MOTU 8Pre-es, "Host Safety Offset"

[Mark Linder]

What the hell is this?
I can't turn it off.

I read the thread on this on this forum, it's from ~2 years ago, and wasn't answered.

Someone said it's a windows USB thing. I'm running Thunderbolt.

It's not there on my Mac.

If someone can tell me how to disable it, or tell me enough about it to explain why it's needed, please do!

Thanks!

[HCMarkus]

Not sure, but I think it is just an additional buffer. If worried about latency, crank your main buffer down as far as you can while retaining click and pop-free performance would be my suggestion.

But I am a Mac guy, so what do I know?

[Mark Linder]

I'm already at minimum.

I want to know what it is, why it is, and if it's necessary, and if it isn't, why can't I disable it.

Thanks though.

[Mark Linder]

To anyone that is interested.

I asked MOTU support what was up with the "Host Safety Offset".

I got a nice video reply from a person named Matt.

Here's the deal:

ALL brands of audio interfaces have a "Host Safety Offset" buffer.

They just aren't made visible or adjustable by those other manufacturers.

Some are as high as 512, others, lower.

MOTU just gives us the option of changing the value, though the value does have a limit. That is to say, it can't be set to zero.

I asked him a couple more questions regarding this and Macs, if it exists to some degree there or not, and a couple other questions that I will post the answers to if/when I get a reply.

I hope this clears up the "Host Safety Offset" question for some people, because I had no idea why it was there on the MOTU settings, and had no idea it existed on all the other brands but just wasnt made available to change.

[HCMarkus]

Thanks for the info Mark. Always appreciated when folks take the time to share what they've learned.

[Mark Linder]

You bet.
I've been trying to figure out what the hell this was for a while, and google searches always led to an unanswered thread (on this site, as well) witha bunch of speculations.

Nothing I've read came close to the correct answer.

As I said, I'm awaiting answers on a few more questions which I will share as well.