A Basic Home Recording Question From A Guy That Should Know Better

[elwappo]

Hi guys. I've been trawling the forum but cant find the answers I need. Basically I have three questions.

I've had an M-Audio Delta 66 and Omni IO break out box for about four years and it's the best money I ever spent. It was easy to set up and works with cubase brilliantly. Some one recently asked me to suggest a sound card for home recording and I naturally said that my M-audio is ideal for home demos and recording but their question has raised a few issues cant answer.

Firstly in cubase does the delta 66 assist the PC when it comes to processing VSTi's and effects?...When I added the delta 66 to my machine I did notice I could run more VSTi's.

Secondly because I cant seem to find the Omni IO breakout box for sale anywhere I have been looking at the USB II options from M-Audio. Can it be true that a USB II peripheral can be as good as a PCI card in terms of performance?

My confusion is this. I think the Delta 66 allows cubase to run more VSTi's
so will a USB II peripheral work as well as a pci card?

[brandondrury]

Firstly in cubase does the delta 66 assist the PC when it comes to processing VSTi's and effects?...

No. Not directly.

There are computer audio recording rigs that do have built in DSP processing for plugins. This is how the real deal Pro Tools works (I'm talking about the version that costs about $15,000).

There is one reason that you could get more VSTi power out of your M-Audio audio interace. It has to do with the way your stock soundcard handles latency. Essentially, it's more that a stock soundcard penalizes performance in this recording.

The real answer is kind of complicated and I must admit that I only understand the general concepts. (I don't have an electrical engineering degree and I don't design computer components).

But, to answer your question. As long as everything else is equal, any low latency audio interface should perform equally well. I'd assume that your Delta 66 would have identical performance to a USB 2.0 M-Audio audio interface. If there are any differences, they would be VERY slight unless something was seriously wrong with the system.

Can it be true that a USB II peripheral can be as good as a PCI card in terms of performance?

Sure. I'd expect no significant difference. I'd probably go with Firewire, but the differences between USB 2.0 and Firewire is quite small.

Brandon

[elwappo]

Thanks Brandon. Also I appreciate your direct answer as opposed to some boards where noobs post basic questions and get flamed for it.

Im gonna stick around on this board.

[brandondrury]

Glad to hear it. There isn't a whole lot of flaming around here....especially not for people who honestly want to learn.

The whole point of this site / forum is to improve music...not cater to egos of people who may be a couple years ahead.

Brandon