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Looper's Delight
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The FW410 gives me about 5ms in, 4ms out latency, for a total of 9ms, whereas I think I was at somewhere between 14 and 24 (depending on sample rate) in Ableton using the Quattro USB. The biggest advantage over USB is bandwidth -- M-Audio's USB units are (I think) all USB 1.1, not 2.0, so you're pretty limited in the way of throughput. Add to this that USB audio interfaces don't tend to like to share the USB bus (with things like USB MIDI keyboards, controllers, mice etc), and you can end up with a logjam pretty quickly. I was experiencing some clicks, pops, and, when using over 8 or 9 tracks, inexplicable full-bar dropouts over USB. All of this is gone with the FW unit, which also boasts two preamps w/48v phantom power, and a much better routing/mixing software than the USB units. Plus, for under $400, it's by far the cheapest (and smallest) firewire unit out there. I *have* overheard some mac users grumbling about conflicts with other FW devices (particularly cameras), but I haven't tried any chaining yet, so I can't attest to this on the Win side. cheers, gene ----- Original Message ----- From: Joe Balestreri To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com Sent: Monday, September 29, 2003 10:21 AM Subject: M-Audio Firewire interface (was Looping with a PC laptop... which one?) I just saw that interface the other day and I've been wondering about it... are you getting lower latency than with USB? I'm using Ableton Live with M-Audio's Audiophile USB interface, and I have to have the latency at around 400 samples to run 8-9 tracks. (This is on a G3 powerbook with OSX, though). This is manageable but lower would be better... Also, do you see any other advantages to using firewire? Thanks, Joe B. Gene Ehrbar <gene@anomalyinc.com> wrote: I'll put in a plug for my HP laptop -- a ZE4115 (1.5GHZ, bought a year ago for $1200, and I'm now seeing comparably-equipped models for under $1000) -- I've used this live quite a bit, and have never had any issues (other than Ableton crashing, which is their problem ;-) -- FYI, I just picked up the new M-audio Firewire 410 audio interface, which has been a *big* improvement over USB (if your laptop doesn't have firewire, you can pick up a firewire PCMCIA card for around twenty bucks). HTH, gene ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Sottilaro" To: Sent: Monday, September 29, 2003 7:39 AM Subject: Re: Looping with a PC laptop... which one? > This is all great stuff guys, I appreciate it. You don't get this > information on consumer report. I hav! e heard horror stories about > Toshibas though. > > Mark > > On Monday, September 29, 2003, at 06:38 AM, Jonah, Jim wrote: > > > My past laptop experiences: > > > > Dell: two previous employers (dot coms) used dells. Every Dell I had > > required service. The last one eventually was completely replaced one > > part > > at a time (2 screens, 1 motherboard, 1 harddrive, and one battery). > > All five > > of the programmers in my group needed service on their dell lattitudes > > right > > around the one year mark. Within the office we were running about a 30% > > repair rate for the Dell laptops. > > > > Some random issues were never solved (cpu spikes). > > > > Toshiba: rock solid, never needed service, consistent performance, > > ergonomic > > case (at least better than the Dell and the Thinkpad).! > > > > IBM Thinkpad: brick (in weight and ergonomics), overpriced, available > > features seemed to always trail other manufacturers, never needed > > service. > > > > Not had the pleasure of owning a Mac laptop, just lots of Mac > > desktops. It > > seems that by the time you beef up a windows laptop (Ram, Harddrive > > space, > > CD burner or DVD burner) they are much closer in price difference than > > you'd > > find in the desktop world. > > > > If you get a Dell, research the extended warranties and get one. > > > > If I were to buy one today I'd look at Toshiba, Sony, and Apple. > > > > Jim > > > > > > > > The contents of this e-mail are intended for the named addressee only. > > It > > contains information that may be confidential. Unless you are the named &g! t; > addressee or an authorized designee, you may not copy or use it, or > > disclose > > it to anyone else. If you received it in error please notify us > > immediately > > and then destroy it. > > > > > Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search