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RE: Audio Interface for 64-bit Windows 10?

Hi,

Most modern Audio Interface have 64bits drivers for windows 10.
It's better to use an interface with low latency.
On my hauptwerk system I use a Focusrite Clarett 8Pre-X with thunderbolt.
(a Clarett 4Pre would be maybe enough if you plan to connect no more than 4 Speakers).
But it requires to have a motherboard with thunderbolt.
Now, motherboards with thunderbolt 3 could be found from Asus or Gigabyte.
And an adapter thunderbolt 2 -> Thunderbolt 3 would be required as audio interfaces
use thunderbolt 2 and modern motherboards use thunderbolt 3.

32GO of RAM is the minimum, 64GO would be more comfortable to load big samplesets.

Hope it helps.

Georges.

RE: Audio Interface for 64-bit Windows 10?

Thank you very much for the comments, Georges. I'm very much at the beginning of my set-up. Because it will take me an est. 6 months (remote country area) before I will be fully set up (incl. pedalboard), there's plenty of time to ponder & decide; in the interim I use the tiny Behringer UCA222. I'm aiming for 3 keyboards, not really wanting to limit number of speakers. I looked at a range of Focusrite items, including the Scarlett 18i8:

https://focusrite.com/usb-audio-interface/scarlett/scarlett-18i8

Hopefully I'm looking 'in the right direction' here. In a few weeks time I can return to the city (180ms) to extend my RAM to 32Gb.

RE: Audio Interface for 64-bit Windows 10?

I went through several interfaces and finally settled on the RME Fireface UFX. A bit pricey, but I found a good bargain on EBAY. One thing I really like about the UFX and its slightly less pricey smaller UCX (also from RME) is the mixer software. I am currently running 2 stereo pairs of speakers, but I have set Hauptwerk up for 12 channels for all my sample sets. The 12 channels currently mix down to 2 stereo pairs within the RME software mixer board, but as I add more speakers, All I have to do is route the channels coming into the interface to more amp channels with the RME mixer. I have to do this only once and all my Hauptwerk sample sets will then route to more speakers. I have found 32GB of memory more than adequate for all of my current sample sets. Good luck. It is quite an adventure. If you want my experience with various sample sets, I would be happy to tell you my experience.

RE: Audio Interface for 64-bit Windows 10?

dpmx677d "I went through several interfaces and finally settled on the RME Fireface UFX. A bit pricey, but I found a good bargain on EBAY."


Thank you for the suggestions, llathom. It's quite a journey for newbies like me, but I've concluded already that the choice of hardware items needs to be made with the "end product" in mind - i.e. what will the final instrument look like? There's such a wide range of Audio Interfaces, that it will take me some time. Almost tempted to "get an Ebay bargain" like a 4in-4out cheapy to kickstart me for the next 12-15 months (but those need to be "remachined" with driver/software updates for Win10; no guarantee this will succeed!).

RE: Audio Interface for 64-bit Windows 10?

RME : Expensive but very low latency and very good reputation, very professional.

RE: Audio Interface for 64-bit Windows 10?

I would be interested to know why any of you think you need a special Hardware Audio Interface to successfully play a HW organ. It seems to me totally unnecessary and over the top.

What is wrong with the Audio built into the computer, or failing this why not a standard plug-in sound card?

My computers have built in HD Audio and this works perfectly well with HW just by connecting a Hi-Fi amplifier and a couple of good quality speakers. The latency when playing is not detectable.

The fact that Windows uses 64 bits is only relevant because you need this to enable the large memory configurations needed by some sample sets. It has no bearing on the audio at all.

csw900

RE: Audio Interface for 64-bit Windows 10?

Built in audio cards are not ASIO.
Then, the second reason could be the quality of DAC and the latency.
Built in audio cards mostly have poor latency.

RE: Audio Interface for 64-bit Windows 10?

Thanks for your interesting comments.

Built in audio cards are not ASIO. - so what? ASIO is an unnecessary complication that simply gives more things to go wrong. The operating system's HD audio drivers are perfectly adequate for organs.

Then, the second reason could be the quality of DAC and the latency. - I agree that the quality of the DAC may not be the 100% best in some cases. However, as long as they are at least 16 bit, I do not believe anybody could tell just by listening to the resulting audio. See below for latency.

Built in audio cards mostly have poor latency. - maybe this was true 10 years ago but is not true now. I find latency on HD audio to be undetectable by the human ear.

csw900

RE: Audio Interface for 64-bit Windows 10?

If asio is not necessary, why hauptwerk manual recommend ASIO cards?

RE: Audio Interface for 64-bit Windows 10?

The HW manual was written many years ago, computers have improved markedly since then and the manual has not been kept up to date. If in doubt why not do some tests yourself. I have tested HW and other organs on many different computers and never found any need for ASIO.

csw900.