Same issues on the Mac. But as with the PC (and Dante), there are some ways to deal w it. Most reliable and useful approach on the MOTU / AVB side I have found is to provide the audio to/from the DM using an interface or interfaces (MOTU 624, 16A, LP32. 112d, etc.) with ADAT optical or other digital format (like AES-EBU). That way, you don’t have to delay any audio from the network by recording or monitoring it thru any FireWire at all - unless u want to. Then you can deal w latency.
Using this approach, you can provide 8x8 i/o to and from the network over the internal ADAT optical, and 8x8 over each of the 3 TDIF jacks (with some conversion magic) - 32x32 without using any slots - and of course, 8x8 for each ADAT or AES card you may have installed. If you keep the FireWire card, that means 3 slots (24x24 I/o) of ADAT or AES, for a total of 56x56 channels of digital I/o coming from one or more interfaces, DAWs and/or sound sources clocked and networked using AVB, in my case, or Dante converters and/or interfaces). If you kept the FireWire card in the first or third slot, that means an additional 32x32 channels of FireWire audio, 88x88 choices for input, return and output routing within the 4800’s 64x64 limits.
as far as soundflower, other audio routing software, etc. I use a program called audio hijack to record a 2-track master from my mains. I can switch the monitors to listen to that signal, which is post-processed and the latency is noticeable. However, if you are only recording the audio, and listening using a closer to zero latency monitoring approach as you track, it’s a much less important issue. I use it for metering, and I can easily spot the latency comparing the signal to my hardware meters (to say nothing of hearing it).
Software to record and distribute audio internally on the Mac is useful but my opinion, to minimize latency and keep your music feeling immediate, avoid processing audio through the computer before you monitor or track it. Just adding a plugin, etc., shouldn’t slow down the timing of the software instrument you are playing through it, etc., but that is indeed how it works. For this kind of approach, where timing and stability of the music (and the digital clock) are important, using a hardware mixer like the DM with this capability is an exceptional choice.
