questions about usb audio interfaces

Veej007

New member
i know usb devices kind of have a bad rap (at least compared to pci), but i'm going to be getting one anyway. here are a few questions.

1 i've heard that using usb for audio can randomly introduce clicks and pops into your audio. i'm buying a firewire drive for storing my audio data, and i'm buying a new firewire/usb2 combo pci card to connect it to. if i plug a usb1.1 audio interface (ie m-audio audiophile usb) into a usb2 port, does the newer, presumably more stable implementation of the usb 1.1 standard minimize this problem? or will i be just as screwed if i would be if i were to use the usb1.1 ports that came installed on my computer?
2 why are there no firewire interfaces geared towards beginners? i'm going to have a free firewire port and would gladly pay a little (note: little) more for a firewire interface in order to get the stability afforded by that protocol... but there don't seem to be many available. i haven't seen any for under about $500 or so.
3 similar to the above, why no usb2 audio interfaces for beginners? edirol has one, but it's $700.
4 i heard that edirol stuff can be kind of picky about the usb chipset you have. when i looked on the website under "approved usb chipsets," however, the description said "the following devices have been approved for usb audio," not "the following will work with our products." so is the problem with edirol or with the chipset manufacturers? (that is, do edirol products require specific chipsets? or are there specific chipsets that are incompatible wiith usb audio, regardless of whether the product is edirol or m-audio or whatever else?)
 
The reason why there's no cheap firewire or USB2 audiointerfaces I think is because no one would buy such a device if it was only capable of handle stereo in and out like the USB1.1 devices, and to be able to handle more channels would mean that there had to be more physical inputs and outputs plus more AD- and DA-converters which, of course, raises the total costs of such a device way above the beginner price range.
 
i suppose i can understand that. i wish there was an outboard beginner interface that, while perhaps lacking some of the more advanced options typically associated with higher bandwidth, would at least give me some sort of recording stability, free of clicks and pops.

i mean, really. does a usb2 connection cost THAT much more than a usb1?

anyone wanna chime in on the other questions?

thanks!
 
You are right.... The USB has its limitations. Stereo in and stereo out.....well most of them anyway.... I have set up a small studio and decided to go with a FireWire as it gave me multiple outs...as long as you are ok with routing different channels that all end up a stereo left or right then go with the USB. But if you want some options with outputs then my advice is go with a FireWire interface.
 
Congrats, newbie dgcamden, you resurrected a 9-year-old thread! Current USB 2 interfaces work find for multitrack recording, are not limited to stereo and do not introduce noises into the process. Technology has come a long way!
 
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