Best I/O Interface for VSTi Drumming

[black_sonix]

Hey guys,

I have been searching google and various forums all day to no avail.

I want to basically know what the best interface would be to record/play/rehearse using my 2box kit.

I used to use acoustic triggers with mesh heads on an acoustic kit through an alesis I/O but the lag was simply unaccaptable and it was a pain to keep changing heads for gigging etc so i got a 2box kit (v2 model).

For your info i am running: 2box kit, Apple iMac Core2Duo with 3GB RAM and Logic Pro, oh and Metal Foundry with Superior 2.

I haven’t got round to actually mapping my kit or anything yet but i wanted to know what are the alternatives to the Alesis USB interface out there that will allow me to play along to recorded guitar tracks and record midi drums simultaneously via S2.0 Metal Foundry.

Also if anyone can suggest any proven setting i may be missing either for Superior or Logic that would be awesome too.

Many thanks in advance,

Paul.

Topic

[Mark King]

Your post is a little confusing but I’m guessing your talking about DAW software? If so there is no definative answer as S2 works with them all so it depends on what you want. I use Cubase but only because I have used it for years and know it well.

If you mean sound card then I can’t really help as there are so many. What you do need though is very low latency so check out what others use. I have a yamaha n12 but a bit overkill for what you want.

SD3 with older sdx,s plus Rooms of Hansa and Death & Darkness. Cubase and wavelab current versions. Roland TD50x using all trigger inputs for triggering SD3 only. Windows 11 computer. Various keyboards and outboard gear as well as VST instruments. Acoustic drums: Yamaha 9000 natural wood and Pearl masters. Various snare drums. RME BabyFace Pro FS and Adam A7X monitors

[black_sonix]

I was mainly asking about what chain of sound card > midi interface would work best (keeping in mind it has to be firewire as I’m using an iMac).

Sorry for the confusing post lol.

Paul.

[JPX2000]

Hey there Paul…

I’m a little late in answering this but I hooked up a PreSonus Fire Studio Mobile to my PC. ZERO (well, almost) latency! The IEEE 1394 connection makes it quick to set up, quick to respond. I’m drumming with it and am very pleased.

[phil_fee]

I suspect most of your latency would be coming from 2 sources:
1) the drum hit to midi conversion process in the 2-box module and then
2) the audio output latency (buffer size etc) of your sound card.

You can’t do much about 1 so address 2: make sure you have your output latency set as low as possible. The better quality audio interface cards like RME have excellent low latency performance if you are looking to change audio hardware.

Win 11 Laptop - MSI 12700, 32GB RAM, 3 TB SSDs, Acorn 61 Masterkey
and Nord Electro 6, Reaper 7, Cubase 13 Pro, Studio One Pro 6, RME Fireface UC

Win 7 64 i7 workstation 12 GB RAM, Fireface UFX, TD-12, Kawai MP9000 master keys, Reaper 6.x, Studio One V4.x, Cubase 11

Tosh 17" Win 8.1 64 Laptop w i7 quad core 16 GB RAM Fireface UC TD-6 w VH-11 Reaper 6.x Studio One V4.x

[peri]

For just low latency you could try the internal iMac audio with AU Lab or MainStage 2 as host. On my C2D MacBook Pro I can get a 32 samples setting this way.
A very fast MIDI interface is the Terrasoniq Midi One cable (GM5 chip).
For quality and speed go for the RME Babyface.

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