PCI or USB interface?

[JMLeez808]

What are the pros & cons of both???

Sorry kinda a noob....

 

[bigwillz24]

PCI = More Bandwidth.......... that's a good thing

USB = Less Bandwidth......... thast's bad

PCI = Opening your computer to install the card...... Bad if you don't know what your doing but easy if you do

USB = Plug one wire up install drivers..... Thats good

 

[Carter]

PCI = More Bandwidth.......... that's a good thing

USB = Less Bandwidth......... thast's bad

PCI = Opening your computer to install the card...... Bad if you don't know what your doing but easy if you do

USB = Plug one wire up install drivers..... Thats good

Plain and simple!

 

[riccol]

Since this topic came up (again)
Would you ever notice a difference with a USB card if you are doing one and sometimes two (stereo -- two mono tracks) at a time.

I guess what I'm asking is how would the lower bandwith affect your work -- Would it lower quality of the sound or just how much you could lay down at a time?

(I hate It when I wonder if I made sense!)

 

[scrubs]

For most computers, USB limitations are going to come with multitracking. One or two tracks is typically fine for USB. I do it all the time. For more than two tracks, I would look into PCI or FireWire. You also need to consider the quality of the A/D converters in the card.

 

[altiris]

Theres also usb 2.

 

[brzilian]

Since this topic came up (again)
Would you ever notice a difference with a USB card if you are doing one and sometimes two (stereo -- two mono tracks) at a time.

I guess what I'm asking is how would the lower bandwith affect your work -- Would it lower quality of the sound or just how much you could lay down at a time?

(I hate It when I wonder if I made sense!)

It is not just a matter of less bandwidth. USB hogs alot of CPU time. If it doesn't get the attention it needs from the CPU, you will run into latency, hiccups and dropouts.

USB bandwidth is shared across all connected USB devices. If you have some other device connected and in use at the same time, you will run into problems.

Several USB interfaces I have played with aren't even capable of dealing with 2 tracks of 24bit audio because of poorly written drivers.

 

[brzilian]

Theres also usb 2.

Suffers from the same CPU issues as USB 1 and there still aren't as many USB 2 devices out in the market.

USB 2 devices will be more costly and at that point, you're better off with Firewire.

 

[shackrock]

usb is basically firewire though, so either is aight.

another pro of usb/firewire = you can take those units anywhere and plug em in! PCI you gotta take your whole desktop with you. so they are good for mobile audio obviously.

 

[bonzxylophone]

Firewire definately has a lot smoother random data-throughput than USB2.0. It's the reason why Digital Video still uses Firewire instead of using USB2.0. At least it seems smoother to me, my dad has an exteral USB2.0 drive and I think it's a bit of a slug.

 

[brzilian]

usb is basically firewire though, so either is aight.

Completely wrong.

Firewire uses a 'peer-to-peer' type of protocol where the devices themselves handle all handshaking and data transfer.

USB is more of a 'server-client' protocol and requires external intervention/managment (CPU).

 

[JMLeez808]

Someone told me that the interface should be external since an internal (PCI) can pick up sounds of the hard drive spinning???

No one mentioned it so I wondering if it's even true...

If it isn't true, since installing a PCI is easy for me and I'm not planning on being mobile, what's a good PCI card?

 

[MadAudio]

Someone told me that the interface should be external since an internal (PCI) can pick up sounds of the hard drive spinning???

No one mentioned it so I wondering if it's even true...

That usually happens when the converters are on the PCI card. I don't get any hard drive noise because the converters on my Layla 24/96 are in the breakout box. The PCI card itself is pretty small (compared to my old GadgetLabs Wave824, that is).

 

[dgatwood]

That usually happens when the converters are on the PCI card. I don't get any hard drive noise because the converters on my Layla 24/96 are in the breakout box. The PCI card itself is pretty small (compared to my old GadgetLabs Wave824, that is).

Hard drive noise? I assume you mean electrical noise from the drive's head interface cables and motors? What kind of hardware are we talking about here? The electronics on your main logic board are likely to be far noisier than the hard drive electronics unless you're running ATA interface cables right past your audio card's electronics or something, in which case you need to fix your cable routing.

You're a million times more likely to get electrical noise from the power supply than your hard drive. That would be followed in probability by noise from your graphics card, largely in the form of noise going up one side of the power supply and down another wire into the rail that powers your PCI bus. Either way, add more ferrite chokes in your power system and it will probably go away....

Either of those issues is likely to affect an outboard interface as well, though, unless you isolate the power wire in the USB/FireWire cable and drive the outboard interface entirely off of an external power supply.

 

[shackrock]

Completely wrong.

Firewire uses a 'peer-to-peer' type of protocol where the devices themselves handle all handshaking and data transfer.

USB is more of a 'server-client' protocol and requires external intervention/managment (CPU).

Sorry, what I MEANT was:

to the user (who just plugs in his outboard soundcard and goes...), usb 2.0 will work just the same as firewire.

haha.

 

[JMLeez808]

Can I get another breakdown? PCI vs. Firewire vs. USB?

I think I'm going with Soundforge or Adobe Audition as my software. Does that help?

Mahalo,
Jason

 

[dgatwood]

Simply put: FireWire or PCI. PCI should have less latency. Beyond that, both should work reasonably well.

 

[JMLeez808]

Thanks!!

I think I'm gonna go PCI then since I'm desktop laiden.

Any recommendations/complaints about theirs?? I'm looking at all the M-Audios, Deltas, Audiophiles, etc..

I'm thiunking I'd like one with a "breakoutbox" to plug into.

Thanks!

 

[darnold]

I just know that i can have problems recording just two tracks with my Tascam US122 if the computer isnt liking it. Infact it messed up a live performance recording the other night.

CPU wasnt even having a hard time, system was tuned very well but it would just hic up for no apparent reason. Dont know if thats USB related or not but ive heard it is and that firewire doesnt do that.

danny

 

[dgatwood]

Thanks!!

I think I'm gonna go PCI then since I'm desktop laiden.

Any recommendations/complaints about theirs?? I'm looking at all the M-Audios, Deltas, Audiophiles, etc..

I'm thiunking I'd like one with a "breakoutbox" to plug into.

Thanks!

Yes, -definitely- pick one where the ADCs and DACs are outboard in a separate box, e.g. the Delta 1010.

As for recommending one over another, beyond that, no real suggestions.