From deke@dekethegeek.com Thu Sep 12 14:01:01 2002
Subject:RE: B4 and Midiman Quattro

I haven't personally tried the Quattro yet, but it comes highly recommended.
There are two pieces at play, 1. the MIDI interface and 2. the soundcard. If
you were to use an Edirol product or some such just that is a MIDI to USB
converter, you will add less than 1 ms of latency to your rig, according to
Edirol. The problem is the sound card. Most laptops don't have good
soundcards, actually most are akin to the AC'97 compliant sound cards in
desktops (ie a P.O.S.). the real solution is to find an external audio
output device (external sound card) that uses low latency ASIO drivers. You
will notice the option for ASIO is probably greyed out in your B4... this is
because you are using a WDM or VXD driver, which works fine for most
applications, but has a latency of between 35 and 200 ms. This is
unacceptable for playing an instrument... you want 10 ms or less. Most ASIO
drivers easily reach 20 ms. Some even get as low as 4 ms! As I have never
tried the Quattro, I can't say for sure how low the latency is, but I know
it *does* ship with an ASIO driver. The cool thing about the Quattro is that
it has audio outputs _and_ MIDI so you are all set. There is an option that
will be available any day now that is a little cheaper than the Quattro
(~$250)... it is the UA-20 from Edirol. Link here:
http://edirol.com/products/info/ua20.html. It is listed as an audio capture
device, but it has optical or analog audio outputs, MIDI in and out, and
comes with a high performance ASIO driver that Edirol claims will run at 7ms
or less. The MSRP is set at $229 I think, so it should be selling for around
$169-179, depending on your location and demand. This is the one I am
waiting for, and is the reason I haven't yet bought a Quattro.

So, to answer the question, yes the Quattro will work, and other list
members have reported success with it, but you may wish to wait a week or
two for the UA-20 if you are on a tight budget (like me).

Deke The Geek