[toocan]

Having done some research the M-Audio Firewire Solo appears to keep coming up as best in this price bracket does anyone have any experience or alternative recommendations?

 

[Hybrys]

It's really hard to pick a good replacement. I've been doing research for about a week, and have personally decided Musical Fidelity VDAC or the Cambridge DACMAGIC, but those are solely outs. I know a guy who also swears by his M-Audio FastTrack Pro for recording, though...

Sorry for giving a wishy washy answer, but, what do you need specificly? Ins and outs? Only outs? What laptop/computer do you have? Is an optical out possible instead of USB/Firewire?

 

[Armaegis]

I had the Firewire Solo for a while and really liked it, but I had a lot of trouble getting the drivers (for Vista) to work properly and finally sold it. While it was early in my head-fi game, the Solo + Grado 80 was probably one of my favourite listening experiences.

 

[ROBSCIX]

Your limted to basically recording cards unless you want to go with a DAC/amp combo. That is an option but is limited in the feature set you will get.

If you are a bit more descriptive on what your looking for it might help.
Do you want an external "soundcard" or just an external DAC?

 

[toocan]

Currently im using a macbook pro laptop running Windows 7 (internal sound card is quite naf) which i currently have connected via 3mm jack -> RCA to my hifi amp and speakers.

I do some very light music production in Ableton (no need for midi input or instrument input) as its mostly cut and pasting samples and overlaying some basic VST synth. The rest of the time im listening to music mp3 192kbps v0 encoded stuff.

My main goal is too increase sound quality which i believe a DAC would do via the macbooks optical out.

However i dont think it will have any benefit in regards to working within Ableton (latency etc.) as this is processed using the sound card hence the reason for wanting an external sound card (maybee im wrong?) Im not opposed to an external sound card and DAC if such a think exists as i believe (wrongly or rightly) that all external pc sound cards have inbuilt DAC's

 

[Hybrys]

Uhhh... MP3 192? You should update your sources first. I mean, atleast MP3 320, or any better equipment you purchase will only work to a quarter their potential.

If you're saying you need no inputs, then why go for an input/output center? I'd suggest Macbook --> Optical --> VDAC --> good RCA/RCA cables --> Amp. DAC and External Sound Card are almost interchangable, if you can setup a Mac to bypass any internal rendering through the optical out.

All this is only from a week worth of research, so, someone feel free to discredit me.

 

[toocan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hybrys /img/forum/go_quote.gif Uhhh... MP3 192? You should update your sources first. I mean, atleast MP3 320, or any better equipment you purchase will only work to a quarter their potential.

-V 0 --vbr-new lame encoded mp3 sounds 4 times worse than a "MP3 320"...mmmm
Quote:

Originally Posted by Hybrys /img/forum/go_quote.gif If you're saying you need no inputs, then why go for an input/output center?

a better sound card would reduce latency in my music production app which i believe a DAC wouldnt. As far as i understand it a soundcard takes the grunt of this work a DAC would still mean that midi notes in Ableton would have to be processed by the internal card (clarification needed) hence the post

 

[Hybrys]

Quote:

Originally Posted by toocan /img/forum/go_quote.gif -V 0 --vbr-new lame encoded mp3 sounds 4 times worse than a "MP3 320"...mmmm

If it's VBR, then it's not really 192, is it?

 

[toocan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hybrys /img/forum/go_quote.gif If it's VBR, then it's not really 192, is it?

From what ive read and understand its a target bitrate which is the average and correct - I did mentioned v0 in my original post not b which is CBR which i think is what you mean... anyhow

Im more interested in someone being able to answer my original question regards to latency?

 

[Hybrys]

Quote:

Originally Posted by toocan /img/forum/go_quote.gif From what ive read and understand its a target bitrate which is the average and correct - I did mentioned v0 in my original post not b which is CBR which i think is what you mean... anyhow Im more interested in someone being able to answer my original question regards to latency?

I encoded a file into V0 VBR-New a moment ago from WAV, and the average bit rate was around 280. >_>

Regardless, the reason you're not getting an answer is because there isn't an easy one. It's very complicated. I don't know if the program can offload internal processing to a sound card, what sound cards would be compatible, and what you mean by latency. I'll look into it a bit more if you explain to me 'latency'.

By latency, do you mean:

A. Processing time for the computer to re-render something after you've made an edit/import.

B. Some kind of playback timing mismatch (unsynced audio from what you see and what you hear.)

C. Processing time for the computer to encode/export something you've completed in your program.

 

[toocan]

mainly b. i have usb midi keyboard the delay from hitting a key on the keyboard to the sound being generated... as far as i know a soundcard needs to be involved even if i have a DAC

 

[ROBSCIX]

Then you should be looking at recording cards.

Well it is just difference in terms. A "soundcard' has a DAC but also has an ADC, inputs..etc..many different features and options. Where an external DAC basically has one function, output.

 

[Hybrys]

Quote:

Originally Posted by toocan /img/forum/go_quote.gif mainly b. i have usb midi keyboard the delay from hitting a key on the keyboard to the sound being generated... as far as i know a soundcard needs to be involved even if i have a DAC

If it's JUST the USB 'keyboard' that you're experiencing delay with, I don't think that a sound card would remove the delay. You might just need a more robust USB 'interface'. I say that because you're working on Win7 on a laptop not particularly made for it. Does the keyboard experience delays in MacOSX? Are you using a recent, specialized driver for that device? What's the name and model of the keyboard, and I'll look it up.

 

[toocan]

The delay is caused either using the keyboard realtime or even playing back the midi notes recorded within ableton. Its like the soundcard or CPU or whatever handles the convertion of the midi notes to sound struggles to synthesise it... I think this articles touches on some of the problems http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr9...es/letency.htm but doesnt identify if a DAC would wbe a solution

Quote:

The sequencer then carries out lots of number-crunching - especially if you're adding software-based effects and EQ. Finally, the digital signal is sent to another set of buffers - one for each output port of your soundcard - this time to ensure that nothing gets lost on its outward journey. The operating system comes along when it's good and ready, shunts the new digital data stream back across the motherboard, through the PCI edge connector into the soundcard buffers, and it is then clocked out steadily at the chosen sample rate. After another millisecond's worth of conversion time it emerges as an analogue signal from the soundcard output socket.

If im using the optical out or usb from my macbook to a DAC would this process be elimiated?

 

[Hybrys]

Quote:

Originally Posted by toocan /img/forum/go_quote.gif The delay is caused either using the keyboard realtime or even playing back the midi notes recorded within ableton. Its like the soundcard or CPU or whatever handles the convertion of the midi notes to sound struggles to synthesise it... I think this articles touches on some of the problems MIND THE GAP but doesnt identify if a DAC would wbe a solution

See, that's a VERY old article (1999) and doesn't really ring true anymore with the amount of processing power easily available. That's why I'm asking about the USB/drivers. I don't think it's a problem any CPU upgrade or sound card could solve.

I'm trying to help, so let me help. What is the name/model of the keyboard, and have you tested this same latency on MacOSX?