Questions & Answers

Support for multiple low latency audio interfaces at the same time (recording + playback)

+4 votes
3,845 views
asked Jan 6, 2018 in Computer Based Recording & Production by masterJoe (2,560 points)
retagged May 26, 2018 by masterJoe
Currently Studio one only supports one audio interface to be active.
I want to be able to use all my devices at the same time in the same setup!

I have two audio interfaces here:
- audient id4 (for my condenser microphone + phantom power for recording voice)
- RME AIO (for virtual instruments / general playback / mixing / headphones)

ATM it's not possible to really use them both in the same setup. Neither with low latency nor at all!

This for me would be a powerful improvement - to have multiple audio devices act in sync with each other in the same setup!!
Low latency audio of course! (buffer < 256 samples)

2 Answers

0 votes
answered Jan 17, 2018 by AlexTinsley (925,070 points)
 
Best answer
Simple answer here is buy a Mac and your issue is solved.

On a Mac you can setup an Aggregate Audio device in Audio MIDI Setup, then you would have your solution.

On a PC, this is limitation of the ASIO SDK itself developed by Steinberg, it only allows one device present at a time.

If you wanted to combine your interfaces, you could run ASIO4ALL to pull your interfaces together, however ASIO4ALL relies on the WDM/KS / MME drivers and does not provide you your low latency solution.

Even if Studio One had the ability to handle multiple ASIO devices and in OS X with Audio MIDI Setup, you'd still have to deal with the inherent latency differences between the interface drivers from each manufacturer.

You'd be better off trading in your two devices and getting a different I/O solution with the channel count you need than trying to combine interfaces.
0 votes
answered Dec 5, 2018 by benmalan (550 points)
You can run your analog outs of the audient id4 into your RME and use the RME as the interface in Studio One.  I do this for external preamps in my setup with no latency (well, so little that I can't tell a difference).  I rename the Inputs (in Song Setup > Inputs) to the name of the Preamp (Your case "Audient id4 L/R") so it's clear and easy to tell what is what inside Studio One.

I'm assuming the RME has 1/4" inputs, I'm not familiar with that card, but it sounds like you are using the RME for playback mostly and won't miss the extra inputs??
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