Firewire interface for laptop recording?!?!

  • Thread starter Thread starter therealside
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therealside

therealside

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Ok, I just ordered an AMD 3000+ Sempron 2.0 Ghz laptop with 512MB, 1394 port, 4 USB's, etc... I am looking for a firewire recorder that I can use while mobile and also play live with...Maybe use the stereo 1/4 out mains for going into a board or something....

Anyways, here are the contenders, see if anything is better recommended:

Hercules 1612 FireWire I/O Computer Recording System ($599.00)
Presonus 10/10 Firepod ($599.95)
Edirol FA-101 FireWire Audio Capture Interface ($499.00)
M-Audio Firewire 410 Mobile Recording Interface ($399.00)


I am not listing the M-box or anything USB because I am looking for the best performance out of the laptop situation and have heard fireire is the way to go... Thanks for the help...
 
One important thing you've left out is how many inputs/outputs you want or need, and whether you're planning on expanding in the future or not. I was perfectly happy with my M-Audio Firewire 410...until I needed more inputs. Now I'm running a Motu 828mkII and it does great.

Should you decide that the Firewire 410 is what you want, I have my used Firewire 410 for sale if you want it. $300.00 for the box and shipping to anywhere in the continental US and Canada. I can give you more details and have pics if you're interested.

It's obvious that my opinion is biased toward the Firewire 410, but honestly, I was perfectly happy with it. The only reason I went up to the Motu was for more inputs, and there are several things about the Motu that I'm not happy with. I'll let other people give more unbiased opinions.
 
Speaking of the more inputs...I love audio interfaces that you can double up on. Presonus is marketing that both their firepod and firebox devices can have a second unit daisy chained for more IO. That's a pretty big thing that's making me lean toward the Firepod in my own laptop equipment hunt for my 3 day old laptop...
 
Sklathill said:
Speaking of the more inputs...I love audio interfaces that you can double up on. Presonus is marketing that both their firepod and firebox devices can have a second unit daisy chained for more IO. That's a pretty big thing that's making me lean toward the Firepod in my own laptop equipment hunt for my 3 day old laptop...
Click to expand...
You can do that with both the M-Audio Firewire 410 and also with most of Motu's equipment.
 
Well, I expect that from MOTU. OTOH, M-Audio doesn't make that possibility clear in their marketing copy.
 
I guess I should mention too, I want a built in MIDI I/O for my soft-synths to play live too... no sense hogging up a usb with my midiman!!!

I guess I would need to know also which would have the best mic pre's too, just for the sake of headroom and using a condenser (AT 4033)...

Thanks!
 
You might wanna check out MOTU's Traveler interface too, it looks like it was designed for portability and labtop use...
 
How about the Presonus Firebox?!?! This is the same maker of the firepod, but with less ins/outs. I multitrack anyways and this one is only $400... Which has the best A/D converters do you think, the M Audio 410 or this Firebox by Presonus... I want a kickin preamp with decent headroom, so that's a key factor as well as ASIO compatibility. I have a Delta 66 on my PC and the drivers took forever to stop buggin out on me. I still don't get as low latency as promised with it, so I was a bit sore with them, but overall it works nice...

Thanks
 
i have the firepod. It works perfectly. Sounds very good as well. From what I have heard the convertors are top notch and the preamps are class A, very clean sounding. I use it with an IBM t42 pentium m1.7, 512 ram, firewire card through pcmcia slot.

It sounds very good on DI bass and my tube mxl v69 mogami mic. No complaints, especially for the great price.
 
crosstudio said:
i have the edirol fa-101 and the tascam fw-1884. i dig both, and am happy with the money i spent. i just wish my laptop had a 6-pin interface
Click to expand...

Why not just use a pcmcia firewire adapter? :confused:
 
Yeah, I have a firewire 6 pin in my laptop coming monday (got a 2Ghz AMD Sempron 3000+, DVD/CDRW, 15", 512MB DDRAM upgradeable to 2GB, 4 USB ports, WINXP Pro, All for $850!!!)...

It looks like I may go with the Presonus firepod, I mean for $599 and it comes with a free 80 GB Hard Drive and a $100 condenser mic!!! I can't beat it with a stick!

Can't Wait!!!!
 
hey Clit do you know for sure that the pcmcia will deliver power to the 5 & 6th pins? because i don't see that on the feature list of any of the cards that i've seen advertised.

if so, can you tell me which brand?
 
crosstudio said:
hey Clit do you know for sure that the pcmcia will deliver power to the 5 & 6th pins? because i don't see that on the feature list of any of the cards that i've seen advertised.

if so, can you tell me which brand?
Click to expand...

Sorry, I wasn't clear that it was the power issue you were referring to (duhhh 6pin) :o

Anyways, I'm not sure if there are any cards that will supply the proper power, I always thought the issue was with the majority of notebook cardbus controllers being incapable of supplying enough voltage, and not the actual PCMCIA Card, but I'm probably wrong.

I've got a card myself, but unfortunately I have nothing to power up to test.
 
therealside said:
Yeah, I have a firewire 6 pin in my laptop coming monday (got a 2Ghz AMD Sempron 3000+, DVD/CDRW, 15", 512MB DDRAM upgradeable to 2GB, 4 USB ports, WINXP Pro, All for $850!!!)...

It looks like I may go with the Presonus firepod, I mean for $599 and it comes with a free 80 GB Hard Drive and a $100 condenser mic!!! I can't beat it with a stick!

Can't Wait!!!!
Click to expand...

Where are you finding this deal? I'm looking at getting the firepod myself for my laptop...
 
the one and only musiciansfriend.com

They have the firepod deal right now, but they don't have stock until Feb 7th, but I ordered it anyways so I don't miss out on the freebies!!!

(impatiently waiting) :rolleyes:
 
I have a question about the Firepod. What is the second firewire port on the back for? Could you hook up an external hard drive to it as to not bog down your machine with audio files? I've got a 250 GB LaCie firewire hard drive that I've been using with ProTools & the Mbox and it has worked great, but my mac only has the one firewire port. Anyway, my question is, what is this second port for?
 
Exactly! I daisy chain a harddrive to my firepod, and use it to record on. The second use for it is to hook a 2nd firepod up for a total of 16 tracks.

Buy the facking firepod
 
crosstudio said:
hey Clit do you know for sure that the pcmcia will deliver power to the 5 & 6th pins?
Click to expand...
No, the PCMCIA bus doesn't support that.
 
I've been looking at purchasing the Hercules 1612fw..... but one thing they have failed to mention in the specs on the website is whether it is firewire bus powered or not......

I would also like to know whether i can use all 16 channels at once and record them all.........

I know it is noobish but I'd rather know than not know.....

Ta
 
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