FIREWIRE or USB connection to audio interface?

C

CiPRi989

New member
Hello everyone, I`m just starting to build my own home studio, i already made my wishlist (within my budget, of course), but I'm not quite sure on the PC configuration yet.

My first question is: how do I get a FIREWIRE connection with this firewire-audiointerface Focusrite Saffire Pro 24? Should it be on the mother-board? or...i don't know. ( I laid my eyes on this one Asus P8Z77-V LK Socket 1155 but it doesn't have a firewire port )

second question: If I give-up the firewire stuff, and I connect the audiointerface through USB, will this increase the latency of my recordings? :confused:

Please help me understand how this things work !


This is the setup that I will be working with:

Intel XEON E3-1230v2
Asus P8Z77-V LK Socket 1155
4 x Kingston 4GB, DDR3, 1333MHz
Intel SSD 330 Series, 120GB, SATA 3, 2.5''
HDD Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM SATA3 etc.

Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 DSP audio interface
Yamaha HS80M studio monitors
M-Audio Axiom Pro 61 USB - MIDI controller
Rode NT1000 etc.

Thanks for your support!
 
A quick google image says your mobo has no firewire port, but all is not lost.

You can buy a pci or pcie firewire expansion card for a few dollars.
There's a preferred chipset for audio, Texas I think??? Look into that before you buy.
 
To answer your other question, USB should not significantly increase your latency. There are settings in the software for it.
 
mjbphotos said:
To answer your other question, USB should not significantly increase your latency. There are settings in the software for it.
Click to expand...

Actually, even if your buffer sizes are the same, that's not necessarily true. Using a USB 1.x interface adds (if my math is correct) a minimum of 1750 microseconds (almost 2 milliseconds) of additional latency (compared with FireWire) just because of the much larger packet size. USB 2.x interfaces don't exhibit that problem, of course.
 
Up to at least 16 tracks, USB2 is fine and offers no significant advantages over Firewire.

Steenamaroo is correct. To add Firewire to a desktop computer is pretty much just a matter of plugging in the appropriate PCI card. Make sure the the chip set used is Texas Instruments--many audio devices are fussy about this.

However, I'd think long and hard about committing to Firewire if I was buying new now. As you may notice, computers with Firewire are becoming few and far between. Adding it is easy with a desktop but less so with laptops--the only way with these is having the appropriate card slot and such slots are also becoming scarce. If the hardware stops catering for Firewire, how long until the interface manufacturers stop supporting it? With USB3 and Thunderbolt on the near horizon (I saw a laptop with USB3 yesterday) I strongly suspect Firewire will be on the way out.

(The above spoken as a current firewire user who is having to take some serious decisions about my own future plans.)
 
I'm pretty sure I can't hear a 1.75 millisecond lag, kudos to you if you can! Anyway, the Focusrite does not have USB, does it?
 
If your monitors are 18 inches from your ears, you're hearing a 1.75ms lag every time you're listening to anything.

(That's my way of saying I agree with mjbphotos. There used to be issues with USB1 but USB2 is absolutely fine and much more universally available than Firewire.)
 
Well of course i can't hear that 1.75 millisecond lag, I was concerned about a much higher latency if i was going to use USB. The Focusrite interface doesn`t have USB indeed,only firewire, but I haven`t bought it yet, I'm still testing the market.

Thanks for answering and helping me! :)
 
CiPRi989 said:
Well of course i can't hear that 1.75 millisecond lag, I was concerned about a much higher latency if i was going to use USB. The Focusrite interface doesn`t have USB indeed,only firewire, but I haven`t bought it yet, I'm still testing the market.
Click to expand...

Actually, you can hear a 1.75 millisecond difference in latency if you're singing through it and using software-based monitoring. Don't get me wrong, you're not hearing the delay itself so much as the difference in phase cancellation caused by it interacting with the direct sound at a different spot in the cycle and creating different comb filtering artifacts, but....

Okay, now I'm just being pedantic. And a bit of a smart aleck. :D
 
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