I am sure this question has been answered before, however, after scouring the net and not finding an answer, I figured I'd just ask here. You guys are always great and helpful.
I currently record over USB, but my CPU isn't great (Intel Q8300). After adding a few effects, my DAW begins to crackle if I set my latency low enough for it to not mess up my playing. I've used work-arounds, but I'd like to find out if there's another way to reduce latency.
One thing I've heard is that people use the S/PDIF Out to record, vs USB. Is there an advantage to this? Would this decrease the latency without racking up more processing power? I've had trouble even finding internal soundcards that support S/PDIF in, and many interfaces that do cost as much (or more) than a new CPU would.
Could anyone offer up any advice? I'm certainly a techie, but not an engineer, and all this head scratching is making me go bald.
Thank you.