Advice of Focusrite Pro40 for my live rig

nulldevice · 9th February 2010

In my current live rig, I've got a laptop hooked up to a MOTU 828 Mk1. I use it for running a few synths and processing some input via Mainstage. I have found it acceptable. But it's getting long in the tooth, the driver support is a little funky these days, and the power supply is starting to buzz a bit. I think it's not going to last too long.

So I'd like to replace it. The top contender is the Focusrite Pro40, because it has 8 inputs and I can slave it to the ULN-2 in my studio, so it works on multiple levels for me.

But since it's a DICE II box, I'm a bit worried about the latency. Perhaps the latency isn't that bad, compared to my 9-year-old battered 828. I don't know.

Anybody got opinions? Of course you do.

tysonviolin · 9th February 2010

I use my pro40 in my live rig everyday and have no latency issues. most latency comes from plug ins and other internal processing. The pro40 has 5 buffer sizes in the driver. I keep it on "very short". I run guitar vocals and violin into live and out on separate channels to my mixer. I am also running Maschine, 4 synths, and about 40 plugins. My total latency as displayed in Live is 16ms. I'd say that's not bad. The zero latency mixing in the Saffire control panel has about 2 ms. I say get it. And there's a plus, it sounds awesome.

nulldevice · 9th February 2010

Thanks! That's precisely the sort of thing I needed to know. I see a lot of discussion elsewhere on the boards about the basic roundtrip latency of DICE boxes, but nobody seems to mention realworld performance. Really, as long as I can safely keep the latency below 20ms I'm not going to notice much.

I also apologize for the typo in the title. It should be "on", not "of." :/

tysonviolin · 9th February 2010

I should mention that the computer I'm using is a 13" Macbook Pro with 4 gigs of memory. 16.7 ms latency.

Eric Pederson · 9th February 2010

Are you running this setup primarily for FX or recording? Just curious.

And also, do you get recording software with the Pro40?

nulldevice · 9th February 2010

I'm also running a MacBook pro, so that's helpful.

I'll be doing a little of both - effects and some live recording. I know it comes with some mixer/routing software, but I don't know whether something like LiveLE or cubase comes bundled.

tysonviolin · 10th February 2010

All those things come bundled, but for real, all those light programs suck.

9th February 2010	#1
nulldevice Gear Head Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Madison WI Posts: 38 Thread Starter	Advice of Focusrite Pro40 for my live rig In my current live rig, I've got a laptop hooked up to a MOTU 828 Mk1. I use it for running a few synths and processing some input via Mainstage. I have found it acceptable. But it's getting long in the tooth, the driver support is a little funky these days, and the power supply is starting to buzz a bit. I think it's not going to last too long. So I'd like to replace it. The top contender is the Focusrite Pro40, because it has 8 inputs and I can slave it to the ULN-2 in my studio, so it works on multiple levels for me. But since it's a DICE II box, I'm a bit worried about the latency. Perhaps the latency isn't that bad, compared to my 9-year-old battered 828. I don't know. Anybody got opinions? Of course you do.

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9th February 2010	#2
tysonviolin Gear addict Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 407	I use my pro40 in my live rig everyday and have no latency issues. most latency comes from plug ins and other internal processing. The pro40 has 5 buffer sizes in the driver. I keep it on "very short". I run guitar vocals and violin into live and out on separate channels to my mixer. I am also running Maschine, 4 synths, and about 40 plugins. My total latency as displayed in Live is 16ms. I'd say that's not bad. The zero latency mixing in the Saffire control panel has about 2 ms. I say get it. And there's a plus, it sounds awesome.

9th February 2010	#5
Eric Pederson Lives for gear Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Minneapolis Posts: 783	Are you running this setup primarily for FX or recording? Just curious. And also, do you get recording software with the Pro40?

10th February 2010	#7
tysonviolin Gear addict Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 407	All those things come bundled, but for real, all those light programs suck.