Best Dedicated USB card???

  • The best USB audio interface is probably the RME Fireface UFX, but at $2300 USD one might question whether the best is worth it.


    I've used the Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6 ($230 USD) with great success (note that you need to use USB 2.0 ports, not USB 3.0 if your computer is new). The MOTU UltraLite-mk3 hybrid ($550 USD) is also a solid choice. Both offer significantly lower latency than the Virus's own audio interface feature.


    Avoid M-audio. I don't have experience with other brands/models. See this thread for further recent discussion.

  • Hi,
    Yeah I did mean dedicated USB card as opposed to audio interface.
    I ended up buying a 2 port Startech card. Not much choice out there for 2 port cards and could not find a single 1 port card, although I'd expect that really.
    Card works great straight off the bat. Unfortunately the Virus latency is still there, not any worse, not improved, so I've wasted my money by the looks of it.
    Have also purchased a new cable although I haven't swapped it yet. I expect no improvement whatsoever.
    My computer is 4 core i7 at 4.6ghz with top end components from the power supply right up to the water cooling system. I spared no expense and am now considering the computer to be exempt from the problem.
    I will still give virus the benefit of the doubt for now and will consider the sequencer as number 1 suspect.


  • You won't overcome latency and the other problems with a dedicated card I'm afraid. I've gone back to midi/audio cables and that's about as solid as it can get.

  • R3V3RB: I don't recall if you have ever described your latency issues in detail, but it would help if you can. The VC plugin uses a buffer between the synth engine and its output to the DAW which causes delay. Most of the top-end DAW-s can compensate for this delay when playing back, unless they are not set up correctly. Live playing through the DAW is something different since the DAW cannot tell what you are about to play and therefore cannot compensate for it. For that you have the "live" button (bottom left), it shortens the buffer, at the expense of being less crackle resilient (but the dedicated USB card might cover this issue). If you want more live responsiveness, you can use the direct monitoring mode that each part have, you just need to have the analog outputs connected for that.
    There is another issue that is perceived as latency and that's MIDI clock synch problems. From what i've heard OS5 beta should be better at that but I have no real proof.
    Hope this helps.

  • You won't overcome latency and the other problems with a dedicated card I'm afraid. I've gone back to midi/audio cables and that's about as solid as it can get.


    robg:


    Does this mean that you don't use TI-plugin at all? If so, this means that there quite many (?) users using their Virus like any other synth. This should be a quite serious signal for Access developers: Total Integration isn't so total after all, if just some users can take benefit from it. Personally I am starting a new project and maybe I'll do the same: give up TI and use Virus via midi. (I have had issues with OS5 with Logic and latency is one big problem. Other thing is that TI has crashed Logic quite many times.) Or then I will give it one another chance...?


    So TI is a nice idea, but is it "just an idea" at the moment?

  • robg:


    Does this mean that you don't use TI-plugin at all? If so, this means that there quite many (?) users using their Virus like any other synth. This should be a quite serious signal for Access developers: Total Integration isn't so total after all, if just some users can take benefit from it. Personally I am starting a new project and maybe I'll do the same: give up TI and use Virus via midi. (I have had issues with OS5 with Logic and latency is one big problem. Other thing is that TI has crashed Logic quite many times.) Or then I will give it one another chance...?


    So TI is a nice idea, but is it "just an idea" at the moment?


    I don't use it anymore, maybe occasionally for sound design only, but it's not reliable for playback. I think the implementation is fundamentally flawed. I believe this is because it's trying to be sample-accurate and doesn't need to be. They could have made it just send midi information over usb (and the audio streams back)..it probably would have been better that way, but I'm no developer..

  • Oops, yeah, I thought you were talking about interfaces...


    Anyway, my own experience with the Virus Control plugin is that there is terrible latency with it on Ableton Live in the default mode, less (but still noticeable) latency when you put the plugin in Live mode, but in Cubase I don't detect any noticeable latency at all. The plugin's perfectly usable in that environment (at least on my setup).


    Live is slightly notorious for having issues with external instruments anyway, but I have numerous external instruments and none of them perform as poorly with Live as my Virus does.