13 replies to this topic

[gosh]

So, id say approximately 76% of people are doing more than 50% of there tune making on laptops these days. And whilst these statistics may seem made up, there is one fact that cannot be ignored. I need a sound card.

Most places suggest firewire is were its at. I dont want to blow a grand on a MOTU, and the net is filled with reviews of devices that are cut and paste jobs from marketing material, there are reviews out there, but I figure this site, with its noble pruposes, coudl do with a thread with title above. Now I know a bit after much research, but if any of you gurus would like to impart some knowlege, i can at least start it off.

The cheap behringer is no good for recording, so acheives very little. The edirol fa-66 and the presonus firebox seem to be the cheapest decent firewire cards worth getting, is this fair?

how much better are they than usb equivalents? is the extra cost worth it? to give an idea of what I, and presumably most new producers want is low latency drivers for vst playback and decent pres for recording vocals, percussion, single instruments etc.

Has anyone used either of these interfaces? It seems some people dislike presonus, whilst others dislike edirol, but i cant work out if they do anything different to one another, let alone if one is better than the other.

also are there other firewire interfaces in the $500 range that i have glaringly neglected, apart from the audiophile, that are worth a look in?

thanks heaps to anyone that bothers to read this, let alone answer.

[Spectrum]

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So, id say approximately 76% of people are doing more than 50% of there tune making on laptops these days. And whilst these statistics may seem made up, there is one fact that cannot be ignored. I need a sound card.

And some say 67% of statistics are made up! ;D

USB 1.1 = No.

USB 2.0 = Potentially Yes.

FireWire = Yes.

How many inputs do you require?

How many outputs do you require?

Do you need microphone preamps?

Do you need digital input / outputs?

Will you ever?

What about hardware? Will you ever want to sync up a synth (ie. MIDI)?

So many questions...

...so many potential answers!

[gosh]

inputs - they say like 6in/6out, but two are digital and what not. basically I might need to record a mic and guitar at once, maybe, or some random percussion thing.
outs, i doubt more than phones and speakers, the abillity to plug in to a club system.

in terms of digital outs and all that, i dont even know what they are used for, or how much money i will eventually spend. I have a usb/midi keyboard, but would like to get a synth at some stage, maybe a korg ms2000, or nord lead, (if anyone has one they might want to sell) sp yeah probably neeed midi. which the presonus doesnt have, or does it on s/pdif or sommat. but the presonus does have dedicated headphone volumne control, and is good for recording. Plus the edirol is red, and looks far to cool which makes me wonder what they are trying to covmake up for.

[dr griff]

My M-audio firewire 410 has been rock solid for two years, never had a problem with it.  The most I ever record is two audio channels at a time though so I don't need much...  Should be able to pick one up on ebay pretty cheap too...

[gosh]

thanks for the advice

[hps909]

i have an FA 66 the thing is bullet proof ...  has 2 entry/mid level mic pre's they don't sound like shit but they aren't neve either, an analog limiter built into the 2 mic/line ins and direct monitoring.. the other 4 ins are 2 analog on rca and a stereo spdif on rca ...  4 outputs are on 1/4" trs and a stereo out on spdif rca + midi i/o .. drivers are rock solid in windows and no drivers are needed under mac os x ... if your on a laptop having a mac is better since it uses core audio .. no driver just works when you plug it in .. and bus powered from the 6 pin FW port found on macs, not pissy 4 pin jobbies that all PC lappies have ( why is that?) .. and blue leds w0o0o0o0o

workable real world latency is about 6 ms at 512 samples.. i've had it down to about 2ms but audio stutters and glitches at low low buffer settings .. i've played live in clubs many many times with it and it stands up everytime super portable aswell

i hear M audio drivers are flakey with some FW chipsets ?

i also hear good things about the presonus card ...

