From deke@dekethegeek.com Thu Oct 24 00:09:55 2002
Subject:B4 and Quattro - a winning combination

Let me lay a little groundwork here for those of you who don't know what
I've been trying lately. I have been using a small PC (AMD K6-400, 128 MB
RAM, WinXP, SBLive! with bootleg ASIO drivers) for running the B4 software.
I heard other list members talking about USB audio devices such as the
M-Audio Quattro, but I figured I was doing just as well with my rig. The
only problem that I had was getting stuck notes sometimes, and the fact that
since this was a PC, and I carried no monitor or keyboard/mouse, if
something happened my only recourse was to reboot the machine. BTW, B4 was
in the startup group. Also, I was getting quite a bit of noise out of one
side of the Soundblaster Live! Card, so I could only run in mono.

Now my ideal solution to this problem was to use a laptop and a USB audio
device, but I just knew I had to have a faster laptop. My Dell Latitude Cpi
266 was going to be too slow for sure! Just for testing purposes, I loaded
Win98 on the laptop and installed B4. As expected, it was unplayable with a
minimum latency of 200 ms before the signal started breaking up. So I tried
loading WinXP, thinking that the USB implementation would be better... no
dice. B4 was unplayable at even 400 ms! I was beginning to think I would
have to carry a full sized PC just to make this thing work right, as I
didn't have the $1500 or so to spend on the latest laptop.

Well, knowing the nice guys at Guitar Center like I do, and knowing their
30-day no questions asked return policy, I decided on one final test. I
would buy the $269 Quattro and see how it worked on the PC... of course I
might try it on the laptop, but I didn't expect much. I ended up trying the
Quattro on the laptop first... remember folks that this is a 266 MHz Pentium
II laptop... running Windows XP Professional. I installed the drivers, and
lickety split... there it was. I knew that this was going too smoothly, so I
tried the Quattro at medium latency... with excellent results. I was amazed!
Could my dinky little 266 laptop be worth something after all? I went for
broke and set the Quattro to "Very Low" latency... the lowest available.
Drum roll please... it worked PERFECTLY!!!

To recap... I am using a Dell 266 MHz laptop running Windows XP Professional
and I am getting latency of less than 7 ms! I am not sure what the exact
number is, since there is no numbering scheme in the driver, but I have
played at very low latencies on my other rig, and I know that this must be
around 5 ms or so.

BOTTOM LINE: if you own a decrepit laptop, you can probably use it to run
B4... as long as you have a Quattro with it! Thanks for the advice M T! It
rocks!

BTW, did I mention that I got the $269 M-Audio Quattro for $199? It was
late, the guys were ready to leave, and it was the last one in the store...
my treat!

Deke The Geek