firewire or USB?

  • Thread starter Thread starter joseph123
  • Start date Start date
J

joseph123

New member
Hi :) Im looking for an interface within about $300. I dont really know what firewire is or if my laptop has a port for it. I read USB had more bandwith, but it shares it with whatever else is on the USB card. I wont have anything else plugged in to USB, but i dont know if other stuff is connected internally to the card that would make it slower. Any help or recommendations would be great! Thank you
 
I have always been told firewire was faster, but Im not sure if it really is or not you would have to google it. And firewire is abbreviated IEEE and the symbol for it is a circle that looks like it has 3 = around it
 
fire wire is a smige faster... but it seems to be fading fast... fewer and fewer boxes have them natively so ya might need an add in card... and with the new usb3 spec starting to get off the ground it doesn't look good for firewire...
 
Firewire is way faster than Usb and it looks like this
firewire1_small.jpg
 
Speed has nothing to do with it. FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 have more than enough bandwidth for any feasible number of channels. The problem with USB is that the bus controller is exceptionally dumb, leaving it up to the CPU to do all the work of copying data around. By contrast, FireWire has support for DCL programs that run on the FireWire chipset itself, so (assuming the driver is written correctly) the CPU doesn't get involved until much later in the process.

This is a significant win since the most critical part of the handling of audio data is copying the data from the interface to an in-memory ring buffer with sufficiently low latency to avoid pops and crackles. As a result, for high-end audio, there is no substitute for FireWire. USB 3.0 is no better in this regard.

The only question is, "Is USB good enough?" And the answer to that depends in large part upon how fast your CPU is, whether you are doing projects with large numbers of tracks, whether you are using internal or external hard drives (in particular, USB for audio drives is a non-starter because USB doesn't have true DMA support), and how many tracks you intend to record at the same time. A good rule of thumb is to not go past about two channels with USB 1.1 interfaces, and not go past about eight channels with USB 2.0 interfaces.

Also, be aware that not all USB interfaces are created equal. There are a number of broken USB 2.0 interfaces that use the USB 1.1 audio spec over a USB 2.0 pipe. If you can avoid those, you should do so. Look for a class-compliant USB 2.0 interface. In the long run, you'll have fewer problems if your interface is USB 2.0 audio-class-compliant.

BTW, I don't know why folks seem to think FireWire is "fading fast". In the consumer space, it is declining, but that's just because the average consumer doesn't care about performance; the average consumer only cares about initial purchase cost. That's not the case in pro audio or pro video, and FireWire is still quite strong (and growing) in those areas last I checked, though USB is making a few inroads (with varying degrees of success). Of course, for disks, eSATA has an edge in both price and performance (and always will) over FireWire, and a HUGE edge over USB (even 3.0), so if you're thinking about adding external disks, go eSATA if you can.
 
BTW, I don't know why folks seem to think FireWire is "fading fast". In the consumer space, it is declining, but that's just because the average consumer doesn't care about performance; the average consumer only cares about initial purchase cost. That's not the case in pro audio or pro video, and FireWire is still quite strong (and growing) in those areas last I checked, though USB is making a few inroads (with varying degrees of success). Of course, for disks, eSATA has an edge in both price and performance (and always will) over FireWire, and a HUGE edge over USB (even 3.0), so if you're thinking about adding external disks, go eSATA if you can.


hell man even apple doesn't use it anymore... so if the consumer side doesnt support it it may hang in there a little longer based o specialty use but without native ports newbs will steer clear of it and then it's days are numbered... i'm still useing it.. and you may too... but when were you and i mainstream???
 
Speed has nothing to do with it. FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 have more than enough bandwidth for any feasible number of channels. The problem with USB is that the bus controller is exceptionally dumb, leaving it up to the CPU to do all the work of copying data around. By contrast, FireWire has support for DCL programs that run on the FireWire chipset itself, so (assuming the driver is written correctly) the CPU doesn't get involved until much later in the process.

