Firewire cards

[pangalactic]

So for the past couple of weeks I've been looking into Firewire audio interfaces - currently I'm looking at either the Presonus Firepod or the MOTU 8pre. And obviously, I've been working on the assumption that my desktop PC had firewire, because I thought that it did. Turns out I was wrong.

My question to you, then, is a relatively simple one. Can anybody recommend me a good firewire card? My system is pretty basic, 1GB RAM with an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ processor. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TimOBrien]

BE SURE to get one with TexasInstruments or Lucent firewire chips.
(Most sound interface manufacturers - especially Motu - demand it to work properly.)

SIIG uses TI chips and I've heard they work well:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815150021

 

[pangalactic]

Thanks, I'll look into that. I'm swinging more towards the MOTU (despite the £100 price increase over the Firepod), so I'll be needing that.

 

[dgatwood]

Thanks, I'll look into that. I'm swinging more towards the MOTU (despite the £100 price increase over the Firepod), so I'll be needing that.

Having owned both, I definitely recommend the 8Pre over the FIREPOD. It's just much more reliable hardware from what I've seen, and a lot more expandable.

 

[Hard2Hear]

Definately a TI chipset firewire card, and definately choose the MOTU. Thr only drawback to the 8pre is that it has only stereo analog outs. But if youre all in the box, that really doesnt matter anyways.

 

[pangalactic]

It's looking like being the 8pre. Has anybody ever used an outboard mixer with it? I much prefer mixing by hand, actually feeling the faders and being able to play with EQ without staring at a screen, over mixing on the computer. Any suggestions?

 

[Hard2Hear]

Then what you want is a control surface, not a mixer. There are several out there, the Mackie is the most popular.

 

[pangalactic]

Which Mackie?

 

[Hard2Hear]

http://www.mackie.com/products/mcupro/splash.html

There are several others at lower and higher price points. But they all allow you to use hands on faders to control whats going on in your software.

 

[pangalactic]

Thanks, I'll look into them. Could be just what I'm after.

 

[pangalactic]

Any thoughts on the Tascam FW-1082? It's a little more within my budget than the Mackie Shame that there's only 4 XLR inputs (ideally I'd want 8 with the option to expand easily, but I can't ask everything for £400ish), but that wouldn't be a huge issue for me. Anybody used this?

 

[Hard2Hear]

Now you're talking interface PLUS Control Surface. The Mackie is control surface only. The 8Pre would be your interface in its case. I'd avoid Tascam in all cases related to computer based recording. (This is coming to you directly from me, a Tascam dealer)
For all-in-ones, I'd prefer something like the M-Audio ProjectMix, or the Digi003.

I think Behringer and some other people out there make just control surfaces for less money than the Mackie. There is an older version of the Mackie that was just discontinued, and you can probably get really good deals on them at places who have old stock left.

 

[pangalactic]

Let's play a game of spot-the-newbie lol. I wasn't sure about the Mackie, but I'd kinda figured that would be the case. Which makes me slightly happy, because I really like the look of the MOTU At the moment I'm on a bit of a fact-finding mission, so I'll probably end up aking lots of very dumb questions. My only experience recording comes from cassette-tape 4tracks and a little bit of sampling in Ableton, so I'm relatively new to computer recording and completely new when it comes to the hardware aspect of it.

As far as control surfaces go, is there any real difference in performance between USB and Firewire? As far as my interface goes I'm pretty set on Firewire, mainly because I want the 8pre. But does it make a difference for a control surface? I'm looking at things like the Behringer BCF2000 at the moment, things that aren't at all expensive but will hopefully get the job done.

 

[dgatwood]

As far as control surfaces go, is there any real difference in performance between USB and Firewire?

For a control surface? Probably not. It's a trickle of data, relatively speaking. You could probably do it over MIDI (31.25kbps).

I don't have a control surface, but I do have a remote controller that I use for starting and stopping and stuff. That would be the Tranzport from Frontier Design Group. It's USB, and apart from occasional range/interference issues, it works quite well.

 

[Bulls Hit]

Thr only drawback to the 8pre is that it has only stereo analog outs. But if youre all in the box, that really doesnt matter anyways.

Those 8 outputs on the firepod come in pretty handy. I use a couple to send to a another amp as an alternative to my monitors for a '2nd opinion' and another couple out through pedals etc. for reamping purposes. They can also be used in a live situation at a gig if you don't have a mixer... I never even thought about it when I got the firepod but I certainly wouldn't want to give them up now

 

[Myriad_Rocker]

I picked up a firewire card at Best Buy. I have no idea what chipset it is. I tried to look...couldn't find it. With it being the only option, I bought it for only $25 or so. Works like a charm with my Fireface 800.

 

[Hard2Hear]

ANY firewire card works with a Fireface. RME's fw chipset is proprietary and its very robust. Its worked with almost anything Ive ever thrown at it.