Audio Interface

[chinkmusic]

Hi, hi....

Have a question to ask, do hope Cheez can chip in your opinion, cos i read that you using echo miamidi too.... Well, my second real investment other than my pc would be the soundcard.... What is the least/ optimum latency that echo's PCI miamidi is giving you guys? Thinking of getting that one.... i mostly sequence wif vstis, dun do audio recording since i dun haf a soundproof environment to do it...

Other den miamidi, any other good cards of the $200-300 range to recommend? Those with good asio drivers capable of bringing latency close to 1-3ms?

 

[Cheez]

Hi chinkmusic, I don't own Miamidi. But I know some of SOFTies here do (at least one). I use Echo products all along. My first soundcard was Echo Gina (20bit version, not the 24bit version). Now that I've converted to notebook, I'm using Echo Indigo io. If I'm to revert back to PC again, Miamidi is definitely one of the PCI cards I'll seriously consider.

So experience from Echo Gina and Indigo io with repect to VSTis - extremely low latency. One of the main reasons of me having Echo is the GSIF drivers for my Gigastudio - not all products have that years ago. Now almost all (but not all) have GSIF drivers. Experience with Giga using Echo - latency close to zero. Almost undetectable. Performing live with it is not problem - and I've done that using Giga and my notebook running huge numbers of tracks simulataneously: all at near zero latency.

The other thing I like about Echo is their excellent tech support. There were some unusual conflict with my PCMCIA slot (a particular brand) with the Echo Indigo. Emailed them. The guy usually takes 2 days to respond because he is really busy (it's always the same guy). Then a software fix was sent to me that worked like a dream. Furthermore, Swizer who sells Echo products in Singapore has been excellent in support as well. They even deliver it to the nearest MRT station closest to my home - and waited for me (because I was not able to pick it up at the shop located in Katong Shopping Center). He told me he's got a few more deliveries to make that day - personal deliveries! Nice guy as well. We had a nice chat re: future of firewire audio products (during the days when firewire products were just emerging in the market, with Echo as one of the leading ones).

But I'm just biased towards Echo because I've always been using it. Others will definitely talk about M-audio (eg Audiophile 2496) and E-mu (eg 0404) etc. I'll leave it to the rest to comment...

 

[blueprintstudios]

i'm using Echo audio layla24 and yes, kevin of swizer rocks.

 

[chinkmusic]

Hey,

Thanks for all the swift responses, and yes, i have spoken to kevin of swizer over the phone, friendly guy, emailed me a list of their product prices too....well, since i get mostly positive comments, i suppose my mind is made on getting an echo product, just have to decide which one suits my needs most.... Cheers, fellas!

 

[chinkmusic]

Hmm,

On second thoughts, haha, echo offers pci and firewire, is it true that pci is more stable than firewire? It is after mounted on a pci slot of our motherboard, rather than an external firewire hardware..... Speed wise, pci is faster or firewire? Thanks for all your precious inputs!

 

[Cheez]

PCI is way faster. Well, most firewire cards are PCI cards!

A PCI card can sustain a transfer rate of up to 132MB/sec. Firewire (at 400Mbit/sec - ie 1394a) can only go up to 30MB/sec.

Firewire will be useful for mobile recording on notebooks. But if you have a desktop, always go for PCI.

However, latency is apparently not related to throughput. For both firewire and PCI, you'll probably not notice any difference in latency. However, the throughput is different - much higher in PCI than firewire. That means you should be able to push more information through PCI than firewire before getting dropouts or error messages or crackling etc, which also means you should be able to get more tracks of simultaneous recording/playback on the PCI than firewire.

 

[Cheez]

i'm using Echo audio layla24 and yes, kevin of swizer rocks.

So is the "real" tech guy from Echo itself - I think his name is Marcel or something like that. Email him re: any problems tech related and he'll get back to you in 2 days (taking in account different time zones) with a solution.

By the way, M-audio and Emu users should also respond. Echo users are dominating this thread! We're biased.

 

[Indigo_blues]

i recently started using a Motu 828 firewire for some recordings.. the results are not bad.. Fuss free installation also.

