A few weeks back we had a conversation here
regarding midi/analog interfaces and the issue of latency as being of primary concern. Latency is the delay between monitoring a LIVE input signal while recording over a recorded track and listening back thru the PC. Both the input and the recorded playback are being monitored at the other end. The delay comes from monitoring the input signal at the output of the PC. I know that was redundant but it should be clear now. "When I record I hear a slight delay" , that's latency. Sometimes it can be corrected, sometimes not.
Many interfaces claim zero or near zero latency. After much research and many hours of early morning reading I had zeroed in on the M Audio Delta 10/10 PCI interface. It is $200 and has 10 inputs and 10 outputs , which I really do not need , but the reviews all claim zero latency. What I wanted was 2 inputs and midi with zero latency and not a $200 expense.( I'm basically cheap) So more research and low and behold there is an MAudio PCI Delta 2496 interface, 2 in, 2 out , full midi, it is the exact same chip set as the bigger 10/10 and it costs $99. $84 at Amazon.com. So I clicked the purchase button. This is an earlier version of the 10/10 interface.
The interface arrived on Friday, the drivers are complete, not sure if they are up to date but there is a full driver set. the Installation procedure is for Win98, Win NT , Win 2000 and Mac. Loading onto WIN XP was not an issue. I first loaded the ASIO driver and there was some very slight delay so I went back and loaded the WDM/KS driver and all delay was gone, zero latency. So far I spent 15 minutes with this card and that included installing it in the PC.
I did find that when I first left the previous Creative Labs drivers on the PC, the MAudio program didn't like that, I guess there was a conflict. Seeing that I removed the Creative Labs hardware I just removed the drivers and everything just started working well. Just like that.
So, what I can say is this, for $99, this is a good deal and it works as advertised. Now this weekend I am going to fool with the drivers and other settings and optimize the card but for a 15 minute exercise this is a good outcome. I am recording over a track that was sent to me over the net, I am in business.I did read where the ASIO drivers are preferred so I will go back and see if I can optimize those drivers and the buffers. But I am not going to spend much time as right now it is working just fine with the other driver. It ain't broke so I may not fix it !
This MAudio card is now the only audio card on my recording PC and obviously it is the default for all audio programs. The stereo output is feeding my audio rack and the 2 inputs are being fed from my dual channel ART preamp. I use Sonar so when setting up Sonar it was a no brainer to select the proper global drivers and for each track the MAudio inputs and outputs are the only ones available to be selected.
Now, regarding USB interfaces and Firewire interfaces, they are both good, some better than others. USB Interfaces have a nasty history of "chatter" which is a slight distortion while monitoring thru the PC.
MAudio Audiophile 2496 @ $99 is a good solution.
tp
thanks