[echosystm]

M-Audio firewire boxes have poor AD/DA. As an ex-M-Audio owner, yes, the drivers are shit. The mixer and meters would often just drop out, the volume knob would stop working (software controlled!) and it would often just disconnect randomly. This happened on two computers, but worked fine at the shop when I tried to take it back. They wouldn't give me a replacement. If you look at how long it has taken them to make Vista drivers, it's pretty obvious this is not one of their strong points. Edirol boxes are slightly better, but not much.

Presonus Fireboxes are really good. They've held the "best budget interface" card for many years. But, Echo AudioFires came onto the scene and changed that. Echo have slightly better AD/DA and are the same price (for an AudioFire 4, which is the same I/O as a Firebox). Echo have an awesome rep for drivers and were among the first to have Vista drivers - almost a year before M-Audio and most other brands, as far as I can remember.

[rhythmboy]

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M-Audio firewire boxes have poor AD/DA. As an ex-M-Audio owner, yes, the drivers are shit. The mixer and meters would often just drop out, the volume knob would stop working (software controlled!) and it would often just disconnect randomly. This happened on two computers, but worked fine at the shop when I tried to take it back. They wouldn't give me a replacement. If you look at how long it has taken them to make Vista drivers, it's pretty obvious this is not one of their strong points.

I can vouch for this on Mac

I got a Firewire Solo in order to use PT M-powered and I get much the same issues as echosystem mentions. Converters are worse than the Audiomedia III it replaced. Output volume is lame. Randomly makes PT go POP! and audio suddenly stops - why? Because the control panel software has randomly set itself to 96kHz SR and external word clock. Requires disconnecting the interface and reinstalling the drivers about once a month or so. This is on Mac OS, so seems no better than Windows drivers.

Saving up for a 003 now...

[SilverStreak]

I'm hearin you all with the m-audio driver thing. I have a pc and have to reboot to get it to see the soundcard sometimes. Dial just stops working after opening cubase. When it works its ok but its a bit glitchy sometimes.

[Spectrum]

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Saving up for a 003 now...

Are you considering the rack or the desktop?

[rhythmboy]

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Are you considering the rack or the desktop?

Most likely the rack. Aside from being cheaper, I'm so ingrained with mouse and keyboard shortcuts that on a desktop interface all I use is the control room volume pot!

[hps909]

Quote

M-Audio firewire boxes have poor AD/DA. As an ex-M-Audio owner, yes, the drivers are shit. The mixer and meters would often just drop out, the volume knob would stop working (software controlled!) and it would often just disconnect randomly. This happened on two computers, but worked fine at the shop when I tried to take it back. They wouldn't give me a replacement. If you look at how long it has taken them to make Vista drivers, it's pretty obvious this is not one of their strong points. Edirol boxes are slightly better, but not much.

Presonus Fireboxes are really good. They've held the "best budget interface" card for many years. But, Echo AudioFires came onto the scene and changed that. Echo have slightly better AD/DA and are the same price (for an AudioFire 4, which is the same I/O as a Firebox). Echo have an awesome rep for drivers and were among the first to have Vista drivers - almost a year before M-Audio and most other brands, as far as I can remember.

edirol are great never had an issue at all in the last 2 1/2 years on mac os or windows solid as a rock and great converters (for the price)

[bruxism]

hey guys, it's probably about time i got involved with this soundcard business.

if i answer spectrum's questions, can someone point me in the right direction?

FireWire = Yes.

How many inputs do you require?  well, at the very least i'd be recording the MPC and a synth at the same time, so maybe 4 inputs.

How many outputs do you require?  the bare minimum i guess, just need playback.

Do you need microphone preamps?  Would be handy i guess.

Do you need digital input / outputs?  Nah, i'm not high tech enough.

Will you ever?  Nor will i ever be.

What about hardware? Will you ever want to sync up a synth (ie. MIDI)?  Midi in/out is necessary so i can trigger visuals.

That's about it.  Something to record live jams with me and a friend in the studio, and then something to take live to trigger visuals.  What's good?

[hps909]

edirol FA 66 http://www.roland.co...A-66/index.html
or prosonus firebox http://www.presonus.com/firebox.html are probably your better choices for around $400