That‘s right. But I wouldn’t recommend using spdif just to avoid this problem since that introduces other complications. Setting the compensatoon preference in the DAW is a better way to deal with this for most people.
What complications do you find using SPDIF? Its been perfect here from day 1.
I was wondering the same thing. Since I moved to a different audio interface and connected the AF3 with SPDIF I've had no issues.
I wish fractal the best in hunting down these bugs and I know a lot of people use the Fractal successfully as an interface but this was one of the reasons I went with a separate interface altogether. I want my modeler to do modeling and do it well and thats it. Once you get into even intermediate levels of recording, you'll outgrow the IO anyway. Im sure its great for the youtube jam along or basic garage band tracking. If the AxeFX were ever marketed as a serious 4 or 8 pre, light pipe capable interface, I'd take another look but it would really need to be solid to get me away from UA.
To begin with, the obvious complication is you need to add an audio interface to your rig
. In addition, you lose input channels when you use spdif. USB has 4 pairs of outs, spdif only 1. So digitally recording DI/Dry/Wet is a lot simpler with USB. Also, you have to calibrate the input gain when using spdif for best signal to noise ratio and apply a matching decrease in the Axe-FX. See the instructions for configuration #5 for details. That compensation is automatically done for you in the Axe-FX, but you have to do it yourself when using spdif.
SPDIF to my audio interface does the job for me, at least for what I need to do right now. And I don't have to fiddle around with setting offsets every time I start working on a project. I really wish they would fix the issue though.
There shouldn't be any need to adjust anything per-project. I set it once a couple of years ago and haven't touched it since. But yes, this kind of bug should be fixed.
It's not always the same amount, it fluctuates. As per discussions on this old thread I started last year:
You're seeing a variation of 60 samples, or a little over a msec? Sorry, haven't seen that myself. I'll get a variation of a dozen samples or so, which is to be expected with outboard gear.
Well, yes, if you set the manual compensation in Cubase, it will align properly. The bug is that it doesn't align unless you do that. In any case, the USB firmware and USB driver were last updated in 2021 (although the USB firmware wasn't announced until Feb 2022), so nothing has been changed since last year.
I've been using SPDIF with my Apollo, then it died. I got an Antelope Audio interface and used SPDIF successfully, but it had driver issues so I replaced it with a Presonus 1810C. SPDIF is janky wirth it, for some reason. I'll get warbles, doesn't matter what the buffer is set at in Logic. So now I use USB but I can't set it to 32 samples. 64 works fine tho. But I'd rather use SPDIF and 32 samples. Using an M1 Mac Mini.
Wow sorry to hear. Hate to blame the cable but could it be? Im on windows and an Apollo X8, antelope drivers are quirky on a good day. Open a support ticket, try and record the anomalies too.
I'm not seeing any change here. That's not surprising since, as I mentioned above, there haven't been any changes to the driver or usb firmware since last year. Note that if you follow the buffer size workaround instructions in the link I posted above, it will work without needing the manual compensation in your DAW, so it could be you're doing that. Otherwise, without knowing the details of what you're doing, it's hard to say what's going on. What are you getting for reported and actual latency in RTL Utility?
Just interested to know why you need the buffer size so low?i can only assume you are monitoring back by the DAW + using Vst plugins to monitor while recording.
I just tend to do everythng from within Logic. I could monitor from the Presonus mixer, but that still doesn't get rid of the warble when I use SPDIF.