USB Sound Cards - advice needed

edwards

Im considering buying a sound card which will run out of my usb hub on my pc. Basically ive seen one I like which is a 'Edirol - UA-1A' it a simple stereo phono in and out which is pretty much all I require on my laptop.

I was going to buy this untill some one said that it will suffer from 'Latency' and there will be a delay in audio. I know what latency is but I only thought it effected data transmision between midi instruments and the computer. So does latency effect audio output aswell???

Sen

Latency is the time difference inbetween you sending a signal (on/off/whatever) and the sound source reacting to it.

But latency is really only a problem if you're going to be playing/recording live instrumentation along with backup MIDI/Audio tracks, because you won't get the timing right.

You'll be pressing keys when you think you should and they'll get recorded 0.01s behind or infront of the sound coming out of your computer (depending on what's latent...)

You can correct this all after the fact, and adjust latency.

It's all about high ram, fast processors, and good soundcards if you wish to reduce latency.

FrankieP

What Sen said...
but the most important thing to consider about latency...
make sure your soundcard has good low latency written drivers. (ASIO or WDM).

BTW, Sen...
just sent you a PM!