| Author
|
Firewire vs. USB
|
offthenutboom
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
55
Posts :
928
Posted : Mar 29, 2005 01:42
|
I was recommended this souncard by a friend.
new edirol ua25
But, It connects through USB. i want something portable and good. Another friend freaked because the card was USB and recommended a M-Audio connecting through firewire.
Anyone out there can help??? |
|
|
Meta
Meta/Boomslang
Started Topics :
24
Posts :
1045
Posted : Mar 29, 2005 03:16
|
Yeah, why is firewire supposed to be so much better?
I hear all kinds of people say firewire is better for an external audio interface, yet just as many people have had tons of problems with M-audio interfaces, can never find the problem and complain that they suck. I have a dinky little Tascam USB ASIO box that isn't fancy, but it does what it claims as far as low latency and never crashes or freaks out.
Does anyone have specific statistics/specs or whatever, as to why firewire is so much better for audio? I know in general the hardware supports a somewhat higher data transfer rate than USB 2.0, but do audio apps even use this extra bandwidth? Any solid info aside from "yeah man firewire is way better it will help you ppl rite your traxx PEACE" is greatly appreciated. Gracias
 http://soundcloud.com/aeon604
http://www.metaekstasis.com/
http://the1134.com/ |
|
|
|
piXan
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
107
Posts :
807
Posted : Mar 29, 2005 04:05
|
simple :
if u have a mac firewire is the best because it was desigened for this system
for pc u have to check tghe compatibility of ur system with the firewire interface,,, believe me because i have owned 2 firewire interfaces,,, and this is more clear for laptop pc ( firewire in my experience just isnt compatible) ... with desktop pc is a lot better..+
(i tried a maudio audiophile firewire and a motu 828 mkII)
firewire is way faster than usb,,, thats a fact,,( u can check the spects everywhere if u surf a litlle on the matter) , but check the compatility with ur cpu always first if u can
for pc i would aviod usb (id get pci or pcmia) more reliable/cheaper/better
www.soundcloud.com/elektroakustica/sets/downtempo/ |
|
|
|
Surrender
IsraTrance Team
Started Topics :
506
Posts :
5388
Posted : Mar 29, 2005 04:37
|
im not 100% happy with my m-audio firewire 410..... i wouldnt recommend it really...
i have a pc and it does all strange things.... i have to give it a daily supply of virgins so it doesnt get mad at me and stops to work.
"On the other hand, you have different fingers."
http://myspace.com/gadimon |
|
|
|
chillaca
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
16
Posts :
19
Posted : Mar 29, 2005 05:09
|
|
I heard from a guy in an audio shop, that in Firewire connections the transfer data works about 400MB/second and in USB connections, it´s about 40MB/second. |
|
|
|
Meta
Meta/Boomslang
Started Topics :
24
Posts :
1045
Posted : Mar 29, 2005 06:21
|
Well there's a big difference between USB and USB 2.0.
USB 2.0 is roughly equivalent to firewire speed, probably not quite as fast but I know from experience using external USB 2.0 & Firewire hard drives that they are both in the same general range. But yes USB 1.1 is 10x slower.
Pixan brings a good point, it's probably a fair assumption that everyone that strongly recommended Firewire interfaces to me in the past were probably Mac users. Most of the people I recall having trouble were PC users. And I can certainly attest that all the Firewire adapters I use @ work on PCs have a hard time doing basic shit w/ Firewire cards...
Surrender, was yours crashing on you? Mubali had problems with his and continutes to still I think... But so does Chromatone and he is a mac user. Hmmm. http://soundcloud.com/aeon604
http://www.metaekstasis.com/
http://the1134.com/ |
|
|
|
Surrender
IsraTrance Team
Started Topics :
506
Posts :
5388
Posted : Mar 29, 2005 09:01
|
Aeon that was/is me - i really am considering at this point to either sell on ebay and get an rme or maybe emagic.... 
and yes, the people who recommended it to me probably didnt even think that maybe it works badly for pc.....i wish they did. spoiled mac people!
"On the other hand, you have different fingers."
http://myspace.com/gadimon |
|
|
|
Carthago
Started Topics :
4
Posts :
31
Posted : Mar 29, 2005 13:43
|
Quote:
|
i have to give it a daily supply of virgins so it doesnt get mad at me and stops to work.
|
|
LOL!!!
p.s. : get an RME, you wont regret it. |
|
|
|
Colin OOOD
Moderator
Started Topics :
95
Posts :
5380
Posted : Mar 29, 2005 14:58
|
Firewire is 400Mb/sec and USB 2.0 is 480Mb/sec max, but in practise FW is still faster because of the way it is designed. Either Firewire or USB2.0 audio interfaces should give perfectly fine performance if they're designed properly (unlike, say, the M-Audio FW410 which is fine on my system but gives many people headaches!). However, if you buy a USB interface you must make sure that it's USB 2.0 operating at high speed.
