Thunderbolt SQ IO card (or USB at least)

[BRS]

Discussed a bit on the Facebook forum today.

It’d be nice to be able to record to SQ Drive and a PC at the same time or use a low latency USB insert setup with Live Professor or some such.

Waves soundgrid and Dante are way too expensive for my limited budget but I would have thought that a USB expansion could be achieved for a modest price.

[KeithJ A&H]

Hi Robin!

Thanks for adding this here, it’s an interesting one.

One thing I would say from the off is that there is not necessarily a latency benefit with a faster interface.
This is because when transferring data that already exists, a larger bandwidth means more data can be transferred at once, meaning the whole amount of data is transferred faster.
[like sending the same total volume of water down a thin pipe will take longer than it would through a wider pipe]
With the SQ however, you are creating the data in realtime, and the 32×32 channels plus MIDI of the USB-B connection sit (with some headroom for stability) within the theoretical 480mbps max of the USB 2.0 standard.
[like sending a consistent flow of water down a pipe which is much wider than necessary wouldn’t speed up the flow]

Cheers,
Keith.

[BRS]

That’s a good explanation, Keith.

So if latency can’t be improved, perhaps the size of the pipe can be. 32×32 is less than the internal channel count of the desk. If USB2 is a bit of a thin pipe, why not open the flood gates with Thunderbolt? 64×64, 96K, 24 bit – lovely! Can that be achieved? Great for recording. Loads of options for multiple destinations within the computer, record 32 channels but still have room for 32 effects inserts – just imagine! And all for the cost of a Waves Plugin on sale 😉

To be honest, even it it just mirrored the capability of the built in USB-B, that would be useful. But let’s reach for the fire hose!!

[Author]

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