Looking for a USB MIDI Audio Interface

bartekxx12 · January 11, 2014

Hi,

I will soon be buying a keyboard with MIDI Out and would like to trigger sounds with it in a program such as Reaper or ProTools.

I currently have an electric drum-kit with midi out and tried using a cheap & simply MIDI to USB Cable, however the latency using that is far too high, even when using ASIO4ALL.

At school we have a £600 USB Interface with Multiple MIDI and XLR Inputs as well as many different outputs and when I tried using that there is virtually no latency.

And so I am looking for a USB MIDI Audio interface for myself.

The only ports it has to have are: MIDI IN for Drums or Keyboard (One at a time is fine), Jack IN (Guitar) & Jack OUT (Or RCA out...anything that I can easily adapt back to jack headphones).
As far as I know an audio out port such as Jack out is necessary to decrease the latency.

I am hoping for something between £50 & £80, but if I need to spend more then please tell me and I will save up so more money.

Thanks

mr moose · January 12, 2014

Did you try pluging your usb to midi interface into it's own usb root hub on your computer and not on a shared root or usb hub? Sometimes the latency can be effected by too many other devices on the same root hub.

bartekxx12 · January 12, 2014

Did you try pluging your usb to midi interface into it's own usb root hub on your computer and not on a shared root or usb hub? Sometimes the latency can be effected by too many other devices on the same root hub.

Yes, I have. I've even tried USB 3 ports hoping that the USB 3 controller is better but that made no difference.

I believe the latency is actually introduced at the output stage to the headphones. At school the latency is only non existent when the output device is set to the USB Interface, when the output is set to onboard audio the latency is again...horrible. At home I tried my Xonar DX and onboard audio, the latency with both is very noticeable.

As far as I know ASIO4ALL is not the true ASIO driver, it just fakes it, and so the latency isn't good enough. Apparently USB Interfaces like this have ASIO drivers made specifically for them and work in a different way which is what makes the latency imperceptible