Audio cards that work with Linux

M-Audio 1010LT - It just works.

Does anyone have any luck with the the RME Fireface UC?
or the new RME Babyface?
They would be perfect for my studio gear.
Thanks

@TheAwesomeKing: on Linux, neither of these devices will work. On OS X, both of them almost certainly will.

Lexicon Omega works out of the box:

http://soundsoflinux.blogspot.com/2010/04/lexicon-alpha-works-with-linux.html

Agreed about the lexicon omega - plugged it in and started recording.

One issue with the omega is that it only goes up to 48khz.

And that is bad because…?

Interesting thread for someone comtemplating an upgrade.

I would like to know, what latency can be obtained with each of these cards with zero xruns:

M-Audio Delta 66
Edirol UA-25
ESI Juli@
RME Hammerfall DSP + Multiface II
HDSP Multiface (PCI)
Terratac Phase 88 Firewire
M-Audio 1010LT PCI
M-Audio Fast Track Pro
RME HDSP 9632
Lexicon Omega

What would be the max tolerable latency in your opinion?

Greetings,

Jens.

@mixit: the minimum buffer size of all PCI cards is 16 frames (samples) although some cannot go that low. All PCI cards can be configured to use 64. Going much below this causes crazy CPU cost. The buffer size itself would translate into effective latency of twice that size. USB and Firewire cards currently all have higher minimum latencies. You cannot define “the lowest latency that can be obtained without xruns” because its much more a function of your system overall than just the audio interface. Of the list above, the 1010LT will be the lowest latency, the RME devices will be the best performing (though for relatively low channel counts, there will be no effective difference between any of the PCI cards in this respect).

Considering that in most cases, low latency isn’t actually required though many people think it is, your question may need to be rethought slightly.

To answer your question as best I can, most of those cards will probably be able to get <3mS latency in Jack(Not counting AD/DA latency). I can only speak directly for the RME HDSP which yes I was able to get that low, but I have also had other cards based off the same chipset as the M-Audio 1010lt and pretty sure I remember running that low as well. Note that this requires a properly set up system, not something many distributions do at the moment, and if you want the lowest latency stable you probably will want the -rt patches, again not something a lot of distributions do.

  Seablade

@mixit: Minimum achievable latency is very often a function of both the sound interface and the PC hardware it is connected to, so I expect it would be difficult to provide a guaranteed figure. But it is important to realise that although low latency is seen by many to be of vital importance (and manufacturers do a lot to perpetuate this myth) that is not necessarily the case. The acceptable latency very much depends on your setup and the type of recording / mixing that you want to do:

  1. If you are just mixing without any live input then you can set the latency to be quite long (one of the great things about JACK is that there is a lot of control over buffer sizes etc)

  2. If you are recording, then in my opinion it is best to monitor through a separate hardware mixer, that way you don’t have to monitor via the sound card, and so you can set the latency to be relatively long (which for a recording is good because it reduces the chance of X-runs which are more of a problem if they spoil a recording than if they momentarily interupt a mix, which you can go back and listen to again)

  3. However, if you plan to use a lot of software synths, or plugin effects on instruments while recording then you may need to shorten the latency e.g. reduce the buffer sizes. How short this needs to be is dependent on playing style and the type of music to a certain degree (amongst other things), although I usually find that buffer sizes of around 128 samples at 48K work well for most purposes - even though this is not the best latency achievable by those who participate more enthusiastically in the ‘latency olympics’

It seems generally accepted that the 1010LT PCI is a good card for most situations and you will normally get the lowest latency through a PCI(e) card than for example USB or Firewire

Paul, Seablade and LinuxDSP,

Thanks a lot for your answers. With 3 pointers to 1010LT from you as well the other comments above, the decision is easy: The 1010LT will be the backbone of my stationary home studio. Amazing how such an “old” card still holds its ground. The designer(s) must have done a great job.

and therefore, are most probably fired :slight_smile:

+1 for the 1010LT - works a treat

Native Instruments Audio8DJ … great card… 8 in 8 out, and 1ms latency when properly configured :slight_smile: