Regarding the setup - the problem is that when I reduce the buffer I get some weird cracking sounds in my sound, so I'm wondering what that means. can I connect my Motu Ultralite AVB to the thunderbolt port then - so ethernet on the side of the card and then into thunderbolt on my mac? Does this kind of setup even works! Thank you so much! and also to everyone else who replied! Chorus, phaser and flanger, even if mixed 100% wet, will cause issues because whilst they sound 'weird' in relation to the dry signal, their output still approximates the dynamic envelope of your live input, so combining them with the latter will constitute a distraction timing will be smeared. That way, as long as you mix the 100% wet signal with your vox and drums, you'll be right as rain. The thing to understand is that latency will be induced it's a matter of how much you can live with. No buffer setting in your DAW will allow in-line processing sans phase issues, however, if you can live without EQ and compression, parallel time-based effects should be fine. Even compared to USB 2.0 bandwidth, the combined data from all three is like spitting in the ocean. Your devices (mouse, keyboard, and tablet), have very low data rates. I have a virtual dual amp setup where I play through 2 amp sims simultaneously as well as eq/comp plugs on both amp sim tracks AND I parallel process those two amp sim tracks to an aux and sometimes two separate parallel aux tracks (one for each amp sim) on which there may be anything from a fuzz and/or octaver to some delay or whatever, and I do this in real time all at 5.6 round-trip latency 64 buffer w/ no glitches (*unless* I've got a major session going w/ lots of this and that but then that's to be expected) and all with this little rme 9632 so yeah I'd tend to recommend RME.The differences between these figures pale into insignificance when buried in the 50-odd ms you're experiencing at the 1024 buffer setting. Yes, theoretically, it could add latency to combine the signals through a single path, but you would never know it if it did. Not bad for an old pci card, but I heard pci offers better latency by design anyway, which of course is almost irrelevant now as it's all but obsolete, but anyway.

Until I can upgrade I'm still using the lowly RME 9632 pci card, and at 64 buffer I get a 5.6 round-trip latency. Yeah their stuff is costlier but worth the longterm investment and you probably won't be swapping it out frequently for something else.

There's also the babyface pro from rme which would be worth looking at and can be had for a few hundred off ebay or I think $750 retail. It's around $1600, probably $1000 on ebay. I'd recommend RME all around for some of the best drivers in the biz as well as probably the lowest latency interfaces out there, and especially if you're an amp sim guy I'd get an RME, like Fireface ucx.

Usb 2 vs usb 3 latency