laptop soundcard - usb, firewire, or pcmcia?

[muze]

I know this is a really general question, but I'm trying to figure out where to start in terms of a soundcard for my laptop. Which potentially offers the best bandwidth/performance, usb, firewire, or pcmcia?

Also I have a 4 pin firewire port on my laptop, is there an adapter or do firewire interfaces already fit it?

 

[bigwillz24]

I think you will find alot of firewire devices that will suit you.

The bandwidth is a little faster with the pcmia but firewire gets the job done.

You shouldn't need an adapter... Just pick the right cable.

 

[ssscientist]

Also I have a 4 pin firewire port on my laptop, is there an adapter or do firewire interfaces already fit it?

You'll need external power for whatever firewire interface you get. The 4 pin ports do not supply power.

Also, if you have a firewire port on your laptop you probably have USB 2.0 ports too. They are just as fast and reliable as firewire but interfaces that take advantage of the 10-fold speed increase over USB 1.1 are still pretty rare.

I'm looking seriously at upgrading to one of these in the near future.

 

[muze]

Also, if you have a firewire port on your laptop you probably have USB 2.0 ports too. They are just as fast and reliable as firewire but interfaces that take advantage of the 10-fold speed increase over USB 1.1 are still pretty rare.

I assume the Presonus you linked to is USB 2.0, are there any other offerings that you know of?

 

[crosstudio]

muze: the presonus firebox is firewire not usb.

i've got the edirol fa-101 and it works great. i've had it for over 6 months now and its been rock solid. i use it to record other musicians outside of my studio room.

i had the tascam us-428, and that was a pretty good doo-hicky especially since my mixer was analog, so i could use the 428 for "field" recording, and also as a tactile mixer in the studio room... but it didn't/doesn't have a pre-amp.

once i got the tascam fw-1884 the 428 was surplus so i sold it on ebay and got the fa-101. the pre-amp on the fa-101 is pretty darn good. not as good as an FMR RNP, but just as good as the pre's i had on my mackie 1604vlz pro.

i use to have an M-Audio usb something or other that supposedly had the same mic-pre's in it as the M-Audio DMP3. the mic-pre's sounded good on that little box, but the software drivers were crap, so i sent it back.

 

[Markaholic]

i bought the tascam us-122 usb card for my laptop and it works flawless for a 2 track setup..no complaints..its got 2 pre's 2 inserts and 2 guitar 1/4" jacks..and the price is 200 bucks...cant go wrong with that!

 

[muze]

Well this card is going to be for performing live with my laptop, so I only need a two channel interface w/MIDI. If it's going to be USB then it should be 2.0. Oh, and I want to stay away from Emu.

 

[muze]

But then again... just found the Edirol UA-101, it's USB 2.0 and half rack space 10 in 10 out. Could also be used at home to replace my Emu 1820m (hate hate hate the Emu software/cp)

 

[Markaholic]

Well this card is going to be for performing live with my laptop, so I only need a two channel interface w/MIDI. If it's going to be USB then it should be 2.0. Oh, and I want to stay away from Emu.

the us-122 has midi as well

 

[muze]

yes, but it's not usb 2.0

 

[muze]

You'll need external power for whatever firewire interface you get. The 4 pin ports do not supply power.

If I get a PCMCIA card that provides 6 pin firewire, will it have phantom power and work with any firewire interface I throw at it?

RME makes a PCMCIA interface that you can buy by itself:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/search/detail/base_pid/240314/src=01340
but I'm guessing it only works with RME firewire interfaces, anyone know?

 

[Markaholic]

yes, but it's not usb 2.0

with it only recording 2 track simutaneously....1.0 and 2.0 dont make a difference...throwing a pcmcia card on-top of another unit seems pointless to me...unless you have firewire port built into your laptop...i think firewire is not the way to go in your case

 

[muze]

Well I will be using it to output softsynths and things like live, RMX, while if possible simultaneously recording the performance. Low latency is important. I could certainly go with firewire, but I'm really bothered by the lack of phantom power from the 4 pin jack. It's another thing that needs to be plugged in, and most likely a thin easily pulled out wire, with a lump in the line... Already have to deal with that with the laptop. So that's why I'm trying to focus on USB 2.0 or PCMCIA.

 

[dgatwood]

Well I will be using it to output softsynths and things like live, RMX, while if possible simultaneously recording the performance. Low latency is important. I could certainly go with firewire, but I'm really bothered by the lack of phantom power from the 4 pin jack.

You mean bus power, not phantom power. Phantom power has nothing to do with the interface to the computer.... Unless you're planning to record somewhere without 110VAC power, don't worry about the lack of bus power. Most firewire audio interfaces can take an external power supply.

