quote:

Originally posted by Lunar Phase 7 You checked the Tapco s5? The basic M-Audio Sound card is only like £50 I listened to the Tapco 5A's and their sound isnt too great.

Would really disagree there. They are actually quite flat which a lot of people dont really like, especially those looking for a bright sound in their monitors. I've A/B against mackies on them and they have good depth and a similar sound... can hear reverb tails all the way to the floor for example, and very honest sound... They will show up the flaws in your mix pretty easy.

They are still budget monitor ofcourse and will take some getting used to... mainly that they seem to dip slightly at around the 2-4 Khz range, but I chose them easily over Tannoy Reveals, Yamaha, Alesis M1Mk2 etc..

Stay away from M-audio sound cards too. I've had LOTS of trouble with my 24/96 and the midi latency isnt the best. Drivers havnt been updated in years either, so have had various conflicts with other devices. Go MOTU or Echo I'd say...

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Problems with the m-audio
Very few have that. I personally love my simple m-audio 2496. I can get latencies of <1ms if I would want it. Too bad that causes a lot of cpu load, I wouldn't be able to do that much that way... I've got 5ms latency now at all times

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Storyteller Website | Storyteller @ Facebook | Storyteller @ Beatport | Storyteller @ Soundcloud | Stephen J. Kroos - Europa (Storyteller Remix)
Anthony Mea - Get It On (Storyteller Remix)

quote:

If less is more think about how much more more would be. -Frasier

quote:

Originally posted by Storyteller Problems with the m-audio Very few have that. I personally love my simple m-audio 2496. I can get latencies of <1ms if I would want it. Too bad that causes a lot of cpu load, I wouldn't be able to do that much that way... I've got 5ms latency now at all times

+1

i have never heard anyone complaining about a m-audio product!
it must be very rare!

quote:

Originally posted by Storyteller Problems with the m-audio Very few have that. I personally love my simple m-audio 2496. I can get latencies of <1ms if I would want it. Too bad that causes a lot of cpu load, I wouldn't be able to do that much that way... I've got 5ms latency now at all times

I'm sure he was referring to the "midi latency" of the soundcard, not the "audio latency" of your software. Many soundcards have this same problem.. not to mention usb-devices. The biggest problems with midi latencys are usually the fluctuation of the delay that is caused from passing the commands thru the device. You can imagine what that would sound like if it would happen to audio? Latency hopping from 4ms to 20ms at will... cos thats what it does on bad midi-devices.
(I've got no info about the M-Audio card tho. The original poster can describe his problems with it himself.)

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Matti Kotala
-mk-
www.mkdr.net

I’ve got the Delta 1010 and I’ve never had one problem with it, latency couldn’t be better.
As soon as I play a sound on my keyboard the note is there, and when I program a riff it plays with it.
Don’t blame the soundcard if your computer isn’t powerful enough, turn off things that use memory that you don’t need and tweak your pc so it runs better.
My computer is an Athlon 64 3800+ with four gig ram and sata hard drives, and I saved up for it over a year and built it myself because my old pc couldn’t hack it anymore.
Plus I know what parts went in it and I knew it would be a good system, just tweak tweak tweak and get your pc running properly.
Vst’s are getting more powerful and you need to upgrade your computer to get the most out of your equipment software, if your pc is powerful and it still has problems then you need to find out what the problem might be.

quote:

Originally posted by tranceinjection I’ve got the Delta 1010 and I’ve never had one problem with it, latency couldn’t be better. As soon as I play a sound on my keyboard the note is there, and when I program a riff it plays with it. Don’t blame the soundcard if your computer isn’t powerful enough, turn off things that use memory that you don’t need and tweak your pc so it runs better. My computer is an Athlon 64 3800+ with four gig ram and sata hard drives, and I saved up for it over a year and built it myself because my old pc couldn’t hack it anymore. Plus I know what parts went in it and I knew it would be a good system, just tweak tweak tweak and get your pc running properly. Vst’s are getting more powerful and you need to upgrade your computer to get the most out of your equipment software, if your pc is powerful and it still has problems then you need to find out what the problem might be.

Glad your not having problems, but the same goes in reverse... just because your having trouble free operation doesnt mean every one is. People rave about m-audio and for the price they are OK, just saying they are just not as stable and trouble free as some people seem to like to believe.

