Cubase - Latency

[Iain.Faulkner]

Morning all,

 

Is anyone currently using Cubase Studio version 5?

 

Our music department is keen to bring it into school along with some new midi keyboards, however I've read a lot about latency with onboard sound cards.

 

If anyone on here is using this software, can you recommend me an external soundcard so we can avoid this issue?

 

Cheers

 

Iain

[DAZZD88]

We don't use Cubase but we do use other audio packages that suffer from audio latency. We use USB keyboards (that also have midi outputs). Instead of using the midi outputs we use the USB and that way we can get ASIO supporting soundacrds for about £50-£60.

 

The soundcards we used previously were Creative Audigy 2ZS (or something like that) but they're fairly expensive, or at least the current equivalent is.

[mbird]

We have loads of problems with Cubase not working with no Admin rights not loading the Midi voices properly (called HALION 1), but when they do work - they work well, not much latency.

We use keyboards with integrated sound cards the M-AUDIO Keystudio 49i

[dayzd]

The crucial thing here is it's important to have something that has decent ASIO drivers.

If your device uses generic ASIO drivers, it'll be pretty bad, but most Creative cards (or other cards with device-specific, custom drivers) have decent ASIO performance.

 

Once you have that, you can set the latency to be much lower in the ASIO setup panel thing (s'been a while since I used Cubase...!)

10-20ms should be acceptable. 40+ and you'll notice it if you're playing VST / virtual instruments.

[plexer]

We use the EMU 0404 sound cards in our music pc's

 

Ben

[Iain.Faulkner]

Thanks for the responses so far. Apologies, I meant internal cards though not external (remind me to sack my typist!).

 

MBird, thanks for the keyboard recommendation. We have in fact looked at these as a potential solution, but unfortunately I think they are going to be out of our price range (although I think this would be my preferred option having had counterpoint recommend them to me as well instead of replacing soundcards).

[themightymrp]

We use some Creative Labs 7.1 bog standard PCI sound cards, no real latency problems once you switch the software to ASIO drivers.

[DAZZD88]

We use some Creative Labs 7.1 bog standard PCI sound cards, no real latency problems once you switch the software to ASIO drivers.

 

Yeah, that's what we have. Ours are the X-Fi Xtremegamer cards. Although, they're PCI. The PCI express ones though, don't support ASIO drivers.

[Sylv3r]

No latency issues here for us just using bog standard internal sound cards.

[Guest Guest]

First of all Creative (labs) do not make good asio drivers, they are a gaming/home theatre company. E-MU is creatives pro audio division, they make good asio drivers.

 

It really depends on how much money you have to spend but personally id look at M-audio and E-MU for lower end of the market. If you've got money to burn; Focusrite and MOTO.

 

Personally id avoid the soundcard/keyboard all in one. When the keyboard starts to fail, which it will do at some point, you lose your soundcard aswell.

If money was the major factor and I wanted an external soundcard for recording a couple of guitars and/or a mic, with a single stereo out I guess id go for this

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/15384-e-mu-0202-usb-ultimate-portable-usb-audio-interface-for-mac-and-pc.html

or if i had a few bob more http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/42376-m-audio-fast-track-2.html

Anything cheaper than that and its pointless (see below)

 

BUT... if you are looking for a budget way of achieving around 23ms (1024samples @ 44,100) on a single stereo input or output (aslong as you dont have loads of synths running at once a modern dual core pentium/core2 will do), have a look at http://asio4all.com. Fruityloops actually comes bundled with it iirc so it can't be bad. I;ve been using it at home now for years and you can't knock it at all, works flawlessly. Infact I still use it when I can't be bothered turning on my monitors and mixer which my pro-audio soundcards are linked to.

I've actually done some testing between Core Audio (apples built in interface) on a 2nd gen intel 2.26 macbook pro and asio4all on a core2 2.66ghz. At a useable audio quality the differences in performance were marginable.

 

 

Most of all; pro-audio is not something you can skimp on and thing you'll have an easy ride. If you are serious about using the kit (which you will have to be to justify spending anything given the asio4all is fine for casual use) firstly you need it to be stable, but also you need it to have good support for the software you are using; if you buy cheap these are the two areas where you will usually fall down.

Edited December 7, 2010 by Guest

[MYK-IT]

Our latest Music Suite use M-Audio Audiophile 192 Sound Cards.

 

Our other Music Suite use Creative Audigy2 Xi-Fi Platinum cards, no issues with them either.

[DAZZD88]

@j17sparky The budget card doesn't seem to mention having any MIDI inputs...maybe I missed something?

[dayzd]

However if you're stuck with Creative cards, I used kX Project drivers with my circa-2002 £30 Creative SBLive 5.1 card to get me through my three year music technology degree.

 

From the looks of things they haven't been updated in a good while, but if your card is compatible, those drivers are fantastic!

[Guest Guest]

@j17sparky The budget card doesn't seem to mention having any MIDI inputs...maybe I missed something?

 

All/most "midi" keyboards come with a USB interface. Half decent ones are true plug and play, no drivers or anything. If you want to connect old existing keyboards through a midi interface you can buy seperate midi to usb convertors or buy a soundcard with a midi port.

 

MIDI used to be the full interface of both actual physical port and protocol. Now it is mainly used when refering to the protocol - infact alot of budget gear don't even come with a midi port as you have seen. This is what tends to confuse people as even usb only keyboards/controllers are called midi keyboards/controllers

Edited December 8, 2010 by Guest

[DAZZD88]

Is there any speed differences or advantages/disadvantages to either USB or MIDI? Edited December 8, 2010 by DAZZD88
Dyslexic fingers

[Guest Guest]

Our latest Music Suite use M-Audio Audiophile 192 Sound Cards.

 

If you have full height cases, and are confident you will be able to get motherboards with PCI ports in the future, Id go for these. I didn't mention them due to the later reason.

[Guest Guest]

Is there any speeddifferences or advantages/disadvantages to either USB or MIDI?

 

Speed - no.

Advantages - USB is alot easier to work with in terms of extra functionality ie rotary pot and slider control in applications.

 

Go USB.

Edited December 8, 2010 by Guest

[Iain.Faulkner]

Hi All,

 

Just wanting to pick your brains again.

 

We've now decided we're going to go with an external Audio Interface device in order to meet our needs for this project. The two I've been reccomended (by suppliers) are as follows.

 

Focusrite Saffire 6

Alesis IO/2 Express

 

Has anyone used either of these devices before? If so, can you give me any feedback on your experience with them?

 

Many thanks as always.

[ben604]

What are your specific requirements?

 

Will you need two simultaneous mic inputs? What's being recorded?

 

We use Lexicon Alpha's and they're great, very solid and simple to use, but only one mic and one instrument input.

[Guest Guest]

Alesis are one of the cheap pro-audio companies. They tend to be pretty good for the money, never used that model though. The Focusrite soundcards are some of the best, and at quite a reasonable price there, but it is twice as much.

 

Aslong as they fit your input/output requirements, both should do the job just fine. Focusrite will have higher sound quality and potentially more stable drivers, and durability. But then unless you have decent mics and speakers you aint going to notice the difference, and any kit can be destroyed by kids no matter how durable it normally is.