Audio interfaces featuring internal loopback

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tronam
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09 Apr 2015

This is a particularly useful feature for Reason users and up until recently I was only aware of the Focusrite Saffire Pro series, but there are a few others I've been reading about lately as well including most RME through their TotalMix software and also the more recent Steinberg UR series. Any others?
Music is nothing else but wild sounds civilized into time and tune.

Ostermilk
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09 Apr 2015

I have a Roland UA-55 Quad Capture which has internal Main Mix which works as a hardware loopback.

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EnochLight
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09 Apr 2015

My conundrum is that I am looking for a good USB 3.0 audio interface with audio loopback built-in.  Most of those out there are USB 2.0 still.   :frown:
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ScuzzyEye
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09 Apr 2015

EnochLight wrote:My conundrum is that I am looking for a good USB 3.0 audio interface with audio loopback built-in.  Most of those out there are USB 2.0 still.   :frown:
Why do you need the interface to be USB 3.0? USB 2.0 gets 480 mbps. A channel of 192 kHz, 32-bit audio requires 6.144 mbps, so you can get over 70 channels of audio on a USB 2.0 interface.

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Olivier
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10 Apr 2015

I dont have internal loopback on my interface. But what works for me is connecting one of the adat toslink outs, to an in, for 8 channels of loopback.
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inthewind
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10 Apr 2015

Hello, I have a Motu Track 16 that has this function. I use it for recording sound straight from a webpage into Reason and for VST recording too via External Midi Instr.

                     


 

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EnochLight
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10 Apr 2015

EnochLight wrote:My conundrum is that I am looking for a good USB 3.0 audio interface with audio loopback built-in.  Most of those out there are USB 2.0 still.   :frown:
ScuzzyEye wrote: Why do you need the interface to be USB 3.0? USB 2.0 gets 480 mbps. A channel of 192 kHz, 32-bit audio requires 6.144 mbps, so you can get over 70 channels of audio on a USB 2.0 interface.
Drivers.

I've just found that devices not made for USB 3.0 tend to be a bit finicky when used on a 3.0 port.
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Ostermilk
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12 Apr 2015

EnochLight wrote:My conundrum is that I am looking for a good USB 3.0 audio interface with audio loopback built-in.  Most of those out there are USB 2.0 still.   :frown:
ScuzzyEye wrote: Why do you need the interface to be USB 3.0? USB 2.0 gets 480 mbps. A channel of 192 kHz, 32-bit audio requires 6.144 mbps, so you can get over 70 channels of audio on a USB 2.0 interface.
EnochLight wrote: Drivers. I've just found that devices not made for USB 3.0 tend to be a bit finicky when used on a 3.0 port.
That tends to be an issue to do with the USB implementation rather than USB 2.0 compliant device drivers running on a USB 3 port.

I see you run an ASUS MB it might be worth checking if there's a Bios update for the USB ports (NOT the MB BIOS). 

I know there's been a recent driver update too for the ASMedia 104X series USB ports which supports 3.1 (if the hardware does) as well.  I'm running my USB 2.0 interface on an old P8H67 board which uses the 104X series USB 3.0 controller and this latest driver without a glitch.

Asmedia 104X USB 3.0/3.1 driver v116240 Feb 2015

I'm not sure about what USB 3.0 controller your board is equipped with so you'd have to satisfy yourself that it's an ASMedia 104X controller before proceeding, although the likelyhood is it simply wont install if you have different / non compatible hardware.



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Rook
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13 Apr 2015

I think the MOTU Microbook II has it too. I've been tempted to get one, because they also have some great audio analyzer tools built-in that could be really useful when using Reason.

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tiker01
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04 Feb 2016

Does anybody has a Zoom field recorder (H5 or H6) and can give me some information how the loopback functions works? Can someone route back the outcoming signal without adding any other signal to it?
    
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tronam
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04 Feb 2016

After further investigation the method of loopback implemented on the recent Steinberg UR series isn't ideal for how we'd want to use it; i.e. mainly involving the physical inputs. Ideally the interface drivers should provide one or more sets of virtual inputs which are then recombined by its internal mixer software. I had the UAD Apollo Twin for a brief period of time and I was eventually able to get it did do this, but it wasn't particularly intuitive. The Focusrite Clarett and Saffire ranges still appear to have one of the best implementations of virtual loopback. Audient iD14 and iD22 have been getting some buzz lately and I'm curious to know if they've implemented anything like that, but at this rate I'm probably going to be getting either a Focusrite Clarett or RME Babyface.
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joeyluck
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04 Feb 2016

tiker01 wrote:Does anybody has a Zoom field recorder (H5 or H6) and can give me some information how the loopback functions works? Can someone route back the outcoming signal without adding any other signal to it?
I own an H5, but am not familiar with the loopback function. I handle all my audio routing using Soundflower and 'Audio MIDI Setup' of Mac OS X. If I use an external interface such as my Saffire LE, I would use the devices inputs and assignable outputs. I can look into it and try things out with the H5 if you can give more detail of what you are trying to accomplish.

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tiker01
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05 Feb 2016

joeyluck wrote:
tiker01 wrote:Does anybody has a Zoom field recorder (H5 or H6) and can give me some information how the loopback functions works? Can someone route back the outcoming signal without adding any other signal to it?
I own an H5, but am not familiar with the loopback function. I handle all my audio routing using Soundflower and 'Audio MIDI Setup' of Mac OS X. If I use an external interface such as my Saffire LE, I would use the devices inputs and assignable outputs. I can look into it and try things out with the H5 if you can give more detail of what you are trying to accomplish.
I would like to know if and how the look back works in multichannel mode when the H is used as an audio inference. Of course the main interest is recording VST into Reason.

Zoom has an audio interface too with loopback.
    
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Olivier
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05 Feb 2016

I havent found the ability to do this on my H5, running it with the Windows Asio drivers.
:reason: V9 | i7 5930 | Motu 828 MK3 | Win 10

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tiker01
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05 Feb 2016

eauhm wrote:I havent found the ability to do this on my H5, running it with the Windows Asio drivers.
It should be initiated on the device somewhere. It is in the manual if You search for loop back.
    
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Olivier
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05 Feb 2016

tiker01 wrote:
eauhm wrote:I havent found the ability to do this on my H5, running it with the Windows Asio drivers.
It should be initiated on the device somewhere. It is in the manual if You search for loop back.
I'll see if i can find it :)
:reason: V9 | i7 5930 | Motu 828 MK3 | Win 10

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