Question about using built-in audio interfaces (Maschine MK3 / FGDP-50)

Finger Drumming Gear / Software / Setup
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In the beginner course, it says you don’t need a separate audio interface if your controller has one built in. I was such a n00b that I originally translated that as “just use the computer’s audio and somehow magically my controller does something cool.” As a result, I’ve just been using the mac’s software.

But after revisiting the material, I think the real point is:

  • In AD2 → Audio & MIDI Setup, choose the controller (e.g., Maschine MK3 or FGDP-50) as the Output device.

  • Plug your headphones into the controller, not the computer.

Is that right?

Also, with my 2020 MacBook and a small AD2 buffer, I honestly can’t hear a latency difference between the Mac’s output and the controller’s headphone jack (e.g. FGDP-50 output with AD2 audio piped to it). Is that normal, or should I expect a noticeable improvement through the controller?

Thanks for any clarity!
—David

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  • You are correct. If the Maschine or FGDP is the audio interface you have to listen to the audio coming out of this devices and NOT the computer.
  • It could be that the built in Mac audio is now low latency enough. On my 2020 Intel MacBook I still did hear a (subtle) difference in how immediate the sound was after hitting the pads.
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I actually just bought an M4 MacBook and I think… onboard sound is actually fast enough now. Interesting. That is a new development. Not 100% sure yet, but it could be that on these M-something Macs you’re fine without an audio interface and just using the Mac headphone jack or speakers.

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Screenshot 2025-09-22 at 10.23.28
I am still a little sceptical. This could mean (but not sure) that my Mac will dynamically have a latency between 0.6 and 17 ms. 0.6 would be really good. 17 would be an audible delay. So this is tricky. My audio interface has a consistent latency that does not waiver.

If the Mac would have a dynamic latency that would be pretty terrible since you could never practice accurate timing. One moment you’re exactly right, and then you are 17 ms “early” because the computer alters when it plays the sound. That would really mess you up.

Again, not sure about this, but this is why this onboard audio is tricky and an audio interface is the safer option. Using the MK3 or FGDP for this should be fine.

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Is that a spec of the hardware that you posted? My guess is that empirical measurement would be best here. Practically, the question is what are both the mean and variance of the onset of the sound envelope when playing through the Mac vs. the audio interface? It’s in principle easy to measure if you could save the audio and then open it in a Jupyter notebook with SciPy or something similar.

I took a closer look, and I have an M2, so I would have purchased my machine in 2022 or 2023. Perhaps that’s a critical detail in my perception of low latency.

Anyway, point taken. I’ll work through my audio interface for a while and see if I notice any difference.

Thanks!

-David