Quote:
Originally Posted by
DistortingJack
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I spoke to one of the guys working for RME. They use custom chips for their USB connection. The standard controller code on the USB connection that you buy from people making said USB connectors gives you a minimum I/O latency of about 12 ms. If you re-write the controller code specifically for audio, as well as being very good at coding the operating system drivers themselves, you can get very low latency via USB 2, which is what RME use on their low-track-count models.
I must say, I use Audient stuff to record metal guitars using native plugins and I have guys sweep-picking left right and centre without serious issues. Unless you're a drummer, or either a classical or very technical jazz musician, you should be able to work with a few ms of latency. A singer or pop music producer complaining about 15 ms of latency will get a raised eyebrow from me.
Btw sometimes latency can cause phase issues for singers when combined with the direct sound – the polarity switch is usually enough to fix that.
I got it.
So the real main difference, from what I've understood, is more about dsp than connector.
If I plug my guitar in DI and use vst for distortion, if I don't have an interface with dsp processing that plugin I must wait for the signal passing from DAW and coming back. And this could produce a large latency which may make me play out of sync.
You can play and sing with direct monitor listening clean signal in many cases but not when you are playing guitar with distortion.
beside there are many effects which you need to monitor while you are playing - i'm thinking for instance about U2 guitars all based on delay which itself produces the notes of their riffs. You can't record guitar like that and not being able to monitor the processed signal.
If my interface has no dsp or its dsp only works for mixing, I have to rely on drivers and pc power for monitoring my guitar processed signal.
I have some doubts thou: Arrow would allow me to hear me back with very low latency applying some effects or guitar amp simulator, record the clean signal, and then process it later with different daw plugins... right?
An interface like audient id22 wouldn't allow me to have such a low delay when I play - still can't figure out how much it's audible - but has much more inputs, it would allows me to use send-return effects - I hope in this case direct monitor would send me back the signal AFTER passing send-return loop - and I could hope for some improvement of their windows drivers.
If what i wrote above is correct, I'm very undecided. If audient's latency may result negligible for my ears when applying guitar vst, id 22 would be definitely preferable for my needs and much more versatile.
+Arrow seems very good, I don't know how much its preamps are better than Audient's but I know they are very good, andanyway I would be sure I could play without going out of sync.
- I couldn't use it with my notebook as it has no tb3 interface
- I should pay a lot for UAD plugins in case I needed one in particular to apply in real time if those provided are not useful for me.
- I'd have no better latency in case I didn't exploit onboard dsp but pass through daw
-It's very limited in input /output numbers
