Firewire 410 & PT FREE-good news/advice sought

[TheSpottyFox]

Hi all,
Just joined the forum and I've been looking to see if anyone is using M-Audio's Firewire 410 successfully with Pro Tools Free.I've read the posts concerning various usb audio interfaces and how their compatibility depends on their ability to use the Mac OS sound Manager rather than ASIO drivers and so I rang M-Audio (in England) and the good news is the latest drivers for the Firewire 410 support Sound Manager so this audio interface should work. (Forgive me if this is common knowledge but it might be useful to someone)
What I would like to know is if the latency problems that are experienced with some other usb audio interfaces will still occur with the firewire 410, being a faster connection. Is anyone on the forum using the Firewire 410 or know whether there is latency issues with this interface?
Any advice greatly appreciated

Many thanks B

[M.Brane]

I rang M-Audio (in England) and the good news is the latest drivers for the Firewire 410 support Sound Manager so this audio interface should work.

Only if it can use SoundManager alone. If it needs it's own driver to be loaded in the extensions folder it won't work. Make sure if you try it anyway to get it from someplace with a good return policy.

Supposedly the Delta 24/96 is compatable with SoundManager too, but I could not even maintain a stable system with the driver installed let alone use it with PTF.

YMMV.

[TheSpottyFox]

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.
I rang M-Audio again and put this point to their technical department.They said that you do have to install M-Audio's drivers for the Firewire 410 but that it contains both ASIO drivers and support for Sound Manager.This is only the latest drivers, mind not the first release.I asked them had they tried the firewire 410 with Pro Tools free and they said yes, briefly and it worked ok. Does this information change your opinion of whether it will work or not?
On the second point I mentioned - They also said that there would always be a certain amount of latency experienced when using any recording software that uses Sound Manager, this being solely due to the Sound Manager driver.

[M.Brane]

I asked them had they tried the firewire 410 with Pro Tools free and they said yes, briefly and it worked ok. Does this information change your opinion of whether it will work or not?

Not really, but I tend to be a skeptic on such issues. I would be suprised if it worked. You would still only have 2 simultanious inputs due to the limitations of SoundManager. I remember reading an Apple tech doc once that stated that SoundManager is actually capable of multiple inputs. I guess nobody bothers to do the coding for that though. I know of no one using more than 2 inputs with SM.

On the second point I mentioned - They also said that there would always be a certain amount of latency experienced when using any recording software that uses Sound Manager, this being solely due to the Sound Manager driver.

Yes you will always have some latency with SM. Mine is not too bad though. Only about 10ms with my stock sound in. USB tends has more due to the extra processor cycles required. FW should be better I would think since it's a much faster interface.

I guess it can't hurt to try. You may be pleasantly suprised. Then again you could become an unpaid beta tester for M-Audio.

I would make sure I could return it with no hassles if it doesn't work.

[TheSpottyFox]

Cheers, I will.