Discussed a bit on the Facebook forum today.
It’d be nice to be able to record to SQ Drive and a PC at the same time or use a low latency USB insert setup with Live Professor or some such.
Waves soundgrid and Dante are way too expensive for my limited budget but I would have thought that a USB expansion could be achieved for a modest price.
Hi Robin!
Thanks for adding this here, it’s an interesting one.
One thing I would say from the off is that there is not necessarily a latency benefit with a faster interface.
This is because when transferring data that already exists, a larger bandwidth means more data can be transferred at once, meaning the whole amount of data is transferred faster.
[like sending the same total volume of water down a thin pipe will take longer than it would through a wider pipe]
With the SQ however, you are creating the data in realtime, and the 32x32 channels plus MIDI of the USB-B connection sit (with some headroom for stability) within the theoretical 480mbps max of the USB 2.0 standard.
[like sending a consistent flow of water down a pipe which is much wider than necessary wouldn’t speed up the flow]
Cheers,
Keith.
That’s a good explanation, Keith.
So if latency can’t be improved, perhaps the size of the pipe can be. 32x32 is less than the internal channel count of the desk. If USB2 is a bit of a thin pipe, why not open the flood gates with Thunderbolt? 64x64, 96K, 24 bit - lovely! Can that be achieved? Great for recording. Loads of options for multiple destinations within the computer, record 32 channels but still have room for 32 effects inserts - just imagine! And all for the cost of a Waves Plugin on sale 
To be honest, even it it just mirrored the capability of the built in USB-B, that would be useful. But let’s reach for the fire hose!!