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bassndrums
New member
which one would be a better buy? what are the advantages and disadvantages between them?
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theblue1
New member
Here are some good sources for product reviews in general:
EQ
http://www.eqmag.com/
Electronic Musician
http://www.emusician.com/
Pro Audio Review
http://www.proaudioreview.com/
Future Music
http://www.futuremusic.co.uk/
Sound on Sound
http://www.sospubs.co.uk/
Use their search functions to find reviews of products your interested in...
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A couple quick thoughts: The Digi 001 comes with the Pro Tools recording software... which some people like and some people don't. By most reports its strong suit is audio with MIDI pretty well an afterthought. The Digi's converters are on the PCI card -- not in the break out box whereas the Layla has its converters in the break out box. (The inside of the computer is not necessarily the best environment for sensitive ADC/DACs... but this isn't as big a problem for most converters as it used to be.)
Another consideration is how well the device integrates with your chosen platform... if you use software that works best with ASIO drivers or the new super-low-latency WDM drivers (Win2K/XP) you're out of luck with the Digi (in fact, according to Digidesign they don't support Win2K or XP) but the Layla's got you covered. They both do 24 bit, but the Digi has a top sample rate of 48kHz whereas the Layla does 88 and 96kHz (I personally think 24 bit is more important than a 'double' sample rate.) The Digi has MIDI i/o but the Layla doesn't (although there's no reason you can't add a MIDI card to your computer if you've got the room). The Digi has a published spec dynamic range of 98 dB -- the Layla claims 110 dB.
BTW, have you considered the MOTU 828? It looks pretty cool, too, and is a couple hundred bucks less... (And there's the new 896 w/ higher sampe rates). These require firewire but you can get a firewire card for fifty bucks or so for a Mac or PC. And they come with ASIO and WDM drivers (as well as keeping the converters out of the computer case).
EQ
http://www.eqmag.com/
Electronic Musician
http://www.emusician.com/
Pro Audio Review
http://www.proaudioreview.com/
Future Music
http://www.futuremusic.co.uk/
Sound on Sound
http://www.sospubs.co.uk/
Use their search functions to find reviews of products your interested in...
___________________
A couple quick thoughts: The Digi 001 comes with the Pro Tools recording software... which some people like and some people don't. By most reports its strong suit is audio with MIDI pretty well an afterthought. The Digi's converters are on the PCI card -- not in the break out box whereas the Layla has its converters in the break out box. (The inside of the computer is not necessarily the best environment for sensitive ADC/DACs... but this isn't as big a problem for most converters as it used to be.)
Another consideration is how well the device integrates with your chosen platform... if you use software that works best with ASIO drivers or the new super-low-latency WDM drivers (Win2K/XP) you're out of luck with the Digi (in fact, according to Digidesign they don't support Win2K or XP) but the Layla's got you covered. They both do 24 bit, but the Digi has a top sample rate of 48kHz whereas the Layla does 88 and 96kHz (I personally think 24 bit is more important than a 'double' sample rate.) The Digi has MIDI i/o but the Layla doesn't (although there's no reason you can't add a MIDI card to your computer if you've got the room). The Digi has a published spec dynamic range of 98 dB -- the Layla claims 110 dB.
BTW, have you considered the MOTU 828? It looks pretty cool, too, and is a couple hundred bucks less... (And there's the new 896 w/ higher sampe rates). These require firewire but you can get a firewire card for fifty bucks or so for a Mac or PC. And they come with ASIO and WDM drivers (as well as keeping the converters out of the computer case).
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LiL j
Guest
my partner just relpyed to your post on another forum.
what all do you need out of the card, what features? the digi001 its great and even better if you have a G4 but it has some problems with Pc's and your only gonna get 24tracks... the last model Layla is a joke i've never messed with the layla 24/96 yet though. some other cards to look into
StAudio System III ($899) nothing matches its quality
Rme multiface ($850)
Aardvark Q10 ($750)
Motu 2408mkII ($600-800)
what all do you need out of the card, what features? the digi001 its great and even better if you have a G4 but it has some problems with Pc's and your only gonna get 24tracks... the last model Layla is a joke i've never messed with the layla 24/96 yet though. some other cards to look into
StAudio System III ($899) nothing matches its quality
Rme multiface ($850)
Aardvark Q10 ($750)
Motu 2408mkII ($600-800)
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theblue1
New member
I agree. My bottom line is everyone works differently and different tools work best for different folks. That's why I collected the set of links for the review publications... so that folks could compare and contrast.
