US-122 vs. M-Audio Quattro / ASIO vs ASIO 2

J

jokku

New member
All day digging through various message boards / music sites .. and at the end I'm just more confused than I was in the beginning.. I want to buy an Audio/MIDI interface for use mainly with Reason/Cubase+VSTi's. I will not record more than 2 instruments/mics simultaneously, my main concern is latency and reliability. I'm wandering between Tascam US-122 (EUR 200), M-Audio Quattro (EUR 178) and M-Audio Audiophile Firewire (EUR 350) ..
I know that firewire is much better than USB, but I think this only makes sense if I'll be recording many channels (more than one) simultaneously....Or am I wrong? :confused: If not, then I'll go for the US-122 or Quattro, but then... the US-122 is ASIO (1?) and M-audio Quattro is ASIO 2 ... so what's the difference between ASIO/ASIO2? I'm totally confused. Please help!!!

Also I'm planning to buy a MIDI keyboard/controller for live controlling Reason/Cubase..so MIDI performance is also a concern in this case.
In case that this is important, my PC is Sony VAIO Notebook PCG-FRV34 (P4 2.66 / 512RAM / 1xFireWire / 3xUSB 2.0 / 4300rpm hdd).. Thanx in advance for any help! :)
 
They're both ASIO2, I'm pretty sure. One of my friends bought the US-122. The DAW program it comes with is crap, so we "upgraded" him to the free Kristal DAW. I have to say I was more impressed with it when I looked at it online than when I was actually using it, it felt kind of cheap. Sounded good though, and did what was needed. If I was buying one now, I'd probably go with M-Audio.
 
What about the Lexicon Omega? Besides Lexicon's bad support reputation, how does it compare to Tascam/M-Audio ?
 
jokku - i really really think you should step back and pause and not rush this.
a lot of people on this site and many others if you surf the web have encountered problems using usb based sound solutions.
i frankly wont use it. imho usb is ok for peripherals that dont generate huge amounts of bus traffic like say mice for example, but audio is a different kettle of fish. from everything ive seen people seem to be encountering
fewer problems using pci based sound cards like deltas for example.
my one recommendation is ANY solution you buy make sure you can return it
if there are incompatibilities with your pc. firewire - i'm looking at this now for myself. but thought i would allow a settling in period for firewire.
maybe others can comment on their results with firewire.
in THEORY firewire is a good way to go.
it would really help if you posted your pc configuration in detail.
particularly if you are using an old pc with usb 1 support i would definitely suggest you forget any usb solution due to potential problems.
ive seen too many on older machines trying to run usb devices.
 
While I understand Manning1's reservations, I think the Tascam, with its imposed restrictions on channels and bit/sample rate, is a safe bet.

I've had it running successfully at 24/48 on an Athlon 1800+/KT133, Athlon 2200+/KT333, and 2500+/KT400, in addition to a Celeron 1.3Ghz/830M.
 
quattro works fine for me... except kristal grind to a halt when playing back with vst effects in asio mode... so I track in Asio.. now worries.. switch output to MME for mixing...
 
I would like to 2nd mannings opion on USB ...

the problem w/ usb is that all USB-devices share the same IQR and thus moving your mouse COULD (not necesarily but there is a certain chance) put your usb audio interface off-track, same goes for cablemodems, card-readers, etc...

as soon as you plug them in (not even turn them on!) they will trigger processes and IRQs where the cpu has to check if there is "anything coming" from this USB device

I for my part could NEVER get my USB soundcard crackle-free :( ... and i waded up to my knees cleaning up IRQ conflicts, disabling devices in bios, playing with pci latencies, etc...

lets face it ... a MAXIMUM transfer rate of 10mbit is just not that much (compared to a pci's ~1300mbit), let alon an AVERAGE (=sustained) transfer rate which seems to be far lower for USB...

save yourself some headache and go pci (if this is an option for your situation)

best of luck
alfred
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top