MOTU 828mk3 Hybrid - Lowest Buffer Size

[txshonk]

I have an ASUS G74 laptop, it has an intel 2670QM I7 - Win7 64. I have been using it as a general purpose PC replacement. When I am on a trip I will mix PT sessions with ASIO4ALL as the audio driver. I have been quite pleased with the performance.

I have thought about making it a dedicated mobile recording machine, but it only has USB 2.0 or 3.0 connections. I haven't used a USB interface in quite some time. Will a MOTU 828mk3 Hybrid handle recording 24 channels at low latency (64 buffer)?

If anyone is using one in USB mode, Id love to hear.

Dave

[soybalm]

First of, the hard drive can be the biggest problem. If you have Pro Tools HD, it has a disk cache feature that can put everything in ram. You need lots of ram for this feature to work right. 8 gigs or more! Assign 4 gigs to the disk cache. If you record a whole set like over a half hour, that can be quite a challenge too. If you stop after a couple of songs that can be a little easier on the system. If you have an eSATA port and an eSATA caddy (Thermaltake makes the one I have) you'll be fine. Just buy your favorite desktop SATA drive and drop it in the caddy and you can record a lot.
I'm going to say no on the buffer. There is absolutely no need for that buffer size if you are recording live. I never use that in my studio desktop system and I never get complaints about delay or echo. I use 256 in general and its very tight. A buffer of 512 is quite usable but you may start noticing a slight ambient delay but not enough to through a musician out of time.
I will say that Pro Tools is tighter in general. Cubase for example, reports a round trip latency.
Your problem is USB 2 is just not going to give you that kind of latency unless you use RME hardware which uses the USB port in a proprietary manner. I have no idea if this works in Pro Tools.
You need to describe your system a little more like you little profiles do. A Sandra report is the most complete way of informing every one what system you have. There's a link here on the forum. "Help us help you"! or something like that.

[getz76]

Originally Posted by txshonk

Will a MOTU 828mk3 Hybrid handle recording 24 channels at low latency (64 buffer)?

The problem is going to be the roundtrip latency of USB vs. Firewire. Firewire is significantly lower.

You are better off running a higher buffer and using MOTU's CueMix FX monitoring software. It's simple to set up and very flexible.

[txshonk]

Originally Posted by getz76

The problem is going to be the roundtrip latency of USB vs. Firewire. Firewire is significantly lower.

You are better off running a higher buffer and using MOTU's CueMix FX monitoring software. It's simple to set up and very flexible.

I figured USB 2.0 would tank at 44.1/48 running 24 channels of audio at 64 buffers, but I am curious of those running if this was reality.

I use an old PCMCIA RME HDSP card on an old Core2 Duo laptop to run 24 channels of audio live at 64buffers, but the laptop cant handle any serious mixing. I was hoping to consolidate down to one portable rig to cover session mixing/tracking/live audio.

Unfortunately I have found tracking down a laptop with a good CPU, capable of 16GB RAM, express card slot, 2 hard drive bays, and 1080 resolution monitor, driven by a Nvidia graphics card to be quite a chore. I picked up the ASUS laptop as I intended it to be a portable session mixing rig, so I was ok without the express card slot. But its been such a great DAW machine I was curios how far I could take it with a USB interface.

Dave