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Radiapathy
Dec 3, 2011

Snooping as usual, I see.

Mutant John posted:

I've got a fairly dumb question here, it seems.
I just got a Steinberg UR22, installed, connected, everything's fine and dandy, but... do I have to connect the thing to monitors (which I... don't own) using the two line-outs?
Does anyone know if there is some magical way to route it so it plays through my PC's speakers?
(Edjit: I'm talking about Amplitube/Guitar Rig use specifically. When I choose the UR22 as an input option, I only get the UR22 as an output option with no way to route it through my PC)
I'll offer yet another solution.

Nearly everyone has a 1/4"-to-1/8" stereo headphone adapter laying around. Instead of using the UR22's main outs, plug one of those adapters into the UR22's headphone jack, and plug your speakers' input cable into that. (Assuming they're typical PC speakers that have a single 1/8" stereo input connection.)

Next (assuming you're on Windows), you open up the Sound control panel, and on the Playback tab, select the UR22, right-click it, and then click Set As Default Device.

This will basically bypass your computer's internal soundcard for everything, including your browser and system sounds, etc. Pretty sure the UR22 has a separate headphone level control. So you get the high-quality inputs, high sample rates, and low latency of the UR22 while recording without having to run out and get some studio monitors.

When you do feel like upgrading your speaker situation, look for active/powered studio monitors. There are plenty of affordable models.

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Flipperwaldt
Nov 11, 2011

Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?



Wow. Do they even still sell passive pc speakers of the type that would have a 3.5mm plug? Haven't seen any of those anywhere since the last millennium.

Set As Default Device is good additional information that I'm just taking for granted though.

Radiapathy
Dec 3, 2011

Snooping as usual, I see.

Flipperwaldt posted:

Wow. Do they even still sell passive pc speakers of the type that would have a 3.5mm plug? Haven't seen any of those anywhere since the last millennium.

Right. All non USB PC speakers I've ever seen were active/ powered , so had a power adapter, but nearly all of them have a single stereo 1/8th inch male connector for plugging into PC audio out. Just plug it into interface headphone out instead... it's just a line level unbalanced stereo out like a PC has.

Note that I was assuming a PC desktop setup with typical external non USB PC speakers. If a laptop or a desktop with USB speakers my solution won't work.

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 00:45 on May 12, 2014

Flipperwaldt
Nov 11, 2011

Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?



Radiapathy posted:

Just plug it into interface headphone out instead... it's just a line level unbalanced stereo out like a PC has.
Headphone outs are amplified to some degree and might supply voltages higher than what something normally receiving line level expects, resulting in distortion. Even had that with something low power as an iPod because the receiving end wasn't tolerant of a large degree of deviation. Depending on the quality of the inbuilt amplifier, you also might end up with a noisier signal.

I mean, you can turn the volume down to bring it roughly into spec and it will work fine. On the other hand, a couple of adapters for the perfectly fine line outs the UR22 has are just a couple of bucks.

I guess it mostly would bother me that it's not doing things the way they were intended, which is likely meaningless to the rest of the world.

edit: Also assuming powered pc speakers with 3.5mm male jacks all the way

edit2: It's just that you simply would not do this or recommend this if we were talking monitors, which are absolutely the same exact thing as powered pc speakers, just of a better quality.

Flipperwaldt fucked around with this message at 01:38 on May 12, 2014

Radiapathy
Dec 3, 2011

Snooping as usual, I see.

Flipperwaldt posted:

Headphone outs are amplified to some degree and might supply voltages higher than what something normally receiving line level expects, resulting in distortion. Even had that with something low power as an iPod because the receiving end wasn't tolerant of a large degree of deviation. Depending on the quality of the inbuilt amplifier, you also might end up with a noisier signal.

I mean, you can turn the volume down to bring it roughly into spec and it will work fine. On the other hand, a couple of adapters for the perfectly fine line outs the UR22 has are just a couple of bucks.

I guess it mostly would bother me that it's not doing things the way they were intended, which is likely meaningless to the rest of the world.

edit: Also assuming powered pc speakers with 3.5mm male jacks all the way

edit2: It's just that you simply would not do this or recommend this if we were talking monitors, which are absolutely the same exact thing as powered pc speakers, just of a better quality.
Of course not, I'm just tryna help the guy work with what he's probably already got laying around the house.