I also heard of a lot of problems with the original Layla card back around '96-97 or so... but from what I've heard Echo has sorted out a lot of what ailed them when they were initially being marketed by Event... I've heard good word of mouth the last couple years. And I have a very demanding buddy who loves his Mona. (Full disclosure: I just picked up a Mia [their 2/2 card] but I haven't had a chance to put it through its paces. Playback sounds very nice... better than my SB Live "reference" card...
) But anyway, folks shouldn't take any single person's word for anything... and word of mouth can be deceiving.
If I seem obsessed by drivers it's because I became aware of just how important they can be in getting performance out of the card/host combination when I was researching my own purchase. I was really looking at the 4/4 Lexicon card until I realized they'd abandoned support for contemporary driver technology. (If I was a Mac user I'd definitely be looking toward OS X... it's going to take a while but I think the serious manufacturers are not just committed but working hard to get drivers ready. OSX may mean a lot of hard work for the industry but it's really going to be worth it... see the Oct Electronic Musician for their take on the promise of OS X.)
Hell, I even updated my OS just to take advantage of the WDM drivers. And I switch OS's about as readily as I clean my garage... which ain't too readily. But the WDM drivers (like the ASIO drivers) tend to get a bunch more performance out of a given card -- if it supports them (most do, some don't, ditto for ASIO). For instance, the SB Live MME drivers (pre-2K Win drivers) gave a latency of around 165 ms -- the WDM drivers reduce latency to under 10 ms for a lot of folks. (With my Mia the WDM gives about 1.5 ms latency.)
But even latency can be a non-issue for folks who don't want or need to use live FX monitoring or virtual instruments... so, again, different strokes...
I also heard of a lot of problems with the original Layla card back around '96-97 or so... but from what I've heard Echo has sorted out a lot of what ailed them when they were initially being marketed by Event... I've heard good word of mouth the last couple years. And I have a very demanding buddy who loves his Mona. (Full disclosure: I just picked up a Mia [their 2/2 card] but I haven't had a chance to put it through its paces. Playback sounds very nice... better than my SB Live "reference" card...
) But anyway, folks shouldn't take any single person's word for anything... and word of mouth can be deceiving.If I seem obsessed by drivers it's because I became aware of just how important they can be in getting performance out of the card/host combination when I was researching my own purchase. I was really looking at the 4/4 Lexicon card until I realized they'd abandoned support for contemporary driver technology. (If I was a Mac user I'd definitely be looking toward OS X... it's going to take a while but I think the serious manufacturers are not just committed but working hard to get drivers ready. OSX may mean a lot of hard work for the industry but it's really going to be worth it... see the Oct Electronic Musician for their take on the promise of OS X.)
Hell, I even updated my OS just to take advantage of the WDM drivers. And I switch OS's about as readily as I clean my garage... which ain't too readily. But the WDM drivers (like the ASIO drivers) tend to get a bunch more performance out of a given card -- if it supports them (most do, some don't, ditto for ASIO). For instance, the SB Live MME drivers (pre-2K Win drivers) gave a latency of around 165 ms -- the WDM drivers reduce latency to under 10 ms for a lot of folks. (With my Mia the WDM gives about 1.5 ms latency.)
But even latency can be a non-issue for folks who don't want or need to use live FX monitoring or virtual instruments... so, again, different strokes...
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LiL j
Guest
the layla we have my partner alex bought this year, but its not the 24/96 model. the quality of the card wasn't that good, actually the STaudio cport sound much better than the layla. he did a test to see which cards sounded the best(Delta 1010,Layla,Cport, and 2408MkII)
the Delta and Cport sounded the best out of the 4. on the genelec monitors we were using the delta1010 had crisper sounding highs but everything else was an even match. but the highs could have been better because we used the cports preamps with a TLM103 and the delta had a high end DBX preamp with it.
if you don't want to spend as much look into the delta 1010($490) and the cport($399)
the Delta and Cport sounded the best out of the 4. on the genelec monitors we were using the delta1010 had crisper sounding highs but everything else was an even match. but the highs could have been better because we used the cports preamps with a TLM103 and the delta had a high end DBX preamp with it.
if you don't want to spend as much look into the delta 1010($490) and the cport($399)
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theblue1
New member
In the end, it comes down to sound. Thanks for the insights!