• Registered: 2023-01-23
  • Posts: 3

Topic: Latency with Fireface UFX+`

Hi there, my apologies in advance if this sort of thing has been answered before, I couldn't find anything in search that was related so...

I just got an RME Fireface UFX+. It's drastic overkill in terms of specs for what I'm doing but I got a reasonably good deal and I was looking for my "forever" audio interface. Anyway, I"m replacing a MOTU 828 Mark2 that is nearly 20 years old and is occasionally glitchy and showing the signs of being it's age so decided to go with the UFX+. After getting everything set up and I give it a test drive and while I find the preamps and overall sound quality to be seemingly superior, it requires double the sample buffers to keep from glitching with VST plugins than my MOTU did. I have it connected through a USB 3 connection (as opposed to firewire for the MOTU) and in order to play VSTs without CPU issues, I have to be at DOUBLE the latency of the MOTU! I ended up going back to MOTU just to confirm, I can get away with 128 samples buffered without glitches compared to 256 for the UFX+.

So my question is: Am I doing something wrong or is this just a firewire vs. USB 3 thing? Should I try getting a thunderbolt card to deal with this? I've shied away from USB in the past because I had similar results but after reading several glowing reviews about RME stuff I thought that going USB 3 would be the next logical step. Below are my PC specs:


Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-9900K CPU @ 3.60GHz   3.60 GHz
Installed RAM    32.0 GB

Any tips or help is appreciated.

  • Registered: 2016-06-14
  • Posts: 1,142

Re: Latency with Fireface UFX+`

Hi!

I would suggest to try all available USB ports and switch to another USB cable. Maybe it’s related to the USB chipset on your computer. Also worth to try are the different settings on the UFX+ for the USB connection (via front panel menu). If you are not using MADI you could deactivate this channels. Normally even over USB 2.0 (without the MADI channels then) there should be low latency times.

UCX - FF 400 - Babyface pro - Digiface USB - ADI-2 (original)
Mac mini M1 - Macbook pro - iPad Air2

3 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2023-01-23 17:19:57)

  • ramses
  • DAW Mastermind
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  • From: UTC+1
  • Registered: 2012-10-14
  • Posts: 13,132

Re: Latency with Fireface UFX+`

Hi Oli, yes and pls let me add the following points as a suggestion..

To identify USB transport issues, use/watch the CRC check in the RME driver. You need to keep the madiface driver settings window open for that.

Another reason for bad USB "performance" can be too high DPC Latency caused by drivers and bad energy (or other) settings in the BIOS. See these threads: https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.ph … 04#p186404

You could also try the Sonnet PCIe USB card to isolate the UFX+ from the rest of your USB infrastructure, which might help.
It has the supported FL1100 chipset (see also the manual). See, e.g., this forum thread here: https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.ph … 82#p195282

As a side note: regarding cables. USB3 is limited to 3 m. I use Lindy premium cables (around €23). If you need more, get a corning solution, which is optical starting with 10 m, confirmed by RME to work. With around €150 for the 10 m cable, not cheap, but works. Recently got one as well, as I require more than 3 m to move the rack.

With your system / CPU you should be able to see a performance like this here, see my blog:
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/Ent … cks-de-en/

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14
  • Registered: 2023-01-23
  • Posts: 3

Re: Latency with Fireface UFX+`

Thank you for the suggestions. I've not had a chance to try them yet, but I'll be at it this weekend. I will come back with results after I try some of these suggestions.

  • Registered: 2013-02-07
  • Posts: 26

Re: Latency with Fireface UFX+`

FWIW - I am using an original UFX, plugged into a USB-2 port, intel 13900K.  I can go down to 48 samples with no issue at all.

Things I have done is to run DPC latency checker, keep all drivers updates, look in device manager and make sure the UFX is on a less busy USB controller.

My unit is 10 years old and is rock solid.  TotalMix FX is pretty awesome too.

  • Registered: 2023-01-23
  • Posts: 3

Re: Latency with Fireface UFX+`

Hey everyone, thank you so much for your suggestions, it turns out my motherboard treats it's USB ports as a hub for a single buss that shares everything I guess? I bought a separate USB 3 card and voila, seems to be working as expected. I'm a bit confused because my on board USB ports are SS10 which is supposed to be super fast but who knows. Anyway, I'm at 64 samples and that seems to work and is low enough latency. I haven't really tried 32 but I'm not certain it's necessary. Once again thanks for the help, now to go record some music!

  • ramses
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  • Registered: 2012-10-14
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Re: Latency with Fireface UFX+`

Have fun wink

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14
  • From: Bloomington, Indiana
  • Registered: 2023-01-06
  • Posts: 161

Re: Latency with Fireface UFX+`

Hi! I have a question regarding USB bus. How can you check this information on Windows? ALso, I guess for laptops, the USB bus will be limited? Thanks for answering!

davidlaijiajun's Website

  • ramses
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  • Registered: 2012-10-14
  • Posts: 13,132

Re: Latency with Fireface UFX+`

gmontano wrote:

FWIW - I am using an original UFX, plugged into a USB-2 port, intel 13900K.  I can go down to 48 samples with no issue at all.

Things I have done is to run DPC latency checker, keep all drivers updates, look in device manager and make sure the UFX is on a less busy USB controller.

My unit is 10 years old and is rock solid.  TotalMix FX is pretty awesome too.

AFAIK .. DPC Latency checker doesn't work under Win10. You need to use LatencyMon.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14
  • ramses
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  • Registered: 2012-10-14
  • Posts: 13,132

Re: Latency with Fireface UFX+`

davidlaijiajun wrote:

Hi! I have a question regarding USB bus. How can you check this information on Windows? ALso, I guess for laptops, the USB bus will be limited? Thanks for answering!

Try this one: https://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtreeview_e.html

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14