As for the midi latency, well its concerning external synths so I cant see how cpu load is an issue. I'm running a P4 2.8 with 1 Gb or ram which is more than enough for most applications. I will be upgrading in the future to dualcore laptop with external soundcard but will be staying well clear of M-audio products in the future. RME or MOTU for the win!!

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quote:

Originally posted by tranceinjection I’ve got the Delta 1010 and I’ve never had one problem with it, latency couldn’t be better. As soon as I play a sound on my keyboard the note is there, and when I program a riff it plays with it. Don’t blame the soundcard if your computer isn’t powerful enough, turn off things that use memory that you don’t need and tweak your pc so it runs better. My computer is an Athlon 64 3800+ with four gig ram and sata hard drives, and I saved up for it over a year and built it myself because my old pc couldn’t hack it anymore. Plus I know what parts went in it and I knew it would be a good system, just tweak tweak tweak and get your pc running properly. Vst’s are getting more powerful and you need to upgrade your computer to get the most out of your equipment software, if your pc is powerful and it still has problems then you need to find out what the problem might be.

Umm.. that's nice, but i was talking about the latencys of the hardware. No amount of tuning your computer will affect that. You won't notice the midi latencys by playing a note on your keyboard.. for many reasons, but mostly because the delay is very small. Like i said the biggest problems with these midi latencys is that they change during playback. That might cause some trouble if you're running several instruments thru it that need to be synced together.

People who are not running hardware midi-synths won't notice a thing even when running a bad midi-device, and propably have no idea what I'm talking about. (well you guys already proved that)


I'm not even sure if Axolotyl really ment midi latencys, so I'll just shut up now
edit: Oh he just answered... cool

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Matti Kotala
-mk-
www.mkdr.net

quote:

Originally posted by Axolotyl Glad your not having problems, but the same goes in reverse... just because your having trouble free operation doesnt mean every one is. People rave about m-audio and for the price they are OK, just saying they are just not as stable and trouble free as some people seem to like to believe.

Too bad almost any kind of hardware generates conflicts with another piece... I've had such a configuration with my creative audigy when I still had it. It was nothing but trouble I gave it to a friend for free (and it costed 250E!!!). M-audio was my saviour. Just as another brand could be yours . RME, as you pointed out, is awesome too .
A bit different price range these days compared to the Audiphile 2496 allthough that card used to cost 250E too earlier.

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Storyteller Website | Storyteller @ Facebook | Storyteller @ Beatport | Storyteller @ Soundcloud | Stephen J. Kroos - Europa (Storyteller Remix)
Anthony Mea - Get It On (Storyteller Remix)

quote:

If less is more think about how much more more would be. -Frasier

I just use a Yamaha keyboard as a midi controller to play the vst’s so I’m not using hardware like you are.
If I was using hardware then I might have some problems like you mentioned, but until I do? Then I won’t know what you are going through?
If I did have problems with hardware and Delta products then I would be looking for a better soundcard, I know just playing a keyboard is instant sound, but once hooked up to a computer it’s totally different situation.

I have ordered the KRK Rokit RP-6 active studio monitors, 225 E a piece. I heard them in the store, and I think they had the best sound in their price range (of course this is personal).

Got my Audiophile 2496 today, it's ok, can't hear any differences with my Audigy but if I could, it would be strange. I bought it for the low latency anyway.

Thanks for the advice guys!

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Originally posted by Thois I have ordered the KRK Rokit RP-6 active studio monitors, 225 E a piece. I heard them in the store, and I think they had the best sound in their price range (of course this is personal). Got my Audiophile 2496 today, it's ok, can't hear any differences with my Audigy but if I could, it would be strange. I bought it for the low latency anyway. Thanks for the advice guys!

I had monitors before I went from audigy to audiophile. It was a pretty big change.. I was surprised a 100E card just beat a 250E one in front of my eyes

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Storyteller Website | Storyteller @ Facebook | Storyteller @ Beatport | Storyteller @ Soundcloud | Stephen J. Kroos - Europa (Storyteller Remix)
Anthony Mea - Get It On (Storyteller Remix)

quote:

If less is more think about how much more more would be. -Frasier

Last question:
I have my new monitor speakers now (KRK RP6). In the manual they do not speak about the height of the speakers (only horizontal placement). At what height should the speakers be placed in comparison with the vertical position of my head?