A question about soundcards

So I have a pretty new and pretty powerful computer, it loads all my projects very fast and does other things very fast as well. However, when I load more heavier plugins (6 massives let's say) it starts cracking and lagging even on the highest latency (2048 ms). I'm using ASIO. So if I want to fix this do I need a better soundcard? Would it help? Would a very cheap one (around 100$) help? If so maybe you have any recomendations? I don't need any inputs, just a cheap USB soundcard that could fix this.

do you use the asio driver (in your daw) that came with your card ?

Well, it's a laptop and the soundcard is integrated, I installed all the drivers from manufacturer's website and downloaded asio 2.10. That's it, not sure if this answers the question but that's all I know. Do you think it could be drivers problem?

dunno hard to say, but onboard soundcards are crap. my granny knows that. on meh old system, if i use the standard asio, i get latencies about 100 ms, if I use the delta (came with my card) asio I get 3 ms. It helps with general responsiveness of the daw. maybe try the uca 222 behringer (plus 100 plugs on CD! plus energyXT on CD, David Ghetta interface plantium edition pisses all over the place) for 25 bucks, I run it on my other mac, works like a charm.

1.) Buy this. https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ix=seb&ie=UTF-8&ion=1#q=behringer+uca202&hl=en&prmd=imvnsfd&source=univ&tbm=shop&tbo=u&sa=X&ei=F0diT4HuILCPigK2r7mCCQ&ved=0CJIBEK0E&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=fff9cee286f301b5&ix=seb&ion=1&biw=1030&bih=628

2.) Download the ASIO driver here. http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/UCA202.aspx

It's not great but it's better than whatever's in your laptop, and you will get much better latency. Enjoy!

If its a new system and your using ASIO4ALL, and not a specific ASIO driver for your card, that is probably why. I'm not 100% on the technical end of this but I was told that ASIO4ALL is not really ASIO but Kernel Streaming, and that it doesn't work on Win7 with audio devices having WaveRT drivers such as High Definition Audio Devices integrated with newer motherboards.

So long as the soundcard you buy has its own ASIO drivers you should be good to go.

That makes a lot of sense. Might be the reason.

Those behringers seriously would help? That would be amazing, I need to be able to load at least 3 or 4 times more plugins with the same latency (2048 samples, not ms lol, that's around 47ms). Thanks all, I'll probably get 202 or 222.

I'm assuming it would but I haven't yet made the switch to Win7 (new laptop is here tomorrow though yay!). Ive never had latency issues like that with Vista and the crappy Realtek soundcard in my old laptop unless my CPU was maxing out so I'm not really up on that stuff.

About the only thing I'm aware of that may hinder that Behringer from working is if its a USB 1.1 device (assuming it is but can't confirm), and your laptop doesn't put USB devices in root. If that is the case you might need an external USB hub, or think about getting a soundcard that is USB 2.0 (The Tascam US-200 is about $100 and is USB 2.0).

I've done some research and found that most of the USB cards are still 1.1 for some reason. As far as I understand that's not a big porblem considering I don't need any inputs. What does it mean "put USB devices in root"?

I was informed during my hunt for a soundcard that some systems don't connect USB devices to the ROOT hub in Win7, which means the interface can fail to stream audio, or the device wont work when other 1.1 usb devices are plugged in at the same time, or complications with ASIO drivers.

The Saffire 6 in particular is what drew this to my attention, here is their wiki on the subject:

http://www.focusrite...cle.php?id=1127

Should cover everything better than I can.

The reason USB 1.1 is so prevelant still is that it works out of the box with default drivers, whereas USB 2.0 means you need a specific driver for the device, etc.

Thanks, I'll look more into this.

I can't remember whether those Behringers are USB2.0 but I've used the one I had with several machines, including a 500MHz Japanese Vaio laptop w/ 64MB of RAM running Renoise on Win2k and it's worked great with low latency in all of them. It's not the best soundcard, but it sounds good and it has stereo out and in. It's a nice thing to have around.

the old PCI soundcards had a much lower latency than usb or firewire

  On 3/16/2012 at 3:10 PM, soundwave said:

the old PCI soundcards had a much lower latency than usb or firewire

yup, this was something I was trying to explain to a mate of mine when he was asking me about getting an external soundcard.

Is still all about the M Audio Delta Series. Get an Audiophile 24 96 for like 90 bucks. I still use mine... 9 years later. I bought an Alesis 8 XLR / 1/4th input interface and, it works great for recording drums or mics with phantom but, it's really inconsistent, freezes up, can't the latency to a 3rd as low as the Audiophile etc..

You're betting off getting a reasonable external usb soundcard or better still a firewire one because the resolution on the internal soundcards isn't good in my experience. I don't know how good the UCA202 is but I have an FCA202 and that was fine from what I could tell. I mean really if you're trying to make pro tracks you need to know you can get a proper frequency response and for that you do need a reasonable soundcard and monitors.

I'am not worrying about that now.

I would love to get a pci card, M-audio audiophiles got some great reviews, and they seem much more "pro" than those behringers, but I don't have any pci ports. I'll get that white behringer probably, or tascam us100. Not sure yet, anyone has any experience with the Tascam?

OK, last question. I have an offer to get this for about 60-70$. It seems to have everything I need, plus some shitty effects I don't need. Would it be better than those behringers? It has a driver that supports ASIO 2.0, that's what I need right?

http://www.roland.com/products/en/UA-3FX/

My only tip, google whatever DAW you're using + soundcard + problem. Some setups are just spotty and this helped me avoid a couple bad deals.