KVR Audio

musicworld · Post by **musicworld** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 6:21 pm

Hi,

could anyone tell me which product would be best in terms of low latency and musical performance (M-audio's audiophile 192 pci card)
or (M-audio's fast-track pro audio interface) and which is better to have an "internal" pci card or an "external" audio interface. I'm a solo musician working with one midi device, VST plugins, and a sequencer, but am in need of a pro-audio card, "any tips"..

Thanks
Musicmad

ruczaj · Post by **ruczaj** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 7:19 pm

Hi
External cards (firewire or usb) are told to be free from noise made by electricity which is inside of computer. There are a lot of electric devices in computer case, especially power supply, which could interfere with inner audio card and make some hiss or noise.
Try here to narrow down your hunt:
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vonRed · Post by **vonRed** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 7:20 pm

It will depend on your particular hardware, but generally PCI cards will give you the lowest latencies, USB the highest. You should also take into account things like how many channels the card has, if it has preamps, etc.

vonRed · Post by **vonRed** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 7:24 pm

ruczaj wrote:Hi
External cards (firewire or usb) are told to be free from noise made by electricity which is inside of computer. There are a lot of electric devices in computer case, especially power supply, which could interfere with inner audio card and make some hiss or noise.

You hear this a lot, however, it's not necessarily true. Here's a test of E-MU's 1212m and 1820m, basically identical hardware, one internal and one external, tested in the same machine: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1 ... 574,00.asp.

ruczaj · Post by **ruczaj** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 7:43 pm

OK, I have only usb and firewire equipment, so no comparison... But I use two or more computers, so in my case more flexible is to have external card which I can use with any computer.

Shane Sanders · Post by **Shane Sanders** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 4:41 pm

musicworld wrote:Hi,

could anyone tell me which product would be best in terms of low latency and musical performance (M-audio's audiophile 192 pci card)
or (M-audio's fast-track pro audio interface) and which is better to have an "internal" pci card or an "external" audio interface. I'm a solo musician working with one midi device, VST plugins, and a sequencer, but am in need of a pro-audio card, "any tips"..

Thanks
Musicmad

I have the Fast Track Pro. I get 2ms of latency. They have Vista drivers for it, too.

I like it because it has balanced/unbalanced in/out and it has a MIDI in/out. Plus it powers off the USB cable, so no wall wart.

Help choosing a sound card