Don't forget that the UR22 outs are balanced and pretty hot anyway, whereas the headphone jack is at least wired exactly the same way as one's computer speakers would be expecting. Since you have independent control of headphone volume at the interface, distortion's not really a concern. I have two PCs in my room with audio interfaces connected to them. My main DAW PC's interface runs into the balanced main ins of my monitor controller (SM PRO M-Patch V2), and my laptop's interface (Roland Tri-Capture) runs into the M-Patch's unbalanced RCA inputs. The M-Patch lets you toggle between sending the signal from the balanced main ins or the unbalanced aux ins to your monitors. The laptop's signal goes from the interface's headphone out through a 1/4"-to-1/8" jack adapter to a 1/8"-to-RCA cable, to the M-Patch. Sounds great, no noise, no distortion problems. :shrug:

In any case, Mutant John, you've got several options.

Flipperwaldt
Nov 11, 2011

Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?



I think we're totally on the same page. And I think the reason I got a bit worked up about it yesterday is that the topic slightly grazed a pet peeve of mine. Which is different marketing terms for very similar things, like monitors and powered speakers. Or audio interface, "DAC" and soundcard.People should know they have largely overlapping functionalities and sometimes people really don't.

But that, admittedly, wasn't all that relevant to the discussion at hand, sorry.

EL BROMANCE
Jun 10, 2006

COWABUNGA DUDES!
🥷🐢😬



I've had a Focusrite Saffire Pro 26 (the oft forgotten model) for years, and when I was doing gig recording out in the field, I always promised I'd pick up a further 8 channels if I ever saw one cheap. On my travels I spotted a Behringer ADA8000 today for the bargain price of £50 so picked it up.

I hooked a mic up to each channel and got it to peak on the unit, so I know all the inputs are at least taking signal. However, I plugged it in to my Focusrite and I can't see the device in the software, it just remains greyed out.

* The SaffirePRO software is, in a word, shite. It's not been updated since 2009 and I'm not convinced it's playing well with my OSX Mavericks. It's sluggish as hell and in the 5 minutes I got to test, even at full whack my SM58 input on Ch 1 wasn't coming in too hot even with the input fader dragged up and the gain on the unit maxed out. Does anyone know if the Pro 40 software works? Or any other 3rd party one perhaps?

* I'm just using a bog standard TOSLink cable, I'm presuming this is fine for ADAT connections as well as S/PDIF? The output on the ADA is glowing and I'm getting the light coming through the cable, so I know that much 'works' at least. I've never used the ADAT IN on the interface before either.

Is there any way of doing a quick check to see if the ADAT Out is working? I don't have to rush luckily as there's 6 months guarantee on the unit, but I'm curious as to where the problem might lie.

I'll probably never use the drat thing now, but it's nice to know if I do a gig in the future I won't have to take a group of 6 drum channels down into a single input. If I can get the bloody thing to work properly...

e:

And typically after a long post, all resolved. After trying the setup again, a handy pop up told me the settings on the device/software didn't match and one of them was a 'Disable ADATs to Minimise CPU Usage' option I had no idea about, and hadn't seen any posts reference. All working now it seems! (SaffirePRO is still terrible, unusable garbage mind...)

EL BROMANCE fucked around with this message at 19:55 on May 21, 2014

Trig Discipline
Jun 3, 2008

Please leave the room if you think this might offend you.
Grimey Drawer

EL BROMANCE posted:

SaffirePRO is still terrible, unusable garbage mind...

You mean the software, right? I've got a Pro 40 and I'm quite happy with the hardware. Software is frickin' garbage, though, to the extent that I have largely built my workflow around never using the Saffire software if at all possible.

EL BROMANCE
Jun 10, 2006

COWABUNGA DUDES!
🥷🐢😬



Yeah the software. The Pro 40 UI looks about 10x better than the Saffire Pro Control does.


I'm on my phone so I can't see how bit that pic is, but it's about 300px wide on my 27" 2560px display. It lags, you can't make out whether some buttons are on or off, can only see 8 channels at a time, rotary markings are awful.

