Any Delta 44 M-Powered users out there?

[AlexLakis]

My songwriting partner has an old Delta 44 audio interface, which is compatable with M-Powered Pro Tools. I was thinking about buying him M-Powered software for Christmas so we're both on Pro Tools (expediting some songwriting processes.)

My question is this: Will he be able to get acceptable latency with the Delta 44, or is this interface just pure crap? He'll wanna do stuff like record guitars thru Guitar Rig 2, program drums using BFD, etc., so rigging the M-Powered "Low Latency Monitoring" mode wouldn't be a solution. He's gonna need to record with a buffer size of 128 thru plugins. He's got a decent enough computer to do it with, say, a FW410. The Delta 44 is PCI, so I've assumed that it might actually handle lower buffer sizes well?

Should I buy him M-Powered software, or just get him an Mbox Mini? Either way, it'll be the same price. I'm wary of the Mbox option as well, as I've always had bad experiences with Mboxes (and other USB audio interfaces for that matter) as far as stability and latency goes.

[NathanC]

I *think* the Delta 44 should work fine.

At home I have a Delta 1010 and I frequently use Guitar Rig 2 when a guitarist is coming over to write songs. The latency is low enough to be able to use it in real-time.

That same guitarist has an M-audio Audiophile USB, which works fine with Guitar Rig 2 in real-time as well.

[AlexLakis]

Cool, thanks for the reply, Nathan!

Does anyone know if the Delta 44 use the same drivers as the Delta 1010 series (that is, same core drivers, just different for the I/O?)

If it does, I think it may be safe to assume that I would get the same latency results with the 44 as you would get with the 1010...

[NathanC]

They use the same driver:

From the M-audio website:

"Version: 5.10.00.5052v3
Release Date: June 22, 2006
Applies to:
Delta 1010, Delta 1010LT, Delta 44, Delta 66, Delta Audiophile 2496, Delta Audiophile 192"

http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=...c72&o=15&f=736

[AlexLakis]

Nice! Should be good then.

Thanks again for your help, Nathan!

I would welcome anyones opinions on the Delta 44/M-Powered rig vs. the Mbox 2 Mini/LE rig. At this point, I'll probably just get him M-Powered to use with his Delta 44.