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Lowest Latency Fw Audio Interface For Mac

Audio interface latency comparison

.although i have a firewire external hd i don't plan on buying a dock especially for that.i bought an usb-c dock from plugable but i had to send it back because there was a problem with the power delivery. What i tested last weekend was the usb-c to usb adapter from apple to connect my old usb hub (to connect maschine, push and two ipads) and the usb-c to thunderbolt 2 adapter from apple to connect my rme multiface.both were absolutely rock solid.we had two live sessions of 1 hour each with zero problems! macbook pro late 2016, osx 10.13.6, rme multiface via sonnet thunderbolt expresscard adapter + thunderbolt to usb-c adapter, ableton live 10.0.1, push 2, komplete 9, maschine 2.7.6, touchable. Thanks @sheffkoch @fishmonkey for replies Just to confirm some facts - maybe they will be of use to other people.

I just tested my old RME Fireface 400 interface with the new Mac Book Pro 2016 15' Touch Bar edition in the Apple Store - works OK no problems at all. The connection chain was: Apple Thunderbolt 3 - Thunderbolt 2 adapter, Apple Thunderbolt 2 - Firewire 800 adapter, a standard Firewire 800 to 400 cable. I tested it using external power supply on the RME - don't know how it would work without the ext power supply - I heard that the dongles don't give enough power to the device. The latency was very low, although more than often I experienced a click/glitch when arming channels in ableton. A quick search on this forum allowed me to eliminate it partially by disabling Reduce Latency When Monitoring option in live.

However in short buffer settings (like 64) and in high sampling rate settings (96000 Hz) the click/glitch is still there. (on both RME and internal audio card). Interestingly enough I compared it with MBPro 2016 Retina 2.2Ghz - the latency was still low, but I couldn't select very high sampling rate options for RME in the audio driver settings in Live (96 Hz was max on 2015 Retina) (in the MBPro 2016 Touch Bar I could go as high as around 176,400 Hz sampling rate!). This still does not solve my problem whether or not the 2016 MBPro is the right investment for the future as regards music and video performance - the dongle nightmare I could experience on tour scares me off quite a bit. Hence - any advice would be welcome!! Macbook Pro late 2010, OSX 10.10.5, RME Fireface 400, Ableton live 9.7, Komplete 10, Maschine 2.4.7.if you can wait for a year, then wait.there's possibly a new mbp with a 32gb ram option coming.other than that: the 2016 mbp is awesome!the specs don't look like an upgrade on paper but the lower power consumption / less heat of the cpu is a massive advantage.really.i would say throttling because of heat issues is a thing of the past.

macbook pro late 2016, osx 10.13.6, rme multiface via sonnet thunderbolt expresscard adapter + thunderbolt to usb-c adapter, ableton live 10.0.1, push 2, komplete 9, maschine 2.7.6, touchable. Thanks @sheffkoch I actually can't wait longer than until the end of january 2017 It's just more economic for me tax wise now and I know I won't have such next opportunity to upgrade my 2010 MBPro anytime soon. My hands on tests confirm what You say - the speed and efficiency is totally great! Essential for working on stage with video and sound.

My ONLY concern now is the connectivity: I often travel with gigs, work with old equipments in theatres or age-old techniques that will NEVER upgrade to USB C So - if I forget a dongle then I'm screwed Macbook Pro late 2010, OSX 10.10.5, RME Fireface 400, Ableton live 9.7, Komplete 10, Maschine 2.4.7.when a computer gets hot the cpu gets throttled (e.g. By reducing the cpu's turbo boost) so that the computer doesn't get damaged.this could be the case e.g. When you do heavy work for a long period of time (in a live situation).on my old mbp i was able to reduce the computer's heat by disabling the dgpu and only running on the igpu. The new (late 2016) mbp (resp. The skylake cpu and new amd gpu) run so much cooler that the fans kick in much later (and even when they kick in you can hardly hear them!).

The Focusrite Saffire PRO 24 is a firewire audio interface for PC and Mac computers. It offers 16 inputs, 8 outputs, great sounding Focusrite preamps, 2 Hi-Z inputs and a phantom power. It uses JetPLL™ jitter elimination technology that ensures stable clock and pristine audio quality. Features 9/10 Features:. 16 inputs (4 analog, 2 S/PDIF, 2 loopback, 1 x 8 channel optical ADAT)), 8 outputs (6 analog, 2 S/PDIF). 2 Focusrite preamps.

Lowest Latency Fw Audio Interface For Macbook Pro

2 Hi-Z instrument inputs. JetPLL™ jitter elimination technology. Sample rates up to 96kHz. Phantom power. S/PDIF I/O. MIDI I/O This interface has plenty of IOs. What's interesting is a software loopback stereo input which allows recording the output mix of the device.

It's a shame that it lacks simple monitor dim/mute buttons that its DSP equipped brother has (the PRO 24 DSP). I don't think that these are expensive and I would really like to have them in this version as well. Sound quality 9.6/10 The PRO 24 sounds pleasantly with soft low middle range and enough clarity to my ears. It's not as tight sounding as Presonus Firestudio Mobile, but it has a nice character of its own. Hi-Z inputs are really exceptional in this unit. They have plenty of clean gain and sound nothing like most digital devices with instrument inputs.

Best Audio Interface For Mac

Without processing recorded guitar tracks sound full, dynamic and natural. With input gain set to 3.5/10 there's more gain than on other interfaces with gain set to 5 or 7. It has a bit different converters than its less equipped brother. It sounds slightly different.

I think I liked playing through the PRO 14 a little bit better, but I didn't have the opportunity to do comparison tests. Compared to the PRO 14, the PRO 24's guitar inputs sounds a little bit less tight and dynamic. It appears that these are differences in A/D and D/A dynamic range of both units: Parameter Saffire PRO 24 Saffire PRO 14 A/D dynamic range 105dB (A-weighted) 109dB (A-weighted) D/A dynamic range 105dB (A-weighted) 106dB (A-weighted) Saffire PRO 24 vs Saffire PRO 14, information taken from user guides downloaded from www.focusrite.com (FA0268-02, FA0415-01) I noticed a small problem when the unit was powered via Firewire bus - occasional noise appeared in the guitar signal chain and it seemed to have some connection with what was going on with Mac mini that the Saffire was connected to. The problem never appeared when the PRO was powered through the included external power supply. Note that the Mac mini uses a power plug without the earth pin.

Round trip latency, driver performance (Mac OS X Lion, Intel Core i5-2410M) The PRO 24's RTL is greater than 0.703ms compared to the PRO 14. That's probably because of the ADAT optical in. The lowest value is 5.714ms (252 samples @ 44.1kHz) at Core Audio buffer size of 14 samples and 'Firewire driver latency' set to 'Short'. With the buffer set to 128 samples at the same driver latency mode, the latency raises to 10.884ms (480 samples). These are still very good values.

There's no latency drift - it's stable no matter what. Drivers are reliable and their low latency performance is very good.

Low Latency Audio Interface Mac

Audio

Latency raises by 2 samples when using custom mixes via MixControl (you can redirect DAW outputs to physical outputs). Safety buffers can be adjusted through the MixControl app. You can choose between Short, Medium, Long and Very long buffer settings.