KVR Audio

Draagen · Post by **Draagen** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 3:47 am

I am looking for the absolutely best soundcard in terms of getting the absolutely lowest latency. I hope there is some next-gen cards out there and I hope somebody can tell me which.

Merry X everybody and 'Appy NY

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 3:58 am

I think you'll find that at almost any price point, the cards are already up to the task and your computer might need to catch up. On a nice machine, a humble Audiophile 24/96 will still go down to 3ms latency (or less, I don't really know to be honest, but on my mediocre machine I'm getting 6ms, so I'm only guessing).

Greg

Draagen · Post by **Draagen** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 4:05 am

Thx for answering so fast.

I already have different M-Audio cards and they are not really what I am looking for. I have both Delta 44, Audiophile, ESI/WaveCentral and none of these provide me with the power I need.

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 4:28 am

Fair enough. What kind of system do you have, though? It could very well be your card, but it could also be the system.

Greg

7XL · Post by **7XL** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 4:42 am

RME or Lynx.

I know that you're going to get quite a few different opinions, but those are probably the best in low latency, high sampling rate cards out.

I would also say that if low latency and stability are important, stay away from USB or Firewire devices, while they are capable of low latency and good sound quality, nothing is faster or more reliable than an internal card.

For a very cost effective "high quality" sound card, check out the new Echo cards, on a 3.6GHz P4 we got one down to about 3 ms total latency (in and out using software monitoring).

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 8:40 am

I'm with Lunch Money - if the cards you have aren't giving you acceptable performance I would suggest that the problem most likely lies with you computer. I have a much cheaper/nastier card and our drummer triggers sounds from ORION live with no problems.

Draagen · Post by **Draagen** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 1:45 pm

Thx for good suggestions peps.

My main problem is that I have a system consisting of several puters (2.8ghz P4, 1.5 gb ram) linked over network. When I really start pushing sounds through the network - I get some nasty latencies. This is partially due to the network, but also related to the soundcards I am using.

But when you start getting latencies on 30+ms - then you become desperate.

I am desperate.

Which is why I am trying to solve what the absolutely best low latency card is.

: )

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 10:00 pm

In that situation, it's safe to say that your latencies are ONLY due to the network, I'm afraid to say. There's currently no true near-zero latency solution for networked audio that I'm aware of, though the Logic distributed processing stuff looks interesting. (afaik it's not transmitting audio, though)

Greg

SuitcaseOfLizards · Post by **SuitcaseOfLizards** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 10:27 pm

Draagen wrote:Thx for good suggestions peps.

My main problem is that I have a system consisting of several puters (2.8ghz P4, 1.5 gb ram) linked over network. When I really start pushing sounds through the network - I get some nasty latencies. This is partially due to the network, but also related to the soundcards I am using.

But when you start getting latencies on 30+ms - then you become desperate.

I am desperate.

Which is why I am trying to solve what the absolutely best low latency card is.

: )

Are you running Gigabit Ethernet between boxes? Are you running a router, or a switch? Gigabit + a switch should give you plenty of network performance and might save you the cost of soundcards.. which I have to agree with everyone else on, is very likely not your problem. Maybe you should look into setting up a Firewire network between your computers?

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 11:15 pm

Draagen wrote:My main problem is that I have a system consisting of several puters (2.8ghz P4, 1.5 gb ram) linked over network.

Why? Why do so many people around here go out of their way to make things so much harder than they need to be?

K.I.S.S.

Draagen · Post by **Draagen** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 11:30 pm

Well. All puters are running with 1gb intel network cards through a 4gb switch. I do realize that SOME of my latency problems are bound to sending aprox 100x2 44.1 .wav files through the network at one time, however I also have serious latency issues without that many. I am not looking for a zero-latency solution, but I am looking for ways to get the latencies down.

Anyway. Thx for helping everybody. I guess I can only conclude that I am gonna be screwed for a good while.

Draagen · Post by **Draagen** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 11:33 pm

Btw. Good reply Bones. You are right about it. Sometimes we spend WAY too much time solving the little idiotic issues - then working on the real ones (composing). No tech can save our lives, unless you are married to a Yamaha arrangement synth.

Guess we are just too... too... spoiled?

grillo · Post by **grillo** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 11:48 pm

Hi, just a suggestion here, do you use Fx Teleport? I don't, since i don't really have a network system, but i heard people raving about it, it has latency compensation for the net system which should be your only concern here, at least if you set up your system with the main audio outs (to the monitor system i mean) coming from a single computer and soundcard.

Please correct me if i'm wrong, but if i had a network i'd set up a main sequencer on a daw and use the others as extra processing powerhouses, like old fx racks or expanders, now i can do this by routing audio ins and outs from soundcards to soundcards but i'd need a good card on every pc and if i'm passing through ad / da stages in the chain i think i'm pretty much screwed with latencies adding up.

But fx teleport streams audio and midi over the lan (compensating) which sounds a lot like having an adat link with sync, another thing that maybe could help, but probably i'm saying a lot of bullshit.

Draagen · Post by **Draagen** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 12:28 am

Its not bullshit at all. I am actually considering going from a teleported solution towards adat. But it seems so incredibly old school going back to using soundcards. Teleported options is the best there is right now. I just wished there would be a kernel based version of it or a standard (please Yamaha) solution that would just rock.

pitchdrifter · Post by **pitchdrifter** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 12:48 am

currently am working on a setup like this myself, and with the lack of response from Max of Max-FX its rather frustrating I must say. Having a few issues with fx teleport and it doesn't appear they're going to be fixed anytime soon.
As it looks now I'll have to put an adat card into each sampler box, get some sort of adat to madi box (no idea where from yet), and hdsp madi for the daw. Bleh.

Best low latency card