Question about USB 2.0

[gtrplyrguy]

I am in the process of setting up my first fully computer driven studio. My last studio was of the studio-in-a-box variety with the computer only being used to burn the final mix to cd.

I have spent a couple of months researching everything to make sure I buy what I will be happy with and what will work well together even while the floor joists are being set in place for the new studio.

My question is this. I am going with a "Tascam US1641 USB 2.0 Audio/MIDI Interface" which will be running quite a bit through the USB port and driver. Will this limit my ability to use an external USB HDD? Im not sure how USB is wired and whether running a large data stream through one port will hinder flow through another port and slow down one of the two divices. I have not seen any info on this through all the literature ive read.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[Manslick]

Much depends on the computer, OS, CPU, memory and audio app.

The 1641 is advertised as handling 16 simultaneous inputs, whether your app can handle that is the question.

But I'd say you're compounding the problem of throughput by using an outboard HDD.

Tough to predict the performance with the info you've provided, and I'm far from an expert.

 

[RawDepth]

Here is the beef.

With other types of hardware interfaces, such as pci and firewire, the movement of data (I/O) is controlled by a small chip on the hardware itself. With USB there is no controller chip. All input and output functions are instead managed entirely by the main processing chip (cpu) that runs your computer. The main chip must perform these USB functions as background work while doing other main tasks such as running your recording software.

Furthermore, there is only so much USB bandwidth to go around and it must be shared among all USB devices hooked to your computer. If you happen to be using a usb mouse, keyboard, printer, hdd, and audio interface together, things will likely slow to a crawl on a below average computer. Doing a 16 channel recording on a slow or busy machine may cause some dropouts or lag.

That is not to say that USB interfaces are not usable. It's just that on slower machines you may need to tweak the operating system to be more streamlined and reduce unnecessary USB usage while recording. They are indeed usable once you understand their needs.

To answer your question...try it and see. If it causes problems, at least you will know why.

 

[gtrplyrguy]

Sorry about the lack of info about the system. Was at work when I posted. Here are the specs:

AMD Athlon Dual Core 4850e 2.50GHz
2GB Ram
Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit
Audio app will be either Cubase LE4 (comes with Tascam) or Reaper

The Tascam handles 16 through but I only anticipate using 3 or 4 channels at a time as mine is a project studio for my family and there are only 4 of us. Mostly 1 or 2 channel at a time layering. I am choosing the Tascam for the great value and the ability to grow as our needs change.

The USB HDD is only an option as Ive made up my mind on all the other equipment and the HDD is the last piece of the puzzle. Will probably opt for an internal but hate to lose the portability as this will not be an internet pc for ease of keeping the machine clean and a portable HDD would allow easy transfer of projects to one of our internet pc's for uploading and sharing. Nothing that a jump drive cant handle.

I dont think FW is the way to go as it would be a PCI card port (my pc doesnt have FW port) and it would be limited by buss speed.

 

[Manslick]

If you have the internal HDD space then you are probably good. Use the outboard for backups.

 

[TimOBrien]

I dont think FW is the way to go as it would be a PCI card port (my pc doesnt have FW port) and it would be limited by buss speed.

Firewire actually has MUCH more bandwidth than USB. Plain FW400 can handle over 100 simultaneous cd-quality ins/outs. It also allows multiple devices on the same chain.

It is a MUCH more robust protocol than usb.

 

[TeyshaBlue]

It is a MUCH more robust protocol than usb.

Depends on the chipset, IMO