FW410 Connectivity

  • Thread starter Thread starter Azheim
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Azheim

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Hey all,

I'm about to buy an FW 410. It seemes like the best fit for me because I need ASIO support for running VSTs, and it comes with Midi onboard so I don't need to waste money getting a Midi interface. I ran a Delta 44 on my desktop, but now that I have a laptop I want something that will run on it (duh.) Anyway, I had pretty much decided to buy the card when a friend said to me "Hey, your firewire port is a mini. Are you sure that that soundcard will run through firewire mini?" I am ashamed to admit that I didn't even know there was more than one kind of firewire. I'm wondering whether the FW 410 will be compatible with any type of firewire, or just the regular type.

BTW, I'm just assuming that he was right about my port being mini - it's about half the size of a USB port.

Any advice would be awesomely appreciated. I'm going to try and order this soundcard tonight or tommorrow.

Thank you,

Azheim

BTW, if anyone has a soundcard that they would SERIOUSLY recommend above the FW 410, I welcome advice... especially if the FW 410 won't be compatible with my laptop.
 
You should be able to use a 4 pin to 6 pin FireWire cable or adapter.
You just won't be able to use bus power. You'll need to use the power supply that comes with it.
You may even wish to consider the E-MU 1616 or it's big brother the E-MU 1616M (better converters).
Granted, they are a bit more $$ but you get a greater feature set. Not mention more I/O. The 410 only gives you 2 analog inputs. The other two are digital S/PDIF.
On the up-side, you'll still have your FireWire port available for an external hard drive to record to.
 
If the connection with the cable adapter doesn't work out, then you'll probably have to get a cardbus firewire card. You can pick these up for relatively cheap, so it's not that big of a deal.

Some other considerations would be the Presonus Firebox, or the Edirol Fa-66. I owned a presonus Firepod for a while and it worked fantastic. I only switched because I needed more connectivity (ADAT mostly). But while I had it, it was a nice sounding, stable piece of gear, so I'm sure that the Firebox is the same.
 
I use a FW-410 at home with my laptop using a 6 pin to 4 pin adaptor cable, I have no problems with it, as someone else said, the other two pins are just for the bus power.

:)
 
Azheim said:
BTW, if anyone has a soundcard that they would SERIOUSLY recommend above the FW 410, I welcome advice... especially if the FW 410 won't be compatible with my laptop.
Click to expand...

It depends on your budget. There are so many firewire interfaces out there that I almost long for the days when you just bought a MOTU and that was about it! You can go anywhere from a couple hundred dollars up to the $1,500-$2,000 range if you are looking for better built-in preamps, better DA/AD converters, more IN/OUT options (including digital, wordclock, etc.), or add ons like DSP processing. You might consider your long term needs here before going with the 410. M-Audio has a good reputation in the budget soundcard area, but you may want more inputs--especially if you ever decide to mic a drum kit or multiple musicians. Better mic preamps and better converters are always a plus, although you can probably add both later on using the 410's analog line IN (provided it bypasses the preamp) and the digital connectors (I think the 410 has both SPDIF and Optical IN).
 
Thank you for the advice/info. I bought the FW 410 with more confidence after hearing from you all. I may post to let you know how it worked out for me. Thank you for the reccomendation dwillis. Thinking about my future needs is something I don't do enough of. :P

I appreciated the fast and helpful responses guys. Thanks again.

Azhiem
 
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