This is a significant win since the most critical part of the handling of audio data is copying the data from the interface to an in-memory ring buffer with sufficiently low latency to avoid pops and crackles. As a result, for high-end audio, there is no substitute for FireWire. USB 3.0 is no better in this regard.

The only question is, "Is USB good enough?" And the answer to that depends in large part upon how fast your CPU is, whether you are doing projects with large numbers of tracks, whether you are using internal or external hard drives (in particular, USB for audio drives is a non-starter because USB doesn't have true DMA support), and how many tracks you intend to record at the same time. A good rule of thumb is to not go past about two channels with USB 1.1 interfaces, and not go past about eight channels with USB 2.0 interfaces.

Also, be aware that not all USB interfaces are created equal. There are a number of broken USB 2.0 interfaces that use the USB 1.1 audio spec over a USB 2.0 pipe. If you can avoid those, you should do so. Look for a class-compliant USB 2.0 interface. In the long run, you'll have fewer problems if your interface is USB 2.0 audio-class-compliant.

BTW, I don't know why folks seem to think FireWire is "fading fast". In the consumer space, it is declining, but that's just because the average consumer doesn't care about performance; the average consumer only cares about initial purchase cost. That's not the case in pro audio or pro video, and FireWire is still quite strong (and growing) in those areas last I checked, though USB is making a few inroads (with varying degrees of success). Of course, for disks, eSATA has an edge in both price and performance (and always will) over FireWire, and a HUGE edge over USB (even 3.0), so if you're thinking about adding external disks, go eSATA if you can.

This post should be a sticky. It's concise and easy to understand, and as far as I know it's 100% accurate.

We need an HR Wiki for stuff like this.
 
hell man even apple doesn't use it anymore... so if the consumer side doesnt support it it may hang in there a little longer based o specialty use but without native ports newbs will steer clear of it and then it's days are numbered... i'm still useing it.. and you may too... but when were you and i mainstream???

I know forsure some laptops on the PC side are shipping without.

It seams that any on board stuff is crap anyway. I know the one on my motherboard was. For me it was like pulling teeth getting a FW PCI card with the right chipset. So I think it will be around but you'll need a specific PCI card, which really isn't any different than it is now.
 
hell man even apple doesn't use it anymore...

What are you talking about? Almost all Macs have FireWire. The only exceptions are the Air family (which are too thin and have too small a battery to realistically support FireWire) and the non-pro MacBook. Every other Mac model has FireWire.
 
i'll look for the link... i just read some stuff a couple of days ago... may have tom's hardware... i'm ready for a new build and most all the boards ive been seeing have not had fw... one actually had 12 usb's though...:eek:
 
i'll look for the link... i just read some stuff a couple of days ago... may have tom's hardware... i'm ready for a new build and most all the boards ive been seeing have not had fw... one actually had 12 usb's though...:eek:

You probably don't want the on board one anyway. You want a firewire card (or on board) that has a Texas Instruments chipset.
 
Forget both USB & Firewire. Just just the builtin microphone on your laptop. :D:spank::D
 
You probably don't want the on board one anyway. You want a firewire card (or on board) that has a Texas Instruments chipset.

that was a big issue several year sgo... especialy the via chips set... seems that's been sussed out pretty well by now as even the tascam site recommends vias now...
 
that was a big issue several year sgo... especialy the via chips set... seems that's been sussed out pretty well by now as even the tascam site recommends vias now...

I just went through this issue last year with a brand new PC I built specifically for recording. I was dealing with a presonus firestudio, and they also listed a couple VIA chipsets. The onboard FW caused me all sorts of problems. I got a card with the TI chipset they recomended and it works flawlessly. So I know it's still an issue.
 
Use firewire, - usb can pick up noises from you pc or laptop

So can FireWire if the interface isn't designed right and your computer is noisy enough. :)

Interfaces that aren't bus-powered (big FireWire or USB interfaces with a wall wart or an IEC C13 cord) are much less likely to have such problems than interfaces that are bus-powered.
 
Back
Top