MOTU and a seperate controller, or the Tascam firewire board?

[endserenading81]

Hello, I am looking to purchase a new firewire interface because I just made the switch from a desktop PC to a MacBook Pro. So I'm going from PCI to firewire. Tell me it's gonna be OK. jk.
My main question is whether I should get the MOTU Ultralite with a seperate USB controller for mixing, or get the Tascam FW-1082, which is both an audio interface AND controller. I have chosen these units because they are both in my price range.
My concerns are sound quality and reliability. I have heard nothing but good things about the MOTU unit. I've read it's sound quality is so much better than anything M-Audio dishes out, which is what I've had for 6 years.
It feels better to me mixing with a board. Since my Macbook Pro has limited inputs, the Tascam would save me one. But that's not that important.
This is my first time with Mac, portable audio, and firewire. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Rob

 

[dgatwood]

Hello, I am looking to purchase a new firewire interface because I just made the switch from a desktop PC to a MacBook Pro. So I'm going from PCI to firewire. Tell me it's gonna be OK. jk.
My main question is whether I should get the MOTU Ultralite with a seperate USB controller for mixing, or get the Tascam FW-1082, which is both an audio interface AND controller. I have chosen these units because they are both in my price range.
My concerns are sound quality and reliability. I have heard nothing but good things about the MOTU unit. I've read it's sound quality is so much better than anything M-Audio dishes out, which is what I've had for 6 years.
It feels better to me mixing with a board. Since my Macbook Pro has limited inputs, the Tascam would save me one. But that's not that important.
This is my first time with Mac, portable audio, and firewire. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Rob

I think it really comes down to what your plans are for the equipment and the relative costs of that equipment.

1. Are you planning on taking this on gigs? If so, you might find it easier to deal with one unit than two, but then again, you might not need the mixer, so you might find it easier to deal with a smaller rack unit than a console.
2. Are you planning to expand this with additional inputs later? The Tascam has only limited expandability (S/PDIF). Most MOTU gear can be massively ganged with other MOTU gear thanks to ADAT.
3. Do you think you will want to upgrade the control surface at a later date to add additional sliders, etc.? If so, it may be to your advantage to not have to change interfaces along with it.
4. How much does each of the two options cost? What does your budget look like?
5. If you go with the separate devices, do the drivers for the control surface work well, or do they suck?

I would add that a USB control surface is probably advantageous if only for #5. Most USB control surfaces just look like HID devices, so a good programmer could read one doc from developer.apple.com and figure out how to query the things and write a custom driver for the things in a few hours. I've done some HID hacking myself for a tablet that was cranky, (though not a from-scratch driver---I started with the stock Apple mouse driver, and it took about ten minutes...).

With FireWire, writing drivers for the control surface would be really painful custom work. If the manufacturer doesn't provide an appropriate plug-in for your DAW, you might be in for a world of hurt trying to make it do something useful. Maybe not, but USB's HID system is so well defined and well understood that it just seems like a better fit for that in the same way that FireWire is a better fit for audio....

This would, of course, be the programmer speaking, not the user. As a user, I couldn't care less about how a control surface is hooked up as long as it works, and on that issue, I have no idea....

 

[endserenading81]

hmmmm

your right, i'm gonna get these things seperate, since every time i want to just record, i don't want to have to lug this big ol board around. so far the MOTU unit is the one I'm looking at. Any other cards you guys suggest? I am interested in sound quality, expandability, and reliability.
Thanks,
Rob