firewire and usb questions!

WaveLab
#1

hello there,

im in need of a new interface, ive ruled out pci/pci express as they are either to expensive or i just dont fancy them that much which only leaves firewire and usb,

i only have one firewire port on my pc which is being used by my liquid mix which means getting a pci/pci express firewire card, so my question is this,

would running a pci firewire card alongside on board firewire cause any problems or would i be better getting a card that has multiple inputs for both the interface and liquid mix,

regarding usb:

it would appear that most favour firewire over usb because the transfer rate varies to much with usb, especially when using higher samplerates,

is this only an issue if you are recording multiple inputs at the same time, so for someone like me who only records 1 track at a time this would be perfectly acceptable, or would this be an issue on playback also, cheers

paul

#2

The chipset is listed as XIO1223B. I see it with my own eyes “XIO1223BZAY”. I get the exact same result as I did with my first card : no display on my monitors, no way to tell if the system boots completely. When I unplug the card, everything runs normally.

#3

I used to use firewire but to be honest with newer USB (I think 2.0 upwards) I havent had an issues and use USB for my UR44 without any transfer rate problems. So I wouldnt rule USB out, IMO

#4

FireWire is getting quite old now. Most m/b’s don’t come with it and the audio interfaces are getting less. I tend to agree you are better with a good usb 2 interface or even 3 (I think there are a few about now). Then there is making sure it will work which is not always that easy with f/w. My old i7 has a Texas instrument f/w port and it has always worked well although it sometimes needs a 2nd reboot to see the interface. My new pc I use a usb interface

#5

If I were you I’d probably just get a card with more than one input and then see which setup works best, if there is a difference at all. Having said that though:

I haven’t seen anyone favor FW over USB in years. If someone says that the transfer rate varies then I’m not sure what they mean. I know that USB versions have different maximum rates, just like FW400/800, but maybe that’s not what you mean. What I would say is that even USB 3.0 has a higher transfer rate than FW800 (if I remember correctly) and that should be more than enough to record multiple channels at once.

As a matter of fact there are several manufacturers out there that are marketing relatively high channel-count interfaces using USB and they couldn’t do that and stay in business unless they actually worked.

So with FW disappearing I would absolutely choose USB 3.x in the year 2020…

(obviously make sure you can use the relevant USB version on your computer)

#6

This topic is from January 2011. The first reply was over 9 1/2 years later and had nothing to do with the subject.

Just sayin’ … :wink:

#7

Whoops!

Thanks. Time wasted.
Oh well…

#8

Ha caught us all out. Never mind :blush: