So...after the firmware upgrade, is the AK1 a serious product?

I'm currently looking for a very portable soundcard, and the AK1 seems perfect, as i'd like to avoid firewire because i'm a pc user with 4 pin firewire, which means wallwarts...

I need 2 stereo out for playing with ableton live basically. Not really interested in recording, as i have a better suited card for that. I just need rock solid playback, low latency, no hassles.

Will the AK1 deliver? Should i look somewhere else?

 

Tom,

The AK1 has 4 stero outputs but if you look around in this forum notice that it is not fully working. The overall sound is good but I and others here still have problems with latency and the update hasn't changed it for me personally.
I'm not bashing the AK1 but I want to be onest towards everyone. this is a email thatI've send to NI;


I've bought the Audio Kontrol 1 on 29-01-2007, ever since I installed the program/drivers and the interface I have nothing but heavy latency problems!
Even the new update isn't helping any good.
also i checked the forums and it seems that many others have simular problems!
What can you do for me?

Here is what I use;

Pentium IV 3.0 Ghz HT
1024 MB Ram
XP Prof.
Daw software; Reason 3.0 , Cubase SX3 and Adobe Audition2.0

In al these apps i hear and see that my CPU goes up with more then 20 %
Crackles His and CPU overload.Even when I playback an mp3 I hear sometimes clicks!
Tried any available LAtency settings in all I have the same problems.
Even followed up the instructions as written and described in your Troubleshooting guide.
Nothing wil do or work.

I know that sometimes when you buy new gear and installing the latest drivers it wil help.
Now I'm almost 1 month further and I can't get the AK 1 to work fully as it should.
this I also explained to our ICT group and they looked at my pc and noticed nothing is wrong and they reinstaled everything drivers and AK1
after rebooting it still has the same problems.

what they did next is installing a Creative Audigy card and to our suprise it worked fine with the creative card.
This is a indication that the AK1 isn't good.

With kin regards and in awaiting of your solution


Vincent Tan- A-Kiam

 

Tom,

The AK1 has 4 stero outputs but if you look around in this forum notice that it is not fully working. The overall sound is good but I and others here still have problems with latency and the update hasn't changed it for me personally.
I'm not bashing the AK1 but I want to be onest towards everyone. this is a email thatI've send to NI;


I've bought the Audio Kontrol 1 on 29-01-2007, ever since I installed the program/drivers and the interface I have nothing but heavy latency problems!
Even the new update isn't helping any good.
also i checked the forums and it seems that many others have simular problems!
What can you do for me?

Here is what I use;

Pentium IV 3.0 Ghz HT
1024 MB Ram
XP Prof.
Daw software; Reason 3.0 , Cubase SX3 and Adobe Audition2.0

In al these apps i hear and see that my CPU goes up with more then 20 %
Crackles His and CPU overload.Even when I playback an mp3 I hear sometimes clicks!
Tried any available LAtency settings in all I have the same problems.
Even followed up the instructions as written and described in your Troubleshooting guide.
Nothing wil do or work.

I know that sometimes when you buy new gear and installing the latest drivers it wil help.
Now I'm almost 1 month further and I can't get the AK 1 to work fully as it should.
this I also explained to our ICT group and they looked at my pc and noticed nothing is wrong and they reinstaled everything drivers and AK1
after rebooting it still has the same problems.

what they did next is installing a Creative Audigy card and to our suprise it worked fine with the creative card.
This is a indication that the AK1 isn't good.

With kin regards and in awaiting of your solution


Vincent Tan- A-Kiam

 

I just bought the AK1 for exactly the same reason. Waited until the firmware was fixed before purchasing.

I have only had it a few days but initial impressions are very good. Nice and compact. Build quality seems very good (way better than plasticy M-Audio rubbish for example) although the controls are a bit spongy. Sound quality is good and I have had no glitches at all using it on low latency settings.

I've even sorted out a very basic live set which allows me to DJ with the minimal controls on the top of the AK1.

Early days but it's a thumbs up from me now anyway. I spent a lot of time researching a USB interface and the only other 4 output options worth considering were the M-Audio FastTrack Pro (USB 1.1 only which put me off) and the Edirol UA101 (looks nice but too expensive for me).

 

What is not working about the AK1? Is it that the outputs are not output from 1/2, 3/4 simltaneously? (I had to set up separate send tracks in Live to output to both sets of outputs. That may be inherent in design of ASIO or the AK1, though; I had assumed that 1/2,3/4 would be parallel regardless. It may be a setting in the Mapping Application as well - still RTFMing....)

I am getting very good latency and no issues at the lowest setting (1.5 ms). So far, no issues whatever....


Toshiba U205-S5044 Core 2 Duo, 2 Ghz.


Can you point me to posts on other issues to which you are referring in this forum?

 

BuleriaChk: 1.5ms of latency? That's smoking!!!
At last someone with good results. I'm still afraid of buying this card, though...people are still having horrible problems even with the firmware upgrade...What a pity. This interface could be the best ever in its price range. How much time have you used the card? have you tested it in real world conditions? (a gig or something)

 

Thanks man for sharing your experiences. I'm on the same boat, the rest of the USB cards aren't as attractive an option as ak1 really. For how many days have you had it? Have you used it in real world conditions?

 

no it definately is not
im STILL having the fade in problem AFTER updating the firmware

aside from that i cant use it under 32ms latency without it going to shi*
really disappointed with AK1

 

well after formating it i got this thing installed. It works ok except that it seems to put a much higher demand on my cpu than my old ECHO DJ PCMCIA card did. Man I wish that thing never died.