NAID: RME Fireface UCX II

[Sascha Franck]

Recording vocals via the Quantum was really annoying, even at the low latencies it can achieve.

As said, if you can't manage to have 100% latency free HP monitoring, it sometimes is a trick to actually raise the latency some.
Learned that ages ago when the LUG (Logic Users Group) was still a mailing list and things such as interface or native software monitoring slowly became a thing.
I made use of that trick 2-3 times ever since (might've been some psychoacoustic/placebo trickery in one case, though, has been a singer that you could've fooled with an important looking "producer knob" as well...).

 

[Sedaxel]

Does anyone know how compares the Arturia Audiofuse (studio or Rev2) in terms of quality? They seem to be very feature rich. Don't know about preamps and converters. It seems they are more accessible here in the used market. In the 400€ ballpark.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Does anyone know how compares the Arturia Audiofuse (studio or Rev2) in terms of quality? They seem to be very feature rich. Don't know about preamps and converters. It seems they are more accessible here in the used market. In the 400€ ballpark.

They’ll just be run of the mill stuff, maybe comparable to audient/focusrite/UA volt/SSL etc. Arturia have great software so I’d probably only go that route if some good stuff is bundled in (which may not be the case used).

 

[Orvillain]

As said, if you can't manage to have 100% latency free HP monitoring, it sometimes is a trick to actually raise the latency some.
Learned that ages ago when the LUG (Logic Users Group) was still a mailing list and things such as interface or native software monitoring slowly became a thing.
I made use of that trick 2-3 times ever since (might've been some psychoacoustic/placebo trickery in one case, though, has been a singer that you could've fooled with an important looking "producer knob" as well...).

The Presonus Quantum doesn't support monitoring via hardware. Only via DAW. This wasn't an option. I also don't particularly think it is a good idea.

 

[Sascha Franck]

The Presonus Quantum doesn't support monitoring via hardware. Only via DAW.

Ouch, that's pretty bad for an interface in that league, even if DAW latency is low.

I also don't particularly think it is a good idea.

Raising latency? Defenitely not. But sometimes you just don't have any other options.

 

[Orvillain]

Ouch, that's pretty bad for an interface in that league, even if DAW latency is low.

They were only able to achieve their latency figures by removing the internal mixer in the device. Which means no direct latency free monitoring.

TBH, I got away with it for a number of years, until it just started to really annoy me; not being able to monitor stuff outside of the DAW.

Prior to that I had a Universal Audio Apollo x8p with a Hackintosh. It was pretty flawless, but the latency was just too high.

I really feel like my RME+Antelope setup is the best balance I've had for a long time. The latency difference versus the thunderbolt Quantum and thunderbolt Discrete 8 is negligible, TotalMix is very capable (but a bit of a ballache to use) and I can basically monitor however I bloody well choose now.

I bought the ARC USB controller for it as well, and that is a lifesaver with the various ways that you can control TotalMix.

 

[Sascha Franck]

They were only able to achieve their latency figures by removing the internal mixer in the device.

Why couldn't they just make it bypass-able?

Fwiw, whenever I don't need it (as in: while using plugins while recording), I got pretty sick of any kind of interface based monitoring, regardless whether it's through the DAW or through any interface mixers. I absolutely love many things digital, but when all I want is to raise my monitoring level or just add, say, a tad of reverb for monitoring pleasure, I just hate having to grab the mouse/keyboard yet again.
Hence, when I will rearrange my little home workspace (somewhen this year), one of the most important things I'll be integrating permanently is a small mixer.
It's even one of the key reasons why I went back to shape my guitar sound externally for the most part. Sure, still using modeling (sometimes plugins, sometimes hardware), but I basically do all sound variations with analog pedals, not even because they're more intuitive (a dirt pedal plugin isn't exactly un-intuitive...) but simply because I can just grab them instantly.

 

[Orvillain]

Why couldn't they just make it bypass-able?

No idea, I don't build soundcards!

Fwiw, whenever I don't need it (as in: while using plugins while recording), I got pretty sick of any kind of interface based monitoring, regardless whether it's through the DAW or through any interface mixers. I absolutely love many things digital, but when all I want is to raise my monitoring level or just add, say, a tad of reverb for monitoring pleasure, I just hate having to grab the mouse/keyboard yet again.

ARC USB. It is really really good.

 

[Sascha Franck]

ARC USB. It is really really good.

Sure. But still not enough directly accessible knobs. And I needed an RME interface in the first place.