USB Powered Sound Quality?

[shambanee]

There's alot of new USB powered interfaces from companies like Digidesign and M - Audio which claim 24 bit/ 96 kHz sample quality. Do these bypass the sound qualities of the sound card I already have in my computer? Or is the sound quality I'm recording only as good as the weakest link in the chain. (i.e. the sound card only goes as high as 16 bit/ 48 kHz but the USB box boasts higher bit depth and sample rates.)

[stillafool]

The m-box is only 24-44.1. Overall, I think it sounds pretty good, although the bandwidth limitations can be annoying depending on what kind of stuff you do. With the m-box, you get zero latency monitoring by getting the output the output directly from the preamps (which sound pretty decent, in my opinion), before it's digitized. If, e.g., hearing realtime effects with your input signal or low-latency monitoring of soft-synths is important to you, I'd recommend against USB 1.1. If you just want a straight ahead audio interface to record and overdub 2 tracks at a time then the m-box is a pretty cool unit (I haven't used the m-audio or others). Overall, however, I'd recommend getting a pci card, or a firewire interface, if you want to flex your system.

[MichaelG]

I've been using a Tascam US-122 interface (USB 1.1) on a Dell Latitude D800 notebook (WinXP, 1.3 GHz Centrino, 512 MB, 30 GB 4200 rpm hdd) for about two weeks. I've used Adobe Audition to record at 16/44.1 and, so far, I'm very pleased with the results. Like the m-box, the US-122 has direct monitoring so latency is really not an issue.

Of course, if you're going to do 24+ tracks you might run into bandwidth issues while recording. You could get around this by bouncing tracks to submixes during tracking and then go back and mix everything once you're finished recording.

[thearnicasync]

If, e.g., hearing realtime effects with your input signal or low-latency monitoring of soft-synths is important to you, I'd recommend against USB 1.1. If you just want a straight ahead audio interface to record and overdub 2 tracks at a time then the m-box is a pretty cool unit (I haven't used the m-audio or others). Overall, however, I'd recommend getting a pci card, or a firewire interface, if you want to flex your system.

Absolutely, and don't forget it. I did, bought the Quattro, and sufferred through usb 1.1 until I had a tower again.

That said, The quattro specs are better than the Delta 44/66 cards (which I'd had in the past) and YOU CAN HEAR IT. I didn't know it spec'd better when I got it. I got suspicious 'cause it sounded so good, and sure enough. My guess is that making the conversion outside of the comuter (thanks USB) makes it better. The tradeoff: no bandwidth. It's a mobile solution and a big time compromise for people with PCI slots. So big, it's a bad idea unless your just doing mastering. By the way, you can only get two channels in OR out at 96khz. That means you can listen, or input without monitoring. Which is dumb. The only way I can see it being useful is to watch dvds in OSX. I say OSX only because the Quattro, already limited for its bandwidth, also features a truly shitty driver in OS9. I dunno about windows...

kelly