Highest number of simultaneous tracks i recorded was 4 because of the limitation set by cubase LE. No noticable latency issues but i do notice some pops once in a while during playback only but not sure whether its related to the motu.. the recorded tracks have been pretty good. Its quite an upgrade from my old soundblaster audigy.

The only problem is i can't seem to get the headphone monitor jack to work.. not sure if there's some software setting somewhere i haven't figured out.

 

[chinkmusic]

Haha, true, this thread seems to discuss only echo cards..... Great, think for my budget, and needs, won't be doing any audio recording at home, so i guess miamidi would suffice in this case.... i know of a friend using m-audio delta pci, also not bad reviews by him, very low latency as well, just that i'm keeping my fingers crossed after hearing more cons den pro about m-audio's hardware....

Friends across the straits seems to highly recommend edirol's ua25 though, running thru usb power, hmm, not too sure about that since usb is unstable/ slow, but so far i hear only good comments about it...Hm, shall wait out for several more comments b4 i decide whether to get echo miamidi or now, just waiting for someone to list any bad experiences with echo, haha... but seems like echo sounds great so far....

 

[chinkmusic]

Heard that motu somehow doesn't run very well with pcs, works like magic with macs instead.... not so sure about that though, indigo_blues, u using mac or pc? I m using motu 828 with my mac in my workplace though, so far works perfect, no prob with it.....

 

[Cheez]

just waiting for someone to list any bad experiences with echo

You won't find any!

 

[bernardgoh]

Motu works absolutly fine with PC and Mac... indoor and outdoors.

 

[Cheez]

Too bad that MOTU doesn't have something cheaper with less IOs - not everybody needs that number of IOs, especially those not doing recording of too many simulataneous tracks.

 

[Indigo_blues]

hey chink, isn't blueprintstudios trying to sell off his echo layla24 for $400? sounds like a good deal.

I'm using the motu 828 on my diy pc. No problems except sometimes when i turn it on there is this very soft clicking sound coming from the unit.. off and on a few times and its ok.. do u get this problem as well?

A few years ago when i first used the motu 828 on cakewalk on the pc there was this horrible digital crackle whenever u scrub the audio tracks forward and backwards but i'm happy to say thats all gone now after coming back to it a few years later... motu must have upgraded and improved their pc drivers.. now i have no problems at all with the cubase.. it really works like a charm.

 

[blueprintstudios]

hahah i realised i had a self-invented use for it so increased back to $500.. but if chink's interested I would still go back to the old pricing just for him.

to chip in, i have friends using both mia midi and motu 828. both of em are good. but it depends on your usage mainly.

increase your variety of choices and check out m-audio too. another friend of mine's been buggin me to change my layla24 to m-audio delta1010 which really works like a charm for him. he's using PC by the way.

30¢ worth

 

[chinkmusic]

Hi, hey, thanks for the kind offer, blueprintstudio, hehe, i saw your ad earlier too, but decided that i wun need so many in-out/puts afterall, so should be getting something just enough for my present needs, really, thanks for your kind offer!!

In that case, shall be getting miamidi den, after i come back from my overseas trip next week..... Thanks for all opnions/advices!

 

[blueprintstudios]

heheh cheers. keep us updated

 

[chinkmusic]

Hey hey hey!!! I finally got my miamidi... Hm, how do i get sounds out from it? My cubase recognizes the card, and everything seems to be working, i see signals when i play my vsts, but i can't hear any sound...? I m using cheap computer speakers to try out, but i suppose i have to use the two 1/4" outputs from the back of the pci card as outputs? But how come i m still hearing sounds when i m using other aplications like WMP or real player, with my speakers plugged to the old soundcard i have?

 

[teraslasch]

u have to plug it into ur new soundcard if u wan sound to be heard from ur new soundcard.. :lol:.. as in cubase , the output is ur new soundcard's , not ur old.

 

[blueprintstudios]

how much you bought your miamidi for?

yes you gotta use the outputs from your PCI card > speakers.

here's how your comp should be like now :

Mainboard > Old Soundcard > (little green hole) speakers.

Mainboard > MiaMidi > ??

and pls go to [start]>[settings]>[control panel]>[sounds and audio devices properties]>[Audio]> from there you should be able to choose what your computer will play from.



if you're using cubase etc, there should be settings on what is the DEFAULT playback/recording card.

hope this helps.