Answers needed about the M-Audio Fast Track 2

F

Filipe

New member
Hey guys, how are you doin? I'm new here and i wanted to ask you, does this interface works with Reaper?

And also, i'm plugging my guitar in the line-in of the pc, and using Asio4All i'm getting 4ms of latency on Amplitube and Guitar Rig, so i wanted to know, will i get less than 4ms if i use this interface?

And will it help me get less cpu use while running lots of plugins?

Thanks to everyone who answers!
 
Well, two out of three.

Yes it will work with Reaper--just make sure you download the latest drivers. Some of the earlier ones when it first came out were a bit flakey but the later ones are fine/

Yes, it will cut latency, actually down to zero. It has a button marked "direct monitoring" which effectively lets you monitor on the way in so there's no latency at all.

No, it won't help with plug ins. The plug ins don't use the audio interface--they work directly with your DAW and CPU.
 
Hm, but in the direct monitoring, will i hear the sound of the guitar CLEAN, as it's plugged on the device, or will i hear it with ZERO LATENCY PROCESSED, the sound after the plugin?
 
Ok, but there isn't a chance then that i will get more latency than i'm getting now right? It will be equal or less?
 
Just to confirm, with direct monitoring you'll hear the clean guitar going in, not audio going through the round trip.

As for whether you'd get any more latency with the M Audio, my guess is that it will be slightly less using dedicated ASIO drivers rather than Asio4All. Asio4All is a great little package that lets you use hardware with MME drivers but makes it seen like ASIO to your DAW. However, as I understand it Asio4All can't give you all the latency advantages of real ASIO.

I'm hedging my answer slightly though because 4ms latency is actually a very good number. In delay terms, it's equivalent to the distance between a guitar amp on the floor being listened to with your ears (about 4 feet). My guess is that the latency you're hearing now is rather more than 4ms--this figure is just the amount of delay caused by the buffering Asio4All is using. However, on top of that you probably have slight extra delays in your computer's A to D, more during the write to disk process, and a fair bit more while your CPU is processing the effects you want. I'd wager that, if you could accurately measure the latency, it's way more than 4ms on you system.

Anyway, my bet is that the M Audio will be at least as good as what you have now and probably slightly better--but that the biggest sources of latency on your system aren't to do with the interface at all.
 
Hmm, thanks man! I really don't know then. I'm using Guitar Rig 5 sometimes, and also Amplitube, for guitar sounds. And on the Guitar Rig 5 sound preferences dialog box, it says i'm getting 4ms overall...I don't know if that's true though with Amplitube, as i do hear something different when i use it on the Hi resolution, compared to what i hear on the Mid and Economic resolutions.

I'm just now wondering which audio interface to get, although this m-audio one seems to be the best within my budget.

But now you got me worried. Is it possible that the Guitar Rig software is missing something in the calculation of the delay? If so what can i do to improve my latency?

Do i get more RAM first or do i get a better processor?

My system, for you to analize if you can, is Intel Core i3 3.4 ghz, 4GB 1333mhz RAM kingston, Seagate Barracuda with 8.5ms Seektime (which idk what it means), with an Motherboard that accepts up to Corei7.

If you can give me advices to what improve first, if on RAM or an Interface, or both, please give me, i have some spare money and i mean to spend it wisely! :P
 
I know alot of people never take my advice on the topic of m-audio's fast track stuff, but if i were you i would seriously wait a few more pay checks and bank an extra couple hundred bucks and get a better interface.
 
Hm, such as which? I would really just need one with a mic in and a instrument in...Is there one simple as that that's better?
 
Well, just to disagree a bit, there's nothing particularly wrong with the M Audio, especially since the only thing you're trying to fix is a latency issue.

The trouble is, I tend to think that the latency issue is the multiple software effects being added to the raw guitar (entailing a round trip through the computer for each one. I'm not convinced that any interface will cure that--more RAM or a faster CPU might help somewhat--but I wonder if the REAL solution would be outboard hardware processing or (even better) a real amp with a mic in front. (But I know that's not always an option.)

Or, if you could learn to record dry and add the effects during the mix?
 
Yeah, i actually can't hear the latency while playing, but i just want it to be perfect, 4ms tops. I guess i'll just get more RAM then, since i pretty much only have music programs in my pc, and maybe the Core i3 is good enough for that?

I guess that i'm just being a bit neurotic...But i still want a soundcard, it has to have some benefit right?
 
Okay, first off, yes there ARE definite advantages to using an external interface. Quality is high amongst these--an internal sound card uses about 20 cents worth of components on the motherboard and is subject to a lot of noise on the inputs. They can also have pretty restricted headroom. The biggest differences will be apparent on mics rather than an instrument (which is a much higher level to start with) but even on your guitar I'd expect it to sound cleaner and clearer (at least until you add effects).

I hate to say it, but the other difference is often....latency. On board sound interfaces use generic MME drivers which are specific commands within the operating systems. Since they're designed primarily for simple playback or Skype phone calls, they don't worry about latency within the system. Any decent specialist card will use ASIO drivers which were designed for music recording and keep themselves simple to avoid latency.

Having said all that, I'm a believer that, if you can't hear latency then it isn't a problem. I think I mentioned earlier that 4ms is equivalent to sound travelling about 4 feet in air--i.e. probably less than the distance from your amplifier to your ear if you're playing live. Or, if you're gigging with some friends, I can pretty much guarantee that there'll be more than 4ms delay between the drummer hitting his snare and you hearing it!. Elsewhere on the HR forum, there's a thread about timing differences and the consensus is that if things get TOO perfect the music takes on an artificial quality because real life musicians are never perfect.

(Just for the record, the one exception to this can be working with MIDI since that doesn't exist as "sound" until it's gone through the computer--but that doesn't apply to what you're doing.)

Anyhow, hope this helps. By the way, I've only just noticed you're from Brazil. Olá! Tudo bom? Many years ago when I was in London, the company I worked for used to do a lot of facility work for the correspondents and crews from TV Globo--I used to have lots of good friends there!
 
Really Bobbsy?! That's incredible news man! People from TV Globo are adored here in Brazil, even the journalists are quite the celebrities, lol :P Tell me more about that!! LOL

(And also, which card would you recommend me then, you think m-audio fast track ultra is good? Or is there another one that's very simple and better? I really just want to record one thing at a time, and just bass, guitar and microphones, drums i program. And thank you very much again for puttin' the time to answer me! Cheers!)
 
Frankly, I quite like the M Audio. I've had several (still have 2) and they work fine for me. I've not tried the Fast Track Ultra personally (my present ones are a Mobile Pre and a Profire Lightbridge, neither exactly suitable for what you want) but I've heard good things about the Ultra.

Others you could look at might be Focusrite, RME and maybe Alesis and Tascam. However, if you can find the M Audio at a price you can afford, it should be fine.

As for Globo, I moved to London (from Canada) in 1976 and the company I joined worked with TV Globo to edit and feed stories back to Brazil. The first reporter I worked with was Sandra Passarinho--she had a cameraman with her named Antonia Brasil (note the spelling). Antonio and his wife ended up working for us later on after Sandra went back to Brazil--his wife was our producer in Bosnia in the 1990s. Later, Sandra was replaced by a man named Hermano Henning then Robert Feith. Globo was still there when I left the company in 1999 but their London operation had become much bigger--they rented a quarter of a floor from us and had their own editing, small studio, recording facilitly, etc. so we didn't know them so well. Years ago when I was single, I even dated one of their Producers, a lovely woman named Marcy Barci! I was also introduced to the delights of cachaca (though it wasn't so delightful the next morning).
 
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