It's just an ugly mess. Interface has always done me fine, although I've never done anything particularly complicated. Nice bit of kit.

fookolt
Mar 13, 2012

Where there is power
There is resistance
Any recommendations for an audio interface that is solid on Windows 8.1? I'm just recording guitar and voice. Bonus points if there is a switch in software that lets me cut the monitors and only output to headphones (I've set this up with E-MU's PatchMix and some fooling around with AutoHotKey).

Schmerm
Sep 1, 2000
College Slice
My totally n00b entry-level audio interface is the Behringer UCA222. It's a tiny box with two RCA inputs and two RCA outputs and costs $30. It's definitely good enough if you just want the cheapest option for low-latency ASIO sound output and don't trust ASIO4ALL.

iostream.h
Mar 14, 2006
I want your happy place to slap you as it flies by.

I'm torn and need help:

Looking at a more portable recording rig and I was figuring to pick up a Duet 2 and be done with it until I've read about a (seemingly large amount) series of driver issues and dropouts with them.
Buddy of mine at GC threw an Apollo Twin at me and reading up on it makes it sound superior to the Duet with the exception of it requiring a separate power supply/no bus power.

Anyone got any thoughts, or anything to swing me one way or the other, something I can toss into my bag/pack and pull out in a park or something that works on OS X?

I'm looking for the highest quality PRE's I can possibly get (without tossing money out the window in search of diminishing returns of course) so I'm not interested in a lot of the entry level prosumer stuff.

Radiapathy
Dec 3, 2011

Snooping as usual, I see.

iostream.h posted:

I'm looking for the highest quality PRE's I can possibly get (without tossing money out the window in search of diminishing returns of course) so I'm not interested in a lot of the entry level prosumer stuff.
By "high quality pres" do you mean pres with the most impressive technical specs, or pres that sound most pleasing to your ear? (Because they're not necessarily going to be the same, and if it's the latter you're concerned about, you'll only know by listening.)

For what it's worth, I did a comparison of all my interfaces that had preamps last year. Most of them are entry-level 2-in-2-out USB, but I included RME's best USB/FW interface in the mix. (My MOTU 24I/O didn't have pres; was all line I/O.)

https://soundcloud.com/ultimateoutsider/sets/access-virus-ti2-preamp
https://soundcloud.com/ultimateoutsider/sets/yamaha-sy85-preamp-comparison

Anyway, the Zoom TAC-2 is tiny, and runs on Thunderbolt bus power. No experience with this one although their low-end R8 interface was better than I expected, and that device's latency was the lowest I'd ever seen in its price range, so reckon this one will at least perform like a champ:
https://www.zoom-na.com/products/studio-recording/audio-interfaces/zoom-tac-2-thunderbolt-audio-converter

The RME Babyface is tiny and sturdy (designed to be portable), although the I/O is all on a breakout cable- but it's pretty short and probably won't tangle. I can confirm that RME's USB drivers are unparalleled for performance and stability. (And their routing software rules hard once you understand how it works.)
http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_babyface.php

As I'm a Windows person, no personal experience with Apogee, but like you I've heard LOTS of reports from people who have significant stability/reliability issues with the Duets. No idea why they still get recommended so often. It's not like the unimpressive Focusrite Scarletts everyone recommends all the time- because while those are really only mediocre, at least they're cheap.

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 17:56 on Jun 3, 2014

Hollis Brownsound
Apr 2, 2009

by Lowtax

Radiapathy posted:

By "high quality pres" do you mean pres with the most impressive technical specs, or pres that sound most pleasing to your ear? (Because they're not necessarily going to be the same, and if it's the latter you're concerned about, you'll only know by listening.)