For that matter, you're less likely to pick up electrical noise from the computer if you use an external power supply anyway. I've known people with firewire interfaces and desktop machines that use a 6-to-4 and a 4-to-6 adapter just for that reason.

It's another thing that needs to be plugged in, and most likely a thin easily pulled out wire, with a lump in the line... Already have to deal with that with the laptop. So that's why I'm trying to focus on USB 2.0 or PCMCIA.

Neither. You're choosing between a 1988 Volvo (CardBus) stationwagon, a 2005 2CV with a jet engine strapped on the back (USB), or a Porsche (FireWire), all at relatively similar prices. Buy the Porsche....

CardBus is already being replaced by a new standard in a lot of laptops, called NewCard or ExpressCard (http://www.answers.com/topic/pcmcia). The new standard is not physically compatible with the old cards, unlike CardBus and PCMCIA. Count on (at most) a couple of years usage if you go with CardBus. HP laptops have already adopted the new bus.

USB wasn't designed for high-speed data. USB 2.0 is basically a fast version of the original USB design, which, while perfectly fine for low-speed devices, results in significant CPU loading for high-speed devices.

USB has no true isochronous mode. Its isoch mode does not provide any bandwidth guarantees (unlike FireWire). That means you will get dropouts if too much other stuff is happening on the bus or if your CPU is under heavy load....

USB doesn't require devices to have a GUID (globally unique ID). This means that drivers of those devices can't reliably reassociate such devices with a given driver instance (unlike FireWire, where all devices have a GUID). Of course, some do have a GUID, but it isn't consistent across the market.

Basically, USB is inexpensive, so a lot of manufacturers use it, but it is completely the wrong bus technology for reliable audio delivery. Most of the time, it works, of course. Computers are rarely near their maximum CPU utilization. That said, the type of people who are using their computers for recording are precisely the folks who regularly use their machines to their maximum capacity. There's a reason so many recording engineers buy FireWire interfaces even at higher prices than USB. They really are worth the extra money.

Some articles about USB vs. FireWire:

http://www.elecdesign.com/Articles/Print.cfm?ArticleID=8044
http://www.oxsemi.com/whitepapers/970AudioTests_Web.pdf
http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/13/2232250&mode=nested&tid=137&tid=141&tid=188

 

[muze]

So firewire is the way to go. I really wish they had put a 6 pin firewire port on my laptop instead of the 4 pin. My friend's 4 pin port crapped out on him for no reason, and plus it doesn't provide power.

But for the reason's you so succinctly outlined, I'll go with firewire and plug it in. Guess that gives me alot more choices.

Anything about firewire 400 vs 800 I should know about, i.e. is 800 really better, and which format dominates the market?

 

[Nakatira]

go with firewire and get the presonus firepod, its amazing, at least from my point of view.
I`ve been using it for about 3 months now and it works great, it connects through firewire.
and its fairly stabile in my eyes.
worked wonders for me..

 

[dgatwood]

So firewire is the way to go. I really wish they had put a 6 pin firewire port on my laptop instead of the 4 pin. My friend's 4 pin port crapped out on him for no reason, and plus it doesn't provide power.

But for the reason's you so succinctly outlined, I'll go with firewire and plug it in. Guess that gives me alot more choices.

Anything about firewire 400 vs 800 I should know about, i.e. is 800 really better, and which format dominates the market?

FW800 is serious overkill. I mean, it's a good idea if you're setting up a RAID array, but for audio... way overkill.

A 16-in, 16-out 96kHz 24-bit interface with all inputs and outputs running simultaneously only comes out to only about 70 Mbit. Even if you play and record all those simultaneously to a firewire drive, that's only 140 Mbit.

You'd have to simultaneously have 182 simultaneous audio streams going in one direction or another across the bus (or half that if you're using a hard drive). Of course, in practice, it probably isn't possible to saturate the bus, but... you get the idea.

 

[Captain Awesome]

I use the Echo Indigo IO right now, it's a 2-in/2-out 24bit/96KHz PCMCIA card running about $180. Nice things about it:

* 2.9ms latency, seriously. (I have to set it a bit higher if I'm using the wireless network though)

* It takes up no space and I can just leave it in my laptop all the time; I use it as my primary audio interface for everything, and boy is it a good one.

* The nicely weighted volume control wheel is still silent after a year of twiddling.

 

[muze]

I think I might go with the Firebox (not pod). I would prefer to have MIDI right on the box (and not on a breakout connector shared with SPDIF that I don't need live), but I guess that's a fair tradeoff for the small footprint.