The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Hi,

I was trying to use the headphone jack on my laptop last night with Reason and the latency was awful. I vaguely remember someone recommending a generic ASIO driver that was better then the stock one. Anyone know what I am talking about?

ken

asio4all ?

i haven't had a lot of luck with it myself.

-craig

Another vote for asio4all. It's always worked really good for me, the setup interface is incredibly simple too. Just slide the latency slider to 320 samples, and you'll get great latency on virtually *any* sound chipset. If you have a fast CPU, you can go lower than 320 samples, I find it starts to crackle a bit at anything under 256.

Seriously, asio4all was *much* more robust than Creative's own asio drivers for my Audigy2 ZS Notebook card. (I just use my USB mixer now, which is better than anything Creative)

I just installed Asio4All last night on my fancy new notebook, to run Reason, and it worked out just fine, which made my day. Props to this thread!!!

I still have to get a card, 'cuz I want to record audio..debating Firewire or USB....USB is cheaper, but I have a buit in FW port...hmm....

Be wary of built in firewire ports. I've had issues with two different ones in the past - the one built into the SB Audigy 2 card, and the one on my laptop. They'll work fine for a month or two, but they'll steadily stop working.

Firewire preamp + cheap pci card = no hassles.

The Sober Irishman wrote: Firewire preamp + cheap pci card = no hassles.

Any suggestions? (maybe this is covered in another thread...)

The Sober Irishman wrote: Firewire preamp + cheap pci card = no hassles.

well, you might have some hassles trying to cram that pci card in a laptop.

the big problem with built-in firewire on a laptop is that 99.9% of windows laptops have 4 pin firewire, which means no power.. so if you use something like a motu traveler, you have to plug it in to the wall.

furthermore, a firewire pcmcia card will require you to plug *that* in to the wall, because they don't want you to power an external device with your pcmcia power.

so USB definitely has a strength over FW in that dept.

-craig

The Sober Irishman wrote:Be wary of built in firewire ports. I've had issues with two different ones in the past - the one built into the SB Audigy 2 card, and the one on my laptop. They'll work fine for a month or two, but they'll steadily stop working.

Firewire preamp + cheap pci card = no hassles.

I have no issues with my 1814 FW. I've actually used it on the road.

As far as the Audigy 2 card well that would be the issue right there. That thing has too many gizmos on it to render it really useful for what we do. My firewire port didn't fare too well with my Audigy moons ago.

My firewire in my mac works great. In most what I've read and heard about Firewire is it is more stable than USB when it comes to A-D conversion. This could be bullocks, but most of the pro units are Firewire.

This unit is used by a buddy of mine and he gets great results.

My feeling THC is that your laptop should handle FW. Still I've also heard some good results from USB systems. The thing I do like about Firewire is the daisy chaining of stuff. I've done this with my Harddrive through the A-D converter cuz I didn't have a USB cable and it worked fine. I was on a job.

starfinger wrote:the big problem with built-in firewire on a laptop is that 99.9% of windows laptops have 4 pin firewire, which means no power.. so if you use something like a motu traveler, you have to plug it in to the wall.

Even the new Core 2 Duos? That's what THC is using. If that is the case then that sucks!!! The powering from the Firewire is something I used out on the road and boy it was great. Ofcourse there are some powered USB ones as well.

On the other note I'm drooling about that traveller. I wished I'd have bought that instead of the FW 1814. The timecode is what appeals most to me about it. That and it can be used as a standalone unit and still fit in my backpack.

Yeah, i love my traveler. I know some people have complained about MOTU drivers for XP, but I get really good latency with that. It's annoying that I have to plug it in, but I get better performance than on my USB2 audio device (which to be fair is Native Instruments Kore, and they are a bit new to the hardware/driver world)

The firewire power issue with laptops is not really a limitation of the processor. There's no technical reason (as far as I know) that would keep 6-pin FW from working on a PC laptop.. I mean, it works fine on desktops. They are just following Sony's retarded example, I think (since they popularized 4-pin firewire in their cameras)

it's a conspiracy!

-craig

I hear that the pre-amps are great in the traveller.

BTW, Starfinger I remember in Boston you using a control device. Was it the Behringer controller that you were using? If so then I'd like to pick your brain about it. I've got the rotary one and have successfully used it with Live, but unsuccessful using it with Cubase. I haven't found any resources on line that would allow me to utilize it the way I'd like and the next stage may be selling it. For Reason it works great I've been told, but for Cubase not so much.

tonetripper wrote: Was it the Behringer controller that you were using?

sorry, that was an m-audio UC-33e

I do have a behringer fcb1010 midi footpedal, but I doubt if that's helpful to you!

-craig

I just want to add that I finally installed ASIO4ALL on my laptop and Reason runs great now without an external soundcard. Thanks!

Ken