MOTUnation.com

Hi all,

Just wondering if someone can throw light on the latency involved when connecting an UltraLite to a Mac via Ethernet.

i understand that the latency Via Thunderbolt is very low, but what about via Ethernet?

IE i do not want to use TB at all, just Ethernet.

I have tried to find this information in the Tech Specs but it seems strangely unavailable

Thanks in advance

Kirke

UltraLites connect with Firewire and USB. Perhaps you mean one of these protocols?

If you're thinking of setting up an AVB system hooked up this way, it's around 8ms. USB2 is, I think, around 4-5ms and TB 1-2ms.

You'll need a Gigabit ethernet card, apparently, and Yosemite.

I too want to (if indeed this is what you're intending) set up an AVB system and I don't have, and indeed can't add, TB to my Mac.

I got that ethernet info from the MOTU guy in this thread over at BeerGutz:

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-c ... rface.html

That sounds like a loooong latency.... How do you work a Drummer's phone mix over that?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

It's not too bad really, supersonic.

8ms translates roughly to playing the drum kit from 8 feet away. The headphones would add zero distance, so instead of the usual 2-4 foot distance experienced by acoustic drummers, it'd be roughly double that.

I recorded an experienced (acoustic) metal drummer last year who triggered my TD brain via a Legacy DD506 (the crappiest eDrum kit I've ever seen), who's brain's MIDI out (essentially post-processing) I connected to a MIDI Express XT through a 20ft MIDI cable and then on to the TD module. The signal from the TD passed through a 24I/O's AD and (using CueMix) out of a different stereo pair's DA to a BarfRinger headphone amp. His pads were the crappiest, springiest and most insensitive I'd ever seen. How he even managed to do a roll on 'em is practically beyond me (I tried). The HH pedal I rigged for him was a crappy old volume pedal featuring major steps in the resistor pot's travel-contact, routed through an almost-30-year-old keyboard and then through the MIDI Express unit and on to the TD module. I couldn't raise the click level in his cans as I kept tweaking the monitoring desk to do so, forgetting that I had a layer in CueMix dedicated to this task, programmed many years prior. Again, how he managed to hear the click is another minor miracle.

You can guess the outcome, can't you? Couldn't get a peep out of him. He refused to complain. Just did the job. I drilled him a little as to how he coped with the latency, but all he kept saying was that it was fine.

Now, my brother was on guitar as he'd written the material with the drummer. Let's just say that I had to move Heaven and Earth to get him to play through the POD HD500. He used his classic LP, so there was no additional latency such as I'd have to put up with using one of my Variaxes. No MIDI delay, and he used h'phones too, and yet it was the drama of the day.

Obviously, I'm saying that:
A) 4 extra feet's worth of sound travel is nothing, and any pro drummer should have no reason to complain.
B) Some folks will complain regardless! LOL

reedster wrote:UltraLites connect with Firewire and USB. Perhaps you mean one of these protocols?

Apparently you can also use Ethernet as the connection to the Puter.

Correct, oh Shapely One.

monkey man wrote:If you're thinking of setting up an AVB system hooked up this way, it's around 8ms. USB2 is, I think, around 4-5ms and TB 1-2ms.

You'll need a Gigabit ethernet card, apparently, and Yosemite.