Just to make things even more complicated, there is a new generation of Firewire now available that works at 800Mb/sec but there aren't many interfaces available yet that use it (RME is the only one, I think).
Also, yes, get an RME for pure audio joy. Mastering - http://mastering.OOOD.net :: www.is.gd/mastering
OOOD 5th album 'You Think You Are' - www.is.gd/tobuyoood :: www.OOOD.net
www.facebook.com/OOOD.music :: www.soundcloud.com/oood
Contact for bookings/mastering - colin@oood.net |
|
|
|
offthenutboom
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
55
Posts :
928
Posted : Mar 29, 2005 17:38
|
Thanks everyone, now my head is a tad more clear with the sound card. I will check the RME  |
|
|
|
DJ Buju
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
70
Posts :
1334
Posted : Mar 30, 2005 01:41
|
Quote:
|
On 2005-03-29 09:01, Surrender wrote:
and yes, the people who recommended it to me probably didnt even think that maybe it works badly for pc.....i wish they did. spoiled mac people!
|
|
Spoiled and we love it !! 
And i'd go firewire all the way...
A lot more reliable for data transfer the usb and now with the firewire 800 what more do you need...
Bom BOm
BUju
www.domorecords.com
www.myspace.com/domorec
www.myspace.com/tupanrecords |
|
|
|
mubali
Mubali
Started Topics :
71
Posts :
2219
Posted : Mar 30, 2005 02:20
|
Yeah, mine still occasionally decides it doesn't like me anymore. I have a FW 410 and occasionally it won't process audio and likes to glitch up on me. There have been many occasions where the entire comp needs to be restarted. And even then, it would occasionally not work right then. Currently, it seems to be behaving itself, but you never know when it's gonna go bipolar on ya. In hindsight, I don't really need 4 ins (2 analog) and 10 outs (8 analog) but now that I have spent the $ on it, I'm gonna use it till it completely quits and buy a RME.
An Eagle may soar, but Weasels don't get sucked into jet engines. |
|
|
|
Dharma Lab
Started Topics :
8
Posts :
342
Posted : Mar 30, 2005 19:50
|
As a PC user for many years, I've found firewire to be more reliable for many reasons:
1) More peripherals run on USB than Firewire, so you may be running a mouse and keyboard as well, which is just simply more traffic.
2) Microshaft USB registry entries are limited, and get confused easily when you start swapping the same device into different USB port. The more USB ports you have, the worse it seems to get, and so you sometimes hook up a device, and it doesn't ID it properly, and doesn't load the driver.
3) IT'S ALL ABOUT THE SUSTAINED TRANSFER RATES! Sure, USB 2 has a faster burst rate, but firewire usually handles sustained transfer rates better. Here's a perfect, real-life test I ran:
My maxtor personal storage 120GB 7200RPM drive yielded these results (in MB/Sec)
USB2 connection: Read= 15.14 Write=19.98
Firewire: Read=30 Write= 26.99
Quite a difference with the same drive!
To my knowledge, no consumer harddrive will sustain a transfer rate higher than 55 or 60 MB/sec.
My 7200 RPM IDE drive was:
Read= 34.86 Write=22.44
My 7200 RPM SATA drive was:
Read= 52.01 Write=53.71
After using a m-audio delta 1010 & the FW 410, I will never buy a M-Audio soundcard again! I've had moderate success with their midi controllers.
Keep The Faith,
Christian K. |
|
|
|
fregle
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
11
Posts :
982
Posted : Mar 31, 2005 15:47
|
|
u have firewire 800 and 400, the numbers represent the speed in Mhz. USB2.0 is 480Mhz max, but only at full speed (high speed is a farce to make people believe it operates as usb2.0 but it doesn't... I got this info from my employer, was very surprised to hear it). Firewire (or iLink, or DV, or IEEE1394) is the oldest en most tried and true protocol, it's been used for years before it even came to the pc so it's finetuned and the knowledge about it is much greater... So go with firewire, it's the best... |
|
|
|
Fragletrollet
Fragletrollet
Started Topics :
111
Posts :
1748
Posted : Mar 31, 2005 17:02
|
|
As a general my wxperience is that USB(2.0) is more unstable and much more a bother than Firewire to set up. USB (2.0) dont have the bandwith to for ex. record&playback at the same time, wich firewire does. USB2.0 also is also often quite buggy with it's drivers, never experienced that with firewire. |
|
|
|
