The only thing the Waves card can do that the Dante card cannot is work with a Waves Soundgrid Server which is important in a live sound setting where latency is a real issue.
Is the latency difference really that noticeable? Latency on a Dante network with a decent switch (assuming you’re not doing multiple hops) should go as low as .5ms? I suppose the Dante virtual soundcard may be worse, if you’re using it?
The most important thing to remember is the Waves server is not necessary to multi-track or execute most other studio work with your SQ. The Waves card inserted in your SQ creates a Cat6 connection to the computer that houses your DAW and the “FREE” sound grid studio program will put you in business. You will need to purchase a server if you intend to use Waves plug ins but most folks are very pleased with the SQ provided FX and Deep Comp package. It is most un-likely you will not be able to find the studio embellishments you will need within the SQ for most small to medium channel count every day studio chores. Most every thing you will need you have already have with the SQ: whether you chose a Waves or Dante card either way the big benefit is replacing USB2 with a Cat6 multi-track recording protocol.
Hugh
There is one other caveat that may or may not be important: Your computer needs to have enough horsepower to run 24/96K multi-tracking. The proposed channel count is also a very important consideration to include in your computer power evaluation.
Hugh
You will need to purchase a server if you intend to use Waves plug ins
Just to be clear, a Waves Soundgrid Server is not required to use plugins. You can accomplish the same thing using a DAW.
Your computer needs to have enough horsepower to run 24/96K multi-tracking.
This is true, but multitrack recording doesn’t take that much horsepower. You are basically just saving the digital data to disk. Any recent i5 or i7 processor (and by recent I mean something in the last 5-7 years) will be fast enough for this task. Our i7-3700 records 40 tracks without breaking a sweat. Like it’s maybe at 30% CPU usage (but I am going off memory here).
In a studio, latency has to be accounted for but isn’t a major issue if it gets to be a high number like it would in a live setting where audience members hear both the raw and latent signals at the same time.
Not always true in the case of overdubs monitored through the recording chain, but I guess with the onboard effects in the SQ that cam be mitigated.
Does anyone have experience with the MADI card yet? It would seem to use coax rather than fibre, which is a shame but I can see why that would make sense for live setup/teardown.