is it worth it?

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thomas1831

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I currently have the EMU 1820 (not M version) I am thinking about selling this to a friend in order to buy the M-audio Firewire 1814 (jumping on the firewire band wagon) but i want to know if it will be worth it? I know the m-audio does not have balanced ins (on 6 analog ins in the back) but I have an adat a/d converter with mic pres, so i should have enough ins even for drums. With the EMU my system i have recorded 16 tracks at once with out a problem and the sound quality has been ok. Im just wondering If it will be worth it for me to switch to M-Audio, i know having the option of Pro Tools would be nice (i am using cubase sx wich i love) If there are any 1814 users out there please share some experiences....... Thank You
 
Though I've never used one, I've heard lots of rumblings about the FW-1814's driver issues. As far as better conversion, I bet the sound would be pretty close either way. If you're wanting to upgrade from your 1820, then I would maybe hold out for the new products that are coming, such as the Focusrite Saffire Pro 26io, the Presonus FireStudio, or the RME FireFace 400. All of those look to be very promising, and would be a step up from your 1820 as well.
 
im not stuck on firewire just looking to get something protools compatible i have people around here that will only work with studios that are protools equipped (absolutley nuts i would rather sx anyday and i learned on protools) all im looking for is some experiences with the m-audio interface and if they are decent enough to purchase.....thanks for the replies
 
thomas1831 said:
im not stuck on firewire just looking to get something protools compatible i have people around here that will only work with studios that are protools equipped (absolutley nuts i would rather sx anyday and i learned on protools) all im looking for is some experiences with the m-audio interface and if they are decent enough to purchase.....thanks for the replies
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I don't know what the drivers are like on the PC side of things, but I've had various driver problems with M-Audio's FireWire drivers breaking with almost every minor OS update on the Mac side lately. The problem seemed to perfectly coincide with the changes they made to support Pro Tools M-Powered. The drivers haven't been even halfway reliable since they added that.

On my Delta 1010LT, the M-Powered-enabled drivers prevent the machine from going to sleep and previous versions hung on Mac OS X 10.4.3 (or thereabouts), so I ended up downgrading to about a two year old version (which worked just fine until I upgraded to a machine that has no PCI slots).

With the FW1814, older versions just plain wouldn't work, so I'm forced to upgrade the drivers almost every time I upgrade the OS. Seriously fragile driver software.

If there are people who will only work with studios that have ProTools (why!?!), my advice is either go all the way and buy a full-blown Digi setup or download the ProTools Free product, which will work with anyone's hardware. In the first case, it's a real Pro Tools setup. In the second case, just make sure your editor can export OMF. Ta freaking da. Then, you can honestly say that you have Pro Tools, but prefer to use something better. :D
 
When I installed my Firewire Audiophile on WinXP the included drivers didn't work. However as soon as I installed the updated drivers, no problem. I have yet to hear of a brand of device in this veign that has not encountered some form of driver problem. Maybe it's just an unfortuante side effect of uch things, who knows. FireWire is not as fast as PCI, but for the most part that shouldnt be a big problem if you have a fairly robust machine to work with. I don't regeret my purchase at all.
 
I forgot what the difference is but I got the 1820M and I wouldn't trade it for any firewire, the thing is firewire is just cheaper to make and they try to throw it in like its the shizzle but its only 800Mb per second (thats Mega "Bits" not byte's which are bigger) PCI which is what your 1820 is, is 133MB per second (Mega bytes), not trying to insult you itelligence if you know the difference, but why would you settle for less if you've got a great peice of hardware.
 
i have a firewire audiophile and have never had issues with it but Ive never tried the 1814 never been really interested in it since it doesnt have midi. PCI is a little better tho I personally hate EMU cards tho if u need Mpowered Id probably go w/ a Delta 1010 or something
 
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