For what it's worth, I did a comparison of all my interfaces that had preamps last year. Most of them are entry-level 2-in-2-out USB, but I included RME's best USB/FW interface in the mix. (My MOTU 24I/O didn't have pres; was all line I/O.)

https://soundcloud.com/ultimateoutsider/sets/access-virus-ti2-preamp
https://soundcloud.com/ultimateoutsider/sets/yamaha-sy85-preamp-comparison

Anyway, the Zoom TAC-2 is tiny, and runs on Thunderbolt bus power. No experience with this one although their low-end R8 interface was better than I expected, and that device's latency was the lowest I'd ever seen in its price range, so reckon this one will at least perform like a champ:
https://www.zoom-na.com/products/studio-recording/audio-interfaces/zoom-tac-2-thunderbolt-audio-converter

The RME Babyface is tiny and sturdy (designed to be portable), although the I/O is all on a breakout cable- but it's pretty short and probably won't tangle. I can confirm that RME's USB drivers are unparalleled for performance and stability. (And their routing software rules hard once you understand how it works.)
http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_babyface.php

As I'm a Windows person, no personal experience with Apogee, but like you I've heard LOTS of reports from people who have significant stability/reliability issues with the Duets. No idea why they still get recommended so often. It's not like the unimpressive Focusrite Scarletts everyone recommends all the time- because while those are really only mediocre, at least they're cheap.

I will confirm that RME pres are the bees knees.

iostream.h
Mar 14, 2006
I want your happy place to slap you as it flies by.

I was really looking for clean, transparent pre's that don't add much at all of their own thing.

I ended up picking up a Duet 2 off CraigsList for a song yesterday, if it's as bad as I'm afraid at the least I will be able to make a couple of bucks off of it and move on to something else.

I REALLY liked the looks of the Apollo Twin, but it's not bus powered so that kind of knocks it out for now.

Flanky
Jun 2, 2011
Is playing horribly with USB3 just a Komplete Audio 6 thing, or an audio interface thing in general? It hadn't crossed my mind when buying one that USB2 devices could have compatibility issues, but it's apparently the source of a bunch of BSODs I've been getting since I bought the KA6. (My laptop only has USB3 ports.) NI seems to claim that it's impossible to fix due to something inherent with USB3, as well, so I'm not holding my breath for an update. I now notice someone on the first page mentioning the issue but I want to make sure I'm not running into the same situation with another card. I really don't want to spend even more money right now, ugh :(

Radiapathy
Dec 3, 2011

Snooping as usual, I see.

Flanky posted:

Is playing horribly with USB3 just a Komplete Audio 6 thing, or an audio interface thing in general? It hadn't crossed my mind when buying one that USB2 devices could have compatibility issues, but it's apparently the source of a bunch of BSODs I've been getting since I bought the KA6. (My laptop only has USB3 ports.) NI seems to claim that it's impossible to fix due to something inherent with USB3, as well, so I'm not holding my breath for an update. I now notice someone on the first page mentioning the issue but I want to make sure I'm not running into the same situation with another card. I really don't want to spend even more money right now, ugh :(
USB 3 was an industry clusterfuck of the highest order. The timings and engineering precision required to implement USB 3 have to be a lot tighter than USB 2 required, and I don't believe the USB 3.0 certification process was strict enough. As a result you've got manufacturers of both devices and host controllers doing these not-quite-spec-compliant implementations that simply don't always work well together.

I tested some of my USB interfaces last year, comparing how well they performed on USB 2 vs 3. Here's the worksheet with the results (and here's a worksheet which explains what the columns indicate).

Some of the interfaces behaved identically between USB 2 and 3, but on some I had to increase the buffer size in order to keep the audio reliable on USB 3. I had already sold my KA 6 by this point, but it literally never worked reliably on USB 3, and it's the only interface I've seen so far that was that bad.

Now, someone else with a different computer and a different USB 3 chipset might have different results. That's the thing- USB 3 is a crapshoot (particularly with USB 2 backward support).

So anyway, just about any USB 2 interface can potentially have issues on USB 3, but the KA 6 seems to have more problems than most. I've noticed on one of NI's new Traktor interfaces they added a note saying they simply don't support USB 3.

Flipperwaldt
Nov 11, 2011

Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?



I had some seriously weird poo poo with my Roland Quad Capture on a usb 3 port until I upped the buffersize to 256 samples. It would randomly stop outputting sound over ASIO until I messed with the buffer size settings a bit (even leaving it at the same setting in the end). Also sometimes none of my vst plugins wouldn't load their presets occasionally, which is really :psyduck:, considering that got solved the same way.

At 256 samples it's rock solid though and output latency is supposedly still below 15ms, which is ok for playing vsts with a midi keyboard, so :shrug:


Didn't know all that might have been related to usb 3 poo poo, so thanks. My laptop has a single usb 2 port; I should give that a shot to see if it makes a difference.

