FW-EXB in a live setting..does it work?

[synthdogg]

Hey all,

I'm curious about the FW-EXB, it looks like it could be a cool solution to use the M3 as an audio/midi interface for a laptop live, but from what I'm reading it doesn't look like that's what it was designed for.
Does anyone have any experience with this?

The M3 would be hooked to a macbook pro running Logic/Mainstage mainly.
I would have the M3 Audio running out of the stereo outputs, and divide tracks/VI's out the other 4 outs....and run some guitar through the input to process through the computer live.

It seems like the M3/FW has all the tools to make this happen, but it seems like I only read about it being used to get M3 audio into the computer. Am I missing something?

Thanks,

Chris

[Rob Sherratt]

Hey all,

I'm curious about the FW-EXB, it looks like it could be a cool solution to use the M3 as an audio/midi interface for a laptop live, but from what I'm reading it doesn't look like that's what it was designed for.
Does anyone have any experience with this?

The M3 would be hooked to a macbook pro running Logic/Mainstage mainly.
I would have the M3 Audio running out of the stereo outputs, and divide tracks/VI's out the other 4 outs....and run some guitar through the input to process through the computer live.

It seems like the M3/FW has all the tools to make this happen, but it seems like I only read about it being used to get M3 audio into the computer. Am I missing something?

Thanks,

Chris

Hi Chris,

I use the EXB-FW with a laptop PC and Cakewalk Sonar. I have up to 3 stereo outputs from the M3 to Sonar and 1 stereo input to the M3 from Sonar. The audio can be a little tricky to set up right, and I use ASIO4ALL on the PC to give lower latency than the Korg ASIO driver. I am currently running at 12 ms latency buffer, and I get no clicks or drop outs no matter what I do on the PC. I believe the latency buffer can be reduced further on a MAC due to better driver level performance.

I use MIDI over USB, which is at least 10 times faster than MIDI over DIN cables or MIDI over Firewire.

A much cheaper all-digital alternative if one stereo output and one stereo input would be acceptable, would be to use the Optical SP/DIF interface built into the M3 as standard. There is an Optical SP/DIF audio adapter box available on Ebay for $25, and a pair of TOSLINK optical cables cost $5 on Ebay. The adapter box would connect to your MAC via USB2 Audio. Unfortunately USB2 Audio is not supported directly on the M3.

Best regards,
Rob