Edirol FA-66 Firewire Interface

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maxi
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Edirol FA-66 Firewire Interface

Post by maxi » Tue Oct 18, 2005 6:46 pm

happy (mac-)users here?
Last edited by maxi on Fri Oct 21, 2005 11:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

Spacerboy
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Post by Spacerboy » Tue Oct 18, 2005 7:10 pm

FA 101 uses between 8-12% CPU in idle!
on a pc.

gomi
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Re: Edirol FA-66

Post by gomi » Tue Oct 18, 2005 11:28 pm

maxi wrote:happy (mac-)users here?

i just got one, replaced my m-audio 410 with it..

now i can get realtime guitar properly.

m-audio stank.

fa-66 uses the coreaudio, no drivers.

it does use some cpu, but so does ANY firewire device.
thats how firewire works.

continuous
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Post by continuous » Wed Oct 19, 2005 1:48 am

I have the FA-101 so my statements may not apply.

Nice sturdy but light little unit. Latency is 16 ms total (could be better i suppose) and clear sounding ins to my untrained ear, and ZERO driver issues.

Downsides are... bit of a cpu hit, firewire buzz (pretty well documented here) and no mixer software.

Overall I'm mostly pleased.

EMU have some new ones out that look cool (I think those are firewire)....

P.S. I really want a Traveler....someday.

Nixon
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Post by Nixon » Wed Oct 19, 2005 11:30 am

Just ordered one today! The motu is just too expensive for now...the fa 66 costs E 329, wich is ok... :)

maxi
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Post by maxi » Fri Oct 21, 2005 11:17 am

overall quite nice thoughts, then...

i'm looking for a new fw-interface, and it would be this one or the presonus firebox....

maxi
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Post by maxi » Fri Oct 21, 2005 11:22 am

continuous wrote:INice sturdy but light little unit. Latency is 16 ms total (could be better i suppose) and clear sounding ins to my untrained ear, and ZERO driver issues.
16ms latency is indeed very much...

i love the zero driver issue part, though :D

continuous
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Post by continuous » Fri Oct 21, 2005 3:17 pm

Yes, the latency is really too high. Others using the same unit seem to able to get lower.

I have a 4200 rpm drive and only 512 ram, I wonder if improving these would help?

maxi
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Post by maxi » Fri Oct 21, 2005 9:39 pm

continuous wrote:Yes, the latency is really too high. Others using the same unit seem to able to get lower.

I have a 4200 rpm drive and only 512 ram, I wonder if improving these would help?
yeah, would like to know too if upgrade in ram would help


further, one of the main reason for choosing this one is that there seem to be less issues than the presonus firebox? crap maybe, cous forums are not objective, but :?
but both interfaces got there +en-'s for me

edirol:
+ 192khz (don't know if i would use that...)
+ design (looks sturdier too)
+ onboard midi ( no breakout)
- no coaxical spdif (but internal, no breakout, witch is +)
- no softwaremixer

presonus:
+ coaxial spdif
+ software mixer
- breakout cable for spdif and midi
- design

glitchrock-buddha
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Post by glitchrock-buddha » Fri Oct 21, 2005 10:39 pm

i too was trying to decide between the firebox and the fa-66. i got the firebox because it had two i/4 inch line inputs (3 & 4) on the back as well as its two pre-amps (1 & 2), whereas the edirol only had rca inputs on the back in addition to its pre-amps.

i'm pretty happy with the firebox except that it's mixer has no level meters, and no indication on the box if it's line inputs are clipping (WTF). you have to check to input meter in system preferences (only one meter). also, mixer settings don't become active until you open the mixer app. kind of annoying.

the other thing is i'm finding very low mic levels. even when i've got the input at max, it's still not quite good enough for recording acoustic guitar. for vocals i have it at max and need to be quite close to the mic. could be my mic, but it seemed fine with my mbox.

otherwise, pretty good.

rob
Professional Shark Jumper.

maxi
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Post by maxi » Sat Oct 22, 2005 3:00 pm

glitchrock, how's your latency?

maxi
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Post by maxi » Tue Oct 25, 2005 1:34 pm

bump

clipperer
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Post by clipperer » Tue Oct 25, 2005 1:41 pm

i dont think that adding more ram would solve latancy problems. i think its completely processor issue. analization etc....

gomi
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Post by gomi » Tue Oct 25, 2005 3:14 pm

continuous wrote:Yes, the latency is really too high. Others using the same unit seem to able to get lower.

I have a 4200 rpm drive and only 512 ram, I wonder if improving these would help?
i get anywhere from 5ms to 10ms depending on what i am doing and how
much realtime processing i am doing to my guitar.

it's all about managing those frozen bits.

glitchrock-buddha
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Post by glitchrock-buddha » Tue Oct 25, 2005 8:12 pm

sorry maxi, forgot to check this post again. in answer to your question, i'm not sure of the actual time in ms of latency, but i play both guitar and bass into the firebox while software monitoring with effects, and it's fine for me. and i've been playing for many years, so i'd be a bit picky.

i think it depends not just on the interface, but the OS, processor and plug-ins running etc (ex. i can't have logic's adaptive limiter in the chain while monitoring realtime -too much latency, but everything else is fine). i don't think that ram matters for latency though.

rr
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