What's a Firewire?

[Jose_Man]

I know that it's a unit, besides your HD on your laptop, so you don't have to use the Laptops HD to record your music....

But that's all I know, and I don't know if I'm right.

What are they?...How do they Work?(Do they work like say an External Floopy???....

How much are they?...Is it really necessary if I'm gonna do Laptop recordings??

Thanx for your time.
Peace
Jose

[Roel]

Firewire is a protocol used for digital data interchange. Like SCSI, or IDEE.

So, if you have a PC with a firewire port, and you have a recording interface with a firewire port, you can connect those using a firewire cable, and you'll have a working setup. In short.

Do some research on the net if you wanna learn more about this, then, if you have some more specific questions, ask 'em here.

[Roel]

Ow, so firewire is NOT a unit; like your laptop. It's more something like the USB port.

If you use firewire to connect an audio interface to your pc, you'll still be recording the music onto your HD!

[3des]

whatis.com

It's a specification, a standard. Firewire compliant devices use the Firewire "protocol" to transmit data:


http://searchnetworking.techtarget.c...212126,00.html


"...FireWire is Apple Computer's version of a standard, IEEE 1394, High Performance Serial Bus, for connecting devices to your personal computer. FireWire provides a single plug-and-socket connection on which up to 63 devices can be attached with data transfer speeds up to 400 Mbps (megabits per second). The standard describes a serial bus or pathway between one or more peripheral devices and your computer's microprocessor. Many peripheral devices now come equipped to meet IEEE 1394. FireWire and other IEEE 1394 implementations provide: ..."

[Innovations]

Originally posted by Roel
Ow, so firewire is NOT a unit; like your laptop. It's more something like the USB port.

If you use firewire to connect an audio interface to your pc, you'll still be recording the music onto your HD!

Yes, but what I think he is talking about is firewire hard disks. Firewire is a multipurpose interface. It can connect an audio device to your computer, but it could also connect a video camera, a scanner, etc. Think of it as a faster alternative to USB, which is also a multipurpose interface.

[subtractor]

I always thought it was that "detcord" stuff that they blow up buildings with.

[muzeman]

I got this explanation from a Yamaha rep at Sam Ash.

It's the next step up from USB,right now it's 400 Mbps,but will double in speed very soon.
It is to become the standard connection for every external device,and can handle much more information than USB at one time.
Definitly going to be the way to go with audio.

My guess is it's designed to work with high bit and sample rate audio and video.
Probably DVD or better.

The audio we all do will probably be a piece of cake when it's up to it's full potential.
Imagine,recording on a computer with no latency!

[Chris Shaeffer]

Just for the sake of clarity- fire wire has been around quite a bit longer than USB and has been the way to go with audio (and video) for quite some time.

To be fair, USB2 is marginally faster than Firewire 400 on paper. I've read that the overhead require by USB nullifies that advantage. There are very few devices that make use of Firewire 800, if any, at the moment.

So Firewire drives aren't exactly like floppy disks or drives. They are exactly like your harddrive and Windows and Macs see treat them just like your internal harddrive(s). They just connect to your computer with a firewire cable. That means your computer needs a firewire port. Since you can chain firewire devices together, one port works for many firewire devices.

Its pretty slick, actually. I have 2 ports on my laptop, so I 2 drives chained to one of them, and my Digi 002 hooked up to the other. Works like a charm most of the time.

Take care,
Chris

[toyL]

...firewire is data-bus architecture--accessed by way of a 1394 cable...initially, it was designed to provide a fast way to store and retrieve digital video...of course, it handles digital audio quite nicely as well...using an external firewire unit such as a motu can easily eliminate latency problems...it is found on most new pcs and probably macs too...