My quest to find an all in one solution to create music with high quality instruments at my fingertips (piano, percussion, strings, brass, woodwinds, synths, vast array of sound fx), seems to have lead my to a combo of Reaper and NI Komplete. Komplete seems like a good deal, but I can't help think that I might be missing something, some expense that I'm not considering? I already have a good quality 61 key controller, multiple fader and knob based controllers, and I wan't to use what I have. I'm not going to have any issues using my existing hardware with Komplete...am I?
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Reaper+Komplete Anything I Need to Know?
- Thread starter Taffer
- Start date
My quest to find an all in one solution to create music with high quality instruments at my fingertips (piano, percussion, strings, brass, woodwinds, synths, vast array of sound fx), seems to have lead my to a combo of Reaper and NI Komplete. Komplete seems like a good deal, but I can't help think that I might be missing something, some expense that I'm not considering? I already have a good quality 61 key controller, multiple fader and knob based controllers, and I wan't to use what I have. I'm not going to have any issues using my existing hardware with Komplete...am I?
Well, what IS your existing hardware? What is missing to me is any means to HEAR the vast array of instruments you will be buying into.
Do you already have a good, low latency soundcard or external interface?
Dave.
Well, what IS your existing hardware? What is missing to me is any means to HEAR the vast array of instruments you will be buying into.
Do you already have a good, low latency soundcard or external interface?
Dave.
True enough, I was going to try and keep that to a separate thread, but I am looking to upgrade my M-Audio M Track to a lower latency/higher sampling rate interface as well. I already have monitoring covered, just need to upgrade to a proper power amp to fully drive my PSB 300's. What I specifically need to know and is the purpose of this thread, does Komplete lock you into using their specific devices like Kontrol and Maschine, or is it as open ended as any DAW for hardware support? My midi controller setup consists of a Casio Ctk3200, a Frontier Alphatrack, and a Steinberg CMC-FD touch fader pad.
True enough, I was going to try and keep that to a separate thread, but I am looking to upgrade my M-Audio M Track to a lower latency/higher sampling rate interface as well. I already have monitoring covered, just need to upgrade to a proper power amp to fully drive my PSB 300's. What I specifically need to know and is the purpose of this thread, does Komplete lock you into using their specific devices like Kontrol and Maschine, or is it as open ended as any DAW for hardware support? My midi controller setup consists of a Casio Ctk3200, a Frontier Alphatrack, and a Steinberg CMC-FD touch fader pad.
You could dump £170 on an NI Komplete Audio 6. That gets you a stonkingly low latency AI (will do 96kHz if y'hafft!) with 2 excellent mic/line/instru inputs plus two more line ins (another kbd?) plus S/PDIF (yet ANOTHER kbd??) and of course MIDI. But! You also get Cubase A1 and Kontakt player and a shedload (3G I think) of samples to download.
So, even if Kontakt 'locks you out' you got it for 'free' and can blow it out if you like. You still have one of the best sub £250 AIs around IMHO.
The 2nd Generation Focusrites MIGHT be better for latency than the mK1s as indeed could be the Steinberg UR22 but I still think the KA6 beats them all for latency, connectivity, software bundle and value. Oh! And it is built like a BSH!
Dave.
You could dump £170 on an NI Komplete Audio 6. That gets you a stonkingly low latency AI (will do 96kHz if y'hafft!) with 2 excellent mic/line/instru inputs plus two more line ins (another kbd?) plus S/PDIF (yet ANOTHER kbd??) and of course MIDI. But! You also get Cubase A1 and Kontakt player and a shedload (3G I think) of samples to download.
So, even if Kontakt 'locks you out' you got it for 'free' and can blow it out if you like. You still have one of the best sub £250 AIs around IMHO.
The 2nd Generation Focusrites MIGHT be better for latency than the mK1s as indeed could be the Steinberg UR22 but I still think the KA6 beats them all for latency, connectivity, software bundle and value. Oh! And it is built like a BSH!
Dave.
Hmm, here in Canada the Komplete Audio 6 is 300$, I only paid 110$ for the M-Audio M Track MkII. Looking at the specs on the M Track it states that I should be able to get 24bit 96k out of it, but in software/ableton it's locked at 48k. How bad is the M Track for latency, aren't they all basically limited by usb 2.0?
Actually, putting some more thought into this. All I'm doing right now is triggering vst's via a midi controller. So it would be kind of silly to focus on usb vs firewire vs thunderbolt, and kind of silly to drop any amount of money on an expensive interface until I actually have a use for the interface (recording). I'm thinking the smart move would be to minimize latency as much as possible, by taking usb out of the output equation. For some reason the M Track connected via usb 2.0 has lower latency than onboard audio, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense considering onboard audio is by definition soldered onto the mainboard. So I guess what I should be doing to get minimal latency is to look into a pci or pci e soundcard that is geared toward minimal latency? Perhaps I should also look into the lowest latency midi controller available to replace my Casio Ctk 3200?
Maybe something like this to get high quality sound out of the computer quickly and into the monitors? Asus PCie 7.1 Gx2.5 Audio Engine 192K/24Bit Playback Support Sound Cards Xonar DSX: Amazon.ca: Computers & Tablets
Theoretically pcie is blazingly fast, but most people on here are also recording and tend to go for an all in one, like an Rme which are just stupidly expensive for monitoring purposes. So I don't really see much info on pcie cards geared towards gaming/home theater, my guess is latency isn't a top priority for Asus...
Maybe something like this to get high quality sound out of the computer quickly and into the monitors? Asus PCie 7.1 Gx2.5 Audio Engine 192K/24Bit Playback Support Sound Cards Xonar DSX: Amazon.ca: Computers & Tablets
Theoretically pcie is blazingly fast, but most people on here are also recording and tend to go for an all in one, like an Rme which are just stupidly expensive for monitoring purposes. So I don't really see much info on pcie cards geared towards gaming/home theater, my guess is latency isn't a top priority for Asus...
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"aren't they all basically limited by usb 2.0? " Where you been Taffer? USB AIs are now much faster than they were even 3 years ago.
The problem was never the USB 2.0 protocol, it was/is the crap drivers most AI companies use. You mention RME? They were one of the first to make a USB 2.0 interface that had as low latency as Fire Wire. Their latest offering is TB and USB 3.0 and both are the same, blisteringly fast.
You say PCI cards have low latency and that is true. My son found my 2496 fast enough for his MIDI work but the old 2496 only goes down to 64 samples, my KA6 is still glitch free at 32.
Dave.
The problem was never the USB 2.0 protocol, it was/is the crap drivers most AI companies use. You mention RME? They were one of the first to make a USB 2.0 interface that had as low latency as Fire Wire. Their latest offering is TB and USB 3.0 and both are the same, blisteringly fast.
You say PCI cards have low latency and that is true. My son found my 2496 fast enough for his MIDI work but the old 2496 only goes down to 64 samples, my KA6 is still glitch free at 32.
Dave.
Morning Mr T! Looking at that Asus PCIe card I suspect it is of the Sound Blaster stable? Not a card noted for low latency and has the g'd awful 3.5mm jacks!
For that money you could I am sure find a used M-Audio 2496 (the AP 192 would be better but more expensive) and as I said, the 2496 has very low latency. There are few decent PCIe cards around now, ESI might still have one?
Dave.
For that money you could I am sure find a used M-Audio 2496 (the AP 192 would be better but more expensive) and as I said, the 2496 has very low latency. There are few decent PCIe cards around now, ESI might still have one?
Dave.