Cat 5 or USB?

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DougJam
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Sep 16, 2024 8:03 am

Cat 5 or USB?

Post by DougJam »

Hello guys
You've likely seen the Danny Carey drum rundown vid where he states he's using CAT5 cable vs the usb cables. For my crappy setup I have now, 2.9/mac/Battery and a Soundcraft mixer with built-in interface, I'm not having noticeable latency problems. I do plan on upgrading however.
Is it worth the money/trouble to use Cat cables/adaptors or just stick with USB? Is anyone currently doing this?
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 40
Joined: Sat Sep 10, 2011 4:17 pm

Re: Cat 5 or USB?

Post by admin »

Danny's pads have a different output cartridge under them which accepts CAT5 cables that run back to a central circuit which also accepts pedal inputs for his eKick and eHat pedals. Then that circuit goes to his MacBook over USB. The USB output on Mandala v2, mk2.9, and V3 is equally as fast for MIDI output (0.55 milliseconds MIDI latency) as Danny's V3's however so there wouldn't be any advantage to using anything but USB from your pad to the computer.

Your best option to optimize your system's audio output latency that comes after the small 0.55ms MIDI latency would be to push the buffer size of your audio interface down as far as possible (before you hear unwanted digital noise) in the preferences window of whatever audio software you are using.
DougJam
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Sep 16, 2024 8:03 am

Re: Cat 5 or USB?

Post by DougJam »

Thanks.

Yea I slowed down his video on the recent drum breakdown and noticed his pads inputs are different. I really dont have latency problems that are noticeable right now with my crappy set up but I'm hoping to upgrade soon. I guess for now stuck with running my pedal through the SPDSX which works just fine. Now for the journey of getting these things up and running
amidatong
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2022 12:15 pm

Re: Cat 5 or USB?

Post by amidatong »

Cool DougJam, I was always curious about that! What kind of pedal are you using, and triggering what?
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