Is firewire realiable?

  • Thread starter Thread starter bkkornaker
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bkkornaker

bkkornaker

www.bryankmusic.com
i currently have a M-audio delta 66 sound card, and i run my old analog mixer into it, but that limits me to only having 2 inputs (master left/right from the mix console) at the same time into the sound card..................which is fine for me, but down the road, i will want to record a live drum kit...........and that wont do. ill need more inputs to feed into my DAW so i can mix each drum track individually into its own track.

so i was looking into the presonus firestudio.

seems like it will do the trick. But my question is about the firewire. ive never messed with firewire before. is their any thing i should be worried about? like any noticable latency issues? or things like that?
 
bkkornaker said:
i currently have a M-audio delta 66 sound card, and i run my old analog mixer into it, but that limits me to only having 2 inputs (master left/right from the mix console) at the same time into the sound card..................which is fine for me, but down the road, i will want to record a live drum kit...........and that wont do. ill need more inputs to feed into my DAW so i can mix each drum track individually into its own track.

so i was looking into the presonus firestudio.

seems like it will do the trick. But my question is about the firewire. ive never messed with firewire before. is their any thing i should be worried about? like any noticable latency issues? or things like that?
Click to expand...

None that I've noticed. I have a Presonus Inspire that works great for me. :)
 
Firewire has been around for quite some time.

It was designed to carry massive amount of data like VIDEO (which is FAR more bandwidth intensive than audio.)
Some guys at Sweetwater a couple of years ago decided to see how many SIMULTANEOUS inputs they could get going at one time and eventually gave up when the count topped 60....

Personally, I've been using a Motu828mkII, daisy-chained to a firewire drive, for a couple of years on my XP laptop with ZERO problems.


NOTE: Check to see what firewire chipset your interface manufacturer requires.
Many motherboard/laptop manufacturers will use cheap sets and MANY soundcard interface manufacturers will tell you up front that they require TexasInstruments or Lucent firewire chipsets (Motu does..)

Also, I've heard that you should avoid combo USB/Firewire cards as they can be dodgy.

When I bought my laptop I knew I was going to buy an 828mkII and got one that has native TexasInstruments firewire chips.... and I've had ZERO problems.
 
yeah firewire is great, if it' firewire 400 just MAKE SURE that you're plugging it in the right way, it's possible sometimes to accidentally plug it in backwards if you're really jamming it in there without looking, and that could fry the firewire port on your computer or your device Not to worry really, THere's a flat edge and a curved edge so if you look what you're doing it's fine, just some people don't like to look at what they're doing lol.
 
If you're looking at the Presonus Firestudio Project I'd look elsewhere. I just got mine yesterday and it's been causing me grief. The audio distorts, pops, and clicks. I have a Macbook Pro for what it's worth. Supposedly other Mac users are having the same problem as me with their Firestudio's. Maybe you wouldn't have the same problem... just wanted to give you a heads up seeing you mentioned the Firestudio.
 
I also never could get a FireStudio Project working. went through 2 units, had to roll back to OS X 10.4.9 and had help from Ben at Presonus. No dice.

probably will be going with MOTU or other once I save up the $$$. there must be a reason those things are so cheap?

but to answer your question, firewire has been solid on other interfaces I've used.
 
I've been using a Delta 1010 for years so I was very worried about going to Firewire when I decided to get a new set up. There are horror stories after horror stories but a lot of that comes down to how good the drivers are.

I bought a firewire based Yamaha N12 mixer and it's rock solid. I'm tracking at 6ms latency with no pops, clicks or anything bad. So far (knock on wood) for me firewire is working out good.

If you get a firewire unit find out what chipsets they recommend for the firewire card. I did no have built in firewire so I picked up a firewire card with TI chipset.
 
yeah, i need to pick up the firewire card, for my CPU didnt have one.

Im just worried about the horror stories ive also heard that people get their presonus firepods/firestudios.......and could not get them working.

ill guess ill just bite the bullet, and plunge into the firewire realm........and see what happens.

can i use both the firewire unit, and the delta 66 sound card in my CPU at the same time? or can i only have one, or the other?
 
I have documented a nine month ordeal with the presonus firestudio across a few forums. The firepod works ok in singles and some people are reporting some success with multiple units. For our mini mobile we finally tossed the firestudio and went with an RME FF800. First real test someone forgot the external firewire card and we had to use the onboard combo card on the laptop and it still went without a single hitch

http://www.rme-audio.de/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1676
 
I have an RME FireFace 800 and I love it. I run FW400 with no problems.
 
but i noticed the RME 800 nly has 4 XLR inputs, while the presonus has 8. I need ed a minimum of 8 XLR inputs for mike'ing a drum kit.

looking at the price of the RME,......wayyyyyy out of my price range. LOL
 
check out the motu 8pre. Its a screaming deal and allegedly expandable
 
Check out the MOTU 8pre, Focusrite Saffire Pro, and there's one from Alesis too, as well as one from Tascam.
 
ok, so the presonus firestudio, and the Motu 8pre are serious contenders....

which one to choose will be hard. they both seem to be about the same.
 
bkkornaker said:
ok, so the presonus firestudio, and the Motu 8pre are serious contenders....

which one to choose will be hard. they both seem to be about the same.
Click to expand...

I'd do some serious reading about the firestudio, its a Dice 2 unit for one thing, and its "safety" buffer means it will never reach the low latency performance of the RME or MOTU

Presonus makes the most well laid out, most convenient gear in the industry. It kicks ass on paper, but real life can be a different can of worms
 
bkkornaker said:
but i noticed the RME 800 nly has 4 XLR inputs, while the presonus has 8. I need ed a minimum of 8 XLR inputs for mike'ing a drum kit.

looking at the price of the RME,......wayyyyyy out of my price range. LOL
Click to expand...
I wasn't suggesting the RME. My point was to affirm that I don't have any problems using FireWire and neither should you.

That being said, you typically get what you pay for and the RME is stable as hell and the converters are great.
 
mic pres seem to be getting great reviews on the firestudio, which is why this is a hard choice for me..........

They both seem very good,.....im just wondering which one will be most stable when i run it in with my Sonar 6 (PE) and AISO drivers. Ive heard nightmares about it...........

which is why im hesitant to make the plunge in the first place. But this seems to be they way i need to go, for the setup demand that im looking for.
 
bkkornaker said:
mic pres seem to be getting great reviews on the firestudio, which is why this is a hard choice for me..........

They both seem very good,.....im just wondering which one will be most stable when i run it in with my Sonar 6 (PE) and AISO drivers. Ive heard nightmares about it...........

which is why im hesitant to make the plunge in the first place. But this seems to be they way i need to go, for the setup demand that im looking for.
Click to expand...

The Firestudio will NOT work with Sonar. If you buy it anyways, you get what you deserve. Firewire works great on properly built devices such as RME and MOTU. Pres dont mean a thing if you cant record what theyre hooked up to.
 
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