Best LIVE Audio Interface For MainStage?

Sounds to me like you should be most concerned with low latency performance.

How low you can go ultimately depends your computer's CPU ability. so if your demands on mainstage are mild then you will run at lower latency no matter which brand of interface you use. If your demands of mainstage are higher then the quality of the interface's driver and the CPU overhead the driver imposes is going to impact how low you can go with latency.

Focusrite do not have a good rep in this area. MOTU has a better rep and best of all are RME and Metric Halo with maybe Apogee up there as well.

you will be lucky if you can purchase any of those better brands smallest models within your budget.

ANother solution is to purchase an optical to analog converter box instead. This box effectively uses the macs built in audio interface but puts better quality converters on the end than the built in converters. I've had great low latency performance from a mac going this way.

if you have a recent MacBook Pro and decent ram you should expect to run at a 32 sample buffer setting in main stages driver settings.

If you needed midi ports you purchase a 1x1 interface for very little money.

kind regards

Hi Chris Horvath,

It´s not easy to find the "best audio interface". There are some many aspects to consider. I will give my opinion on 2 of some audio interfaces I used.

Focusrite 26 pro

It´s old yes, It´s a good board because of all the connections it have, but it´s difficult to use and some bugs because of the Mac driver´s. The startup it´s not always smooth and need some restarts. Firewire only

Motu ultralite mk3 hybrid

This is my atual live audio interface. It´s very compact and have a huge power. I run at the moment 8 outs and 2 in with high process and never let me down. Rock solid. USB/Firewire to Mac. Less cost than focusrite.

All have midi in/outs

As jaminajar said the RAM it´s a very important point.

Hope I helped you

My vote is for the MOTU Ultralite Mk 3. I've been using one for years and absolutely love it.

Madddcow,

That´s my too 🙂

Jaminajar,

Could you please be a little more specific about what/how you use the "optical to analog converter box" you mentioned?

Thanks for your time and information in advance,

G

Another happy MOTU user here. Ultralite Mk.1 and Mk.3, Traveler

I use them in both MIDI and audio setups.

I have tried many different interfaces and these give me the lowest latency of anything I've tried.

I love the iPad control of the internal mixer via OMS.

I have not tried RME or Metric Halo, but I hear they are very solid as well.

-Thomjinx

Most know (obviously) that the mac has a built in sound card or audio interface otherwise how would mac output it's audio.

What many don't know is that the built in interface can input/output analog or optical digital audio from the small connectors provided. Plugin an analog connector and the mac will send/ receive analog audio, plugin an optical connector and the mac knows and will input/ output optical digital audio signals. It switches automatically. Since the AD/DA converters are of less quality than even the cheapest external interface have, this optical feature provides an opportunity to get high quality digital stream out of the mac and do the analog conversion via external converters.

While I've not done any serious testing my experiences tell me that because the built in interface is so simple and optimised it runs with lower CPU overhead than pretty much any external interface. Lower CPU overhead = the ability to run at lower latencies when a lot is being asked of the computer.

So when I said earlier I've had success with theis approach this is what I was talking about. If you google "optical to analog converter" you'll find a bunch of options. The one I use is <http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/480178-REG/SM_Pro_Audio_ADDA_192_S_ADDA_19 2_S_Digital.html> But it's no longer available. I paid $150AUD for it.

Kind regards

Hi all,

What about the UAD Apollo Twin Duo and using usb connections for controllers?

Anyone can share an opinion/experience with Focusrite Saffire PRO 40?
I use it with MacBook Pro, 2.9GHz, 16GB RAM / MainStage 3 / Native Instruments plugins / Waves plugins / 6 mics (church choir).

fabianokeyb wrote:

Anyone can share an opinion/experience with Focusrite Saffire PRO 40?
I use it with MacBook Pro, 2.9GHz, 16GB RAM / MainStage 3 / Native Instruments plugins / Waves plugins / 6 mics (church choir).

I haven't used any Focusrite products but everyone I've known with one has had issues at some point. I realize that many Focusrite users may have had excellent experiences but I don't personally know of anyone who falls into that category.

Madcow you voted for MOTU before, how about 8M? Less problems/greater quality than Pro40? Thanks!

I add my "plus 1" to MOTU.

I use an Audio Express via Firewire since its a bit cheaper and I don't need the more extensive outputs of the UltraLite or Traveler. Its a great little box for pit orchestra work. I can still route two or three sound effect lines in addition to the main keyboard out.

Since the box is also a mixer in addition to A/D, I can run a backup line from my main keyboard into the mixer as a backup in case MainStage goes down.

Thanks for that idea! I picked up the optical cable and converter, a D/A box - and it works beautifully. No noticeable latency and a high quality signal. I wonder if most Mainstage users know about this? Obviously if you're going into the MAC with analog instruments, you'd need an interface - but for just using the output signal, I think an interface is total overkill (unless you want multiple outputs, one for each keyboard)...

Thanks again,

pmfith

Live I use an Alesis IO 2 Express. 2in 2out and midi in/out. About $50 on Amazon