EDIT: Yeah, on the usb 2 port it's stable at 96 samples.

Flipperwaldt fucked around with this message at 20:14 on Jun 12, 2014

Radiapathy
Dec 3, 2011

Snooping as usual, I see.

Flipperwaldt posted:

Didn't know all that might have been related to usb 3 poo poo, so thanks. My laptop has a single usb 2 port; I should give that a shot to see if it makes a difference.

EDIT: Yeah, on the usb 2 port it's stable at 96 samples.
Nice. Yeah my Komplete Audio 6 delivered solid audio on my laptop's one USB 2 port, however if I put the laptop to sleep and then woke it back up when it was connected to that port, the KA6 would not wake up with it. (It woke up just fine on USB 3... just couldn't handle audio for poo poo.) That's when I sold the NI and got the Roland.

Flipperwaldt
Nov 11, 2011

Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?



I have a pretty small desk and the usb 2 port is on the right side of the laptop. It's perfect for plugging in a tiny mouse receiver. Plugging in a normal usb cable, the plug hangs over my mousepad and I've got to move my mouse around it :(

But I just checked and the bios of my laptop has an option to disable usb 3 functionality completely and make the ports on the left usb 2 ports too. I'm going to try that out tomorrow. Considering I don't have a single usb 3 device and probably won't for a while, why not?

Flanky, possibly something worth checking in your situation (budget)? I mean, depending on how much you need usb 3 writing speeds for something else. Seems worth a shot.

Flanky
Jun 2, 2011
Flipperwaldt: That sounds like it could be a good idea, I certainly am not taking advantage of USB3 for anything yet. I'll poke around my BIOS after work and mention if it does something.

Radiapathy: That sample buffer size sheet is awesome, thanks for sharing! :)

hitchensgoespop
Oct 22, 2008
Anyone one used one of these AKAI EIEs?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...&pf_rd_i=468294

The reviews are terrible via Amazon but some of the online reviews have been pretty good.

Im looking for a replacement for my DMX 6fire which has served me pretty well but the lack of official Win7 support has sadly killed it.

My requirements are pretty slim, i just want something that can take a mic or midi keyboard at reasonable quality and output to some monitor speakers.

Weird BIAS
Jul 5, 2007

so... guess that's it, huh? just... don't say i didn't warn you.
I got one of the red models and it starts humming when you turn phantom power on both channels.

CaptainViolence
Apr 19, 2006

I'M GONNA GET YOU DUCK

I'm looking into buying an interface of my own, but I'm having trouble finding what I want with Sweetwater's search. The studio I work in has a Saffire Pro 40, which I love. I'd love something similar, but it seems like most of the other interfaces I look at have only a couple XLR inputs and then a bunch of 1/4" inputs, and I need waaay more than two XLR in.

Should I just get my own Saffire? The price is way more affordable than I was expecting given how nice the studio's seems, so I'd even consider getting two. The ability to daisy chain them is a huge draw, because then I can start recording a full band live instead of using all my inputs for drums and having no more XLR ports.

Basically: is there any other interface with a bunch of XLR inputs I should check out?

iostream.h
Mar 14, 2006
I want your happy place to slap you as it flies by.

CaptainViolence posted:

Basically: is there any other interface with a bunch of XLR inputs I should check out?
I really like the MOTU 8Pre, it's very similar and has great Pre's.

Radiapathy
Dec 3, 2011

Snooping as usual, I see.

CaptainViolence posted:

Basically: is there any other interface with a bunch of XLR inputs I should check out?
The only interfaces I know of in that price range with that many XLR ins are the MOTU 8Pre, Roland Octa-Capture and the Tascam US-1800. While I can vouch for Roland and MOTU for quality and performance, in terms of total I/O options for the price, the Pro 40 might still come out on top.

CaptainViolence
Apr 19, 2006

I'M GONNA GET YOU DUCK

Awesome, I'll check those out. Thanks!

Flipperwaldt
Nov 11, 2011

Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?



