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Thread ID: 45041 2004-05-07 07:52:00 Recording Studio Soundcards & Performance somebody (208) Press F1
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235003 2004-05-07 07:52:00 I've been investigating 2 recording-studio professional soundcards.

The 2 I have been looking at are the Edirol DA-2496 and the Edirol FA-101.

The FA-101 (edirol.com) is a newer model, but is actualy based on a firewire interface. It is also cheaper than the DA-2496, which is an added bonus. The DA-2496 (edirol.com) uses a PCI-card based interface, which connects to the external breakout box.

My question is, will there be performance issues (eg. latency) associate with either card, due to it's interface with the computer?
somebody (208)
235004 2004-05-07 09:42:00 ... and in saying that, which would be better, performance wise (purely based on "theory" - it doesn't matter if you've used the soundcard before or not). somebody (208)
235005 2004-05-07 23:57:00 As far as latency issues, i believe that the Firewire interface runs at speeds of 400Mbps, while PCI is much faster. This means that technically, there is clear advantage with the internal type. However, it really would not matter if at any given time you are only using 200 Mbps, for streaming things like audio, and its quality. Growly (6)
235006 2004-05-08 01:10:00 I remember reading somewhere that internal soundcards suffer from interference due to all the other devices in your computer, and hence if you're a real audio buff, you should use an external soundcard.

However, the difference isn't exactly noticeable... if I were to get a new soundcard, I'd get a PCI based one with an external breakout box. The PCI card might be more worth your while, in terms of less latency.
agent (30)
235007 2004-05-08 05:58:00 Thanks guys,

I received an email from the Edirol guys who said that the latency is about 4ms, but is usually set to 6-8ms just to be safe. Either or, it's better than the 568ms latence i'm getting with our current soundcard (pci based with breakout box), so I won't complain.
somebody (208)
235008 2004-05-08 08:14:00 How do you find your latency? Growly (6)
235009 2004-05-08 10:41:00 The soundcard uses Asio drivers, and the software (Cubase) tells me what it is. I don't know how to find out on a normal PC though. somebody (208)
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