Thats not a whole lot better than my Old MOTU. I know it’s crazy but I can feel the 3.7ms vs a piece of hardware. I’m really hoping to get down around 1ms or less preferably, obviously as low as possible is what I’m actually saying. I’m on a 15 inch 2016 MacBook Pro 2.9GHz i7 with 16GB ram. I can also make it say something like that for latency but it doesn’t work at those settings either on mine 
Yeah I love my old 828mk2, having earned its retirement many times over, but it’s locked into my main setup as a mixer of sorts, and while still going strong, haven’t even plugged it into my newer computer to check latency. I figured it was time for a recording upgrade and latency was important for recording stuff. The best thing about MOTU is their driver support for older devices. As good as RME in that respect.
Must say the preamps on the quantum are leaps and bounds ahead of it though. Super quiet even with 35db of gain.
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Becoming more and more tempting :). It’s hard to move away from MOTU though at the same time as I’m sitting here with mine that still works today with mostly silver edges that used to be black where the paint has worn off. All while using the most up to date OS X through 97 (2) adapters and still can get pretty low latency and decent audio quality. Ugh! I’ll figure it out eventually.
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You can use it without a DAW but maybe not without a computer. I have not tried.
I think that’s more a psychological trick than anything. 4 ms is the same as taking 4 very small steps back from your speakers 
I know, but it’s still slower than what I hear from my hardware. Also how many steps in which direction with my headphones on is it the same? 
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How are you guys getting that ultra low latency? The lowest I can go is having a 48000 sample rate and 512 sample buffer size. Input latency is 11.2 ms and overall is 22.3 ms. Lower than that and I run into audio glitches and high cpu spikes.
If you’re on Windows, you can try doing some pereformance tweaks, use DPCLatency Check, to see how your system should handle realtime audio, and a few other things. I had an RME Babyface Pro for a couple of months and I couldn’t go under a 128 buffer size without getting dropouts either. 48KHz/24bits. Core i7 on a 2018 Razerblade with optimizations. TPU to disable throttling etc. I don’t know how these people get crazy low latency either. And this isn’t with a ton of plugins running. This is a somewhat modest amount.
Ahh wow, I would expect that Babyface Pro to have low latency. I actually have a MOTU UL4 running on a 2015 MBP. Don’t think that seems to be the problem though…
I know it’s an old post but what Audio Interface did you get?
I ended up getting the Presonus Quantum.
Now I have 2 of them and a bunch of ADAT expansions for them.
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For windows folks, this guide helped me getting rid of glitches when using AR2 overbridge + Xone:96 USB interface: https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207355205-Optimising-your-PC-for-Audio-on-Windows-10
Haven’t got a lot of mileage yet, but it seems much improved.
Other thing I did was putting AR2 and Xone:96 on the same USB controller of my laptop, but not sure that really plays a role.
I really thaught about buying the Quantum last year but it’s not Stand-Alone so I bought a MOTU 828es. Did you know before buying it that it wasn’t Stand-Alone?
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Depends on the matching of components in your computer and specific audio drivers. Other things can increase it but not really reduce it.
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RME all the way. I have been using a multiface 2 for over ten years now and have never ever had one issue with it. I go 32 buffer when creating a track. That way I don’t feel latency on all my hardware inputs.
As you use hardware, I would also recommend the combination of rme interface and ada 8200. You could size it all to fit your in out needs. I find having the option to plug all hardware in and record at once amazing.
If my interface breaks, I wouldn’t hesitate going rme again. I understand why so many people recommend them.
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VST plugins can add latency to your project too depending on the plugin.
Overbridge adds quite a bit of latency, which is why I tend to use my audio interfaces with hardware outs on the Elektrons.
Using the Ableton External Instrument(for example) adds around 6ms of latency because it’s receiving audio and sending MIDI on the same track. While it’s messier, I use a separate Audio and MIDI tracks to keep latency down to 0 (besides my inherent latency in the audio interface). It’s worth checking if plugins you’re using add to your latency as well.
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I did, and I accepted that fact. I had already resolved to never bounce between hardware only or software only anymore. In other words, always a hybrid setup for me.
It came down to a MOTU or the Quantum at the end. I love Mark of the Unicorn stuff, they have never ending support (within reason) for their older hardware.
RME stuff was probably my next choice, but nothing fit exactly with what I wanted at the time.
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Thanks Airyck, I’ll try using the audio outs in my RYTM to my audio interface instead of using OB. I also found that if I freeze a MIDI track to an audio track in Ableton, my CPU doesn’t spike.
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Edit. Sorry, nevermind. 
I have a question. Maybe someone can answer. I just got a free desktop Lenovo small form factor. It’s much faster than my laptop and has 32 gig ram. I’d like to get a PCI RME sound card set-up for it. Not sure if the PCI would even fit the box (would be willing to change out the case, or as my friend said run with the top down). Anyways, would an older PCI card with a RME hammerfall interface still work for this? Seems they are going pretty cheap these days.
I’d go to the RME website to check if the drivers for it support your current operating system.
I don’t know the interface so I can’t say much more than that. I’m sure the quality is fine as long as everything functions and it meets your needs.
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