Flipperwaldt posted:

But I just checked and the bios of my laptop has an option to disable usb 3 functionality completely and make the ports on the left usb 2 ports too. I'm going to try that out tomorrow. Considering I don't have a single usb 3 device and probably won't for a while, why not?
For the record, this works. Though for some reason Windows had to re-detect a shitload of hardware that I wouldn't have thought was in any way related, like anything built-in Bluetooth related and the wireless mouse that was plugged in in the single usb 2 port I had to begin with.

But after that the Quad Capture was stable at 96 samples on all ports.

Radiapathy
Dec 3, 2011

Snooping as usual, I see.
Holy wow, MOTU just added a whole new category of Thunderbolt/AVB interfaces to their product line.

See the AVB category here: http://www.motu.com/products

Each model is $1495 at Sweetwater (preorder, not sure on release date).

I have zero knowledge/experience with this Ethernet stuff, but nice to see MOTU forging ahead.

Dotcom Jillionaire
Jul 19, 2006

Social distortion
Has anyone ever experienced a lot of digital noise on their MOTU Ultralite? It only seems to happen to me when using the Main outputs, none of the inputs or other outputs seem to give me this issue. I basically use the main outputs as a monitoring signal which gets sent to the tape inputs on my mixer. The noise seems to only happen when there is audio playing or when I have input monitoring turn on in my DAW (Ableton). The mixer isn't the issue since I can plug my headphones into the Phones jack on the MOTU, set the phones output to be Main 1-2, and still hear the noise. It hasn't affected my recording at all since the noise only happens on the main output (and I'm recording into the DAW, not out on the MOTU) but I'll be damned if it isn't loving annoying.

EDIT: I've got it plugged to the computer using Firewire, having the optional DC power supply plugged in doesn't seem to make a difference

EDIT 2: I tested using just USB instead of Firewire. There was significantly less noise but still a little click here and there (it could have been my recorded audio too or something to do with Ableton's Complex algorithm). I decided to try updating the firmware on the MOTU (I had 1.02, the latest is 1.06). After updating the firmware I do not here any noise on either Firewire or USB. I'll keep my ears open for any other noise issues but updating the firmware seems to have done the trick.

Dotcom Jillionaire fucked around with this message at 18:30 on Jul 31, 2014

Haledjian
May 29, 2008

YOU CAN'T MOVE WITH ME IN THIS DIGITAL SPACE
Hey, sorry if this isn't the right place for this, I looked and wasn't sure--

I've been using an Edirol UA-25 interface for recording for a few years, and I just switched over to a new PC, and when I try recording with my mic through the UA-25 into any program I get this weird effect like when you turn the buffer size down way too small: https://soundcloud.com/dopeyziegler/recording-problem

I've made sure all the cables are good and I've tried reinstalling the drivers a couple times but it doesn't seem to have made a difference. Has anyone run into this & knows what to do about it?

Edit: Having read this page now it seems like it could be a USB 3.0 issue. I will look into that

Haledjian fucked around with this message at 22:22 on Aug 10, 2014

Radiapathy
Dec 3, 2011

Snooping as usual, I see.

Haledjian posted:

Edit: Having read this page now it seems like it could be a USB 3.0 issue. I will look into that
Hmm. That *could* be it, but generally the USB 3.0 problem manifests itself as clicks and dropouts, not crazy distortion like in that clip.

While that's an older interface, it's apparently still supported on modern Windows (they even released a Windows 8 driver for it), so *should* still work fine for you.

Have you checked that you're recording at the right sample rate? (Physical switch on the back of the unit, like with the UA-22.) Also, I don't know what some of the other switches on the back are for, but make sure they're where you're expecting.

One other thing about bus-powered interfaces is sometimes they draw more current when Phantom power is enabled than the USB bus can support. It results in different audible problems from the standard USB 3 issue. You can rule this out by connecting the interface directly to a USB port on the computer and attempting to record with phantom enabled (if your mic needs phantom). Or switch phantom off and see if line-level recordings work okay.

Twiin
Nov 11, 2003

King of Suck!

hitchensgoespop posted:

Anyone one used one of these AKAI EIEs?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...&pf_rd_i=468294

The reviews are terrible via Amazon but some of the online reviews have been pretty good.

Im looking for a replacement for my DMX 6fire which has served me pretty well but the lack of official Win7 support has sadly killed it.

