News about PCI express version of 192?

[enb141]

Hi guys I know the intel mac pro doesn't have PCI ports and the new motherboards are starting to not include so many PCI slots anymore so everything its going to be PCI express in a few years, so my question is if there's any plans for "PCI Express" or there won't be more internal cards anymore?

[Niels Larsen]

We have been looking at PCIe for some time but find that the solutions are not that cost effective. We decided therefore to focus in the short term on USB 2 and Firewire as is evident from the latest interface releases from us (Fast Track Ultra and Ultra 8R + Profire 2626).

So for now, we don't have any immidiate plans to launch PCIe products but that may change at some point in the future.

It would also be interesting to hear more from our users on this forum if many of our customers believe the benefits are there even at a higher cost.

Niels

[enb141]

Thanks for your response, the reason why I'm interested in PCI express is due to lower latencies compared with USB2 and FireWire, currently I'm using an USB solution but compared with PCI is not worth in my opinion so I think I'll have to find another solution :(

[Wonky]

I would also like to see the Delta 1010 card upgraded to PCIe as I would like to use it with a MacPro. Seems a shame that such a great product (that I purchased less than a year ago) is incompatible with the new Macs.

[LWD]

I would like to see a 192 in a new mac pro. Not knowing the differences between PCI-X and PCIe(since they sound so similar) I realized when transferring my audiophile 192 to my new mac the connections were different. So now my question is (since this is putting my music on hold) is what are the other options. Fast track ultra, will that control ASIO drivers within mac OSX? From my understanding they are just interfaces and not sound cards meaning they cannot play system sounds within the OS. Using a wave editor for example

regards,
LWd

[JA]

I would like to see a 192 in a new mac pro. Not knowing the differences between PCI-X and PCIe(since they sound so similar) I realized when transferring my audiophile 192 to my new mac the connections were different. So now my question is (since this is putting my music on hold) is what are the other options. Fast track ultra, will that control ASIO drivers within mac OSX? From my understanding they are just interfaces and not sound cards meaning they cannot play system sounds within the OS. Using a wave editor for example

regards,
LWd

All of our USB and FireWire interfaces are compatible with Mac Pro. Audio Interface and Sound Card are just different names for the same thing. OS X uses Core Audio, not ASIO, and all M-Audio interfaces are Core Audio compatible. They can all be set as the default output for System Sounds and can be used with almost any application or wave editor.

[LWD]

Thanks for the reply JA,

Output sounds, this means that instruments (VSTi's) for example in Cubase would run off FAST TRACK ULTRA drivers? So when you play a key on your midi keyboard that sound is actually being played by the interfaces drivers?

Just reassuring,
LWd

[JA]

Yes, Cubase can use the Fast Track Ultra drivers for sound output.

[chaosinmind]

M-Audio should definitely upgrade the hardware and drivers for PCI-E based platforms very soon. Yes it is true that PCI-E is higher performance and lower latency than standard PCI slots, but the real fact is MAC Pros have already switched to a pure PCI-E architecture and most new motherboards have either 1 PCI slot or none at all.

This will make future DAW builds limited to lower end motherboards. I can guarantee in the very near future, within one or two years MAX, that new motherboard chipsets will cease support for the old PCI bus completely, making it impossible to even implement legacy PCI slots. It is inevitable and any stalling on M-Audio's side is just ignoring the evolution of the PC and the needs of its customers.

M-Audio, you have to understand that we don't have to buy from you, many other companies already offer professional and affordable PCI-E 1x solutions. Not to mention, your products have been on the shelves for MANY years without any real architecture enhancements or upgrades, (cough.. and drivers stink! cough...) don't you think its about time to step up your game and produce a whoop @%% product that wipes the floor with your competitors?

[enb141]

That's why I bought my maya44e PCIe, works on both mac and windows (including x64 SP2) sorry to mention this here but unfortunatelly ESI came with a solution earlier than M-Audio.

[HungryBardFoundation]

It's really a shame that M-Audio isn't producing any PCIe products at present. I'm highly dismayed by the fact that not one product in their entire line covers our needs.

The Delta series was fantastic, because the driver supported a multitude of cards, and was able to treat them as a single ASIO device. Unfortunately, 133MB/s of bandwidth just isn't enough for what I need to do.

Because of that, I am having to look into offerings from the likes of Mackie, MOTU, and Apogee.

I was an M-Audio loyalist for many years, at one point having run a machine with two Delta 1010s, and a Delta 44. The time has come to make another large investment of capital into audio interfaces, and alas, M-Audio is building consumer-grade toys.