBro** » Fri Dec 04, 2015 4:31 am

Are you guys using the old 2.5.1 driver? I have A Scarlett 2i2. Last August, Focusrite had on their Windows 10 compatible driver page a beta release driver 3.2.2. After upgrading to Windows 10, I downloaded and install this beta driver and was amazed with the far better performance compared to Windows 8.1 and the old 2.5.1 driver. What puzzles me though is that the new beta driver has since been removed from the Windows 10 compatible driver page and replaced with the old 2.5.1 driver. However, I'm continuing to use the new beta driver in Windows 10 because I have had absolutely no problems with it and the performance is just great. Below is a link to the 3.2.2 beta driver.

http://beta.focusrite.com/releases/focu ... 2_drivers/

seriously??? latency with asio4all leaving focusrite 2i2 drivers in the dust?