My requirements are pretty slim, i just want something that can take a mic or midi keyboard at reasonable quality and output to some monitor speakers.

I have one of these and it worked great until I upgraded to Windows 7 and beyond. Now it has failed me and started spewing digital noise at every live show I've played for months. It works with two hardware setups I have but with any other setup it's trash. I came in this thread just now to look to see what I might replace it with. I'm really gonna miss the built-in USB hub but I am done with having it poo poo on me during a live set.

Radiapathy
Dec 3, 2011

Snooping as usual, I see.
Woah, Roland just announced a really rad looking little mobile interface. I absolutely don't need it, but I think I'm gonna get one when they come out.

http://www.rolandus.com/products/details/1338

From the announcement:

quote:

What is DSD?

DSD, or Direct Stream Digital, is a technology for digitizing audio using much higher frequencies than the typical PCM format. Each sample is recorded as a single bit at a sampling rate of 2.8 MHz, which is 64 times that of audio CDs (44.1 kHz). DSD formats that use 5.6 MHz, or 128 times that of CDs, are also widely used. Because DSD is capable of recording at higher levels of precision than audio CDs, it is primarily used for recording and music distribution.

Flipperwaldt
Nov 11, 2011

Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?



"widely used"

...

What? :psyduck:

AxeBreaker
Jan 1, 2005
Who fucking cares?

I'm starting to accumulate some gear, and i want to make it all output sound to the same place and get midi instructions from my computer. What i have right now is:

1 cheap MIDI keyboard, a samson 49.
Korg Volca Bass
Korg Volca Keys

What i want to get is:
1 more full featured synth
A drum machine, probaly Volca beats but maybe not.

The problems are mostly with the Volcas because they only have headphone out and only have midi in. I'm told by GC staff that unless I want to lose signal, I need a y cable that takes up two ins. Assuming I want to use 2 Volcas at any time and the other synth, what kind of interfaces should i be looking at? Are there any with multiple MIDI outs, or is there some other gear that I need?

At this point I almost wanna give up on on my preference for hardware.

Tayter Swift
Nov 18, 2002

Pillbug
I'm sick of hearing buzz through my headphones via my iMac's built-in audio, and I'm looking for an external interface. My requirements:

  • Has at least one bog-standard 3.5mm headphone jack
  • Firewire would be nice since I'm not doing anything with those ports, but USB 2 is okay
  • Doesn't loving buzz
  • That's it

Don't need a guitar/mic in, don't care if it's externally powered. Anything decent and cheapish? Will this work, or at least can anyone vouch?

Flipperwaldt
Nov 11, 2011

Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?



AxeBreaker posted:

what kind of interfaces should i be looking at? Are there any with multiple MIDI outs, or is there some other gear that I need?
Motu Micro Lite will take care of your midi routing needs. Alternatively, the volcas can be modded for midi thru. Like the contact points are already printed on the board or something. Just solder on a midi din connector. You'd still need something else to mix your audio together though. I'm hot for the Zoom R16 currently, but I'm sure there are more sensible recommendations for your current situation.

Midi Solutions Quadra Thru would work too for midi routing if you get it in combination with an audio interface with its own midi in/out. I think you'd be paying more out of the rear end for an audio interface with multiple midi outs in any case.

Y-cables are never the right solution for sending multiple signals to one destination. I'm just stating that for clarity. I think you got recommended it to split op the stereo signal into to unbalanced monos for plugging into a mixer or interface though, I think? Which would be right.

Eegah posted:

Will this work, or at least can anyone vouch?
Should work. I'm not sure what the difference is, but I thought the UCA-222 was the newer version. There's no difference in specs jumping at me though.

Tayter Swift
Nov 18, 2002

Pillbug

Flipperwaldt posted:

Should work. I'm not sure what the difference is, but I thought the UCA-222 was the newer version. There's no difference in specs jumping at me though.

Amazon can't seem to keep the 222 in stock for whatever reason. That said the 302 is only another 20 bucks and will give me room to grow so I think I'll go that route. Thanks much.

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Twiin
Nov 11, 2003

King of Suck!
I bought a MOTU MicroBook II to replace my Akai EIEIO, but I get crazy pops and crackles on both my desktop and laptop with it. I just want a sound card that works. Does anyone have one of those. Augh.

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