Audio latency on a Macbook running Windows 7

[rene]

Hello folks!

 

I am a complete naive to sound stuff, but I really need to record sounds with low latency on a Mac running Windows. I’ve heard that Mac computers are usually almost bit perfect when running mac’s native OS, but it seems that the situation isn’t the same when it is running Windows. So I have a few questions about this situation…

 

- How can I know the size of the latency when I am recording sounds?

- Is there any way to reduce this latency?

- Would ASIO driver be suitable for this situation?

- When recording sounds, is it better to use a mac running windows or simply to use a generic windows computer?

 

Any help would be of great value to me!

[JohnMH]

Interesting question. I'm curious about this myself. I'll have a new Macbook Pro Retina within a couple of weeks and plan to run Win 7 as well as Mac OS on it. My impression from reading about running Windows on a Mac is that I will want to run Windows using Bootcamp (essentially a dual-boot setup) rather than the Parallels software in which the Mac OS is still running with Win 7 on top of it. I'm hoping that Win 7 booted up directly as the only running OS will behave as any other Win 7 machine. I'm looking for a suitable audio interface for the newest Macbook Pro and I, too, want simple but good quality recording capability.

 

As to ASIO, my understanding is that this does provide lower latency. That's the protocol my EMU 1616m audio interface uses. It is connected via a proprietary PCIe card in a desktop computer and has its own ASIO driver that boots with Win 7. It would be really nice if EMU came up with a thunderbolt interface for the 1616m, but I'm not holding my breath. I can only find one audio interface that uses thunderbolt (as an option) and it's much more than I need - Universal Audio Apollo w/ Thunderbolt interface card.

 

Anyone out there using the newest Macbook Pro Retina for audio purposes including recording? Please advise what solutions work well.

 

We may want to post these questions on Gearslutz or other sites more oriented toward recording.

[JohnMH]

It appears Apogee has, or will soon have a Thunderbolt interface for their large Symphony interface. The little Duet 2 interface (USB) looks like a very nice little compact interface.

[Bob Stern]

A more fundamental question is why you think latency matters.

[JohnMH]

If you are recording and over dubbing it becomes important. For playback only it would not be an issue.

[pcad02]

If you want a good answer I think you need to give us more info. Things like: what are you recording, what software are you using, why win on a mac, etc..., will probably get you closer to a solution. This web site is mainly for issues dealing with the playback of audio using a computer as a source component. That said, there are quite a few people on this web site that have a background in other areas like recording and pro sound that can most likely help you out.