usb 1.1 vs usb 2.0 vs firewire 400

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GuitardedMark

GuitardedMark

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I'm might be in the market to buy a new interface and I'm curious to the differences between usb 1.1, usb 2.0 and firewire 400. I have a Tascam us-122 right now (the old one with the blue stripe) and it's not working out too good on my vista 32 bit dual core 2.2 GHz with 3 gb RAM with Reaper. Does anyone know if this is USB 1.1? I'm pretty sure it is. Anyways, I'm not looking to spend over $300 and preferable around $200. Thanks!
 
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Here's a very rough & crude breakdown.

USB 1.1.................the slowest, records stereo
USB 2.0.................faster burst speeds then FW400, uses your computer's processor
FW400..................better consistant speeds than USB 2.0, doesn't rely on CPU (the best choice, imho)

If you're not recording a bunch of tracks, USB 2.0 will be fine.
 
I have a question on this subject, "how do I find out what I have in the pc as far as USB 1.1 or USB 2.0?"

in the meantime I'll search a bit. I gave a old 122 to my son and the drivers don't work as well with his newer pc. my older pc worked well with the older unit...sounds logical. maybe a USB version issue?
 
USB vs. Firewire

USB1 maxes out at two channels in and out.
USB2 can go to a handfull of channels (recently they've gotten them up to a dozen using some special trick drivers)
USB3 should be as fast as FW400, but the master/slave relationship of USB may throttle that down and we won't know until they're available.
Firewire400 can stream well over 100 simultaneous channels
(which means you can hang an interface and hard drives and convolution hardware on one daisy-chain like I do....)
Firewire800 doubles that, but you dont see many FW800 interfaces 'cause few people need them.
FW1600 and FW3200 specs have been approved, but again - who needs that much bandwidth???

Yes you really want to use TexasInstruments firewire chips.
Dont buy anything that doesn't have them.
Belkin and SIIG make PCI and PCMCIA/Expresscard firewire cards for reasonable prices, check newegg.com
 
GuitardedMark said:
I'm might be in the market to buy a new interface and I'm curious to the differences between usb 1.1, usb 2.0 and firewire 400. I have a Tascam us-122 right now (the old one with the blue stripe) and it's not working out too good on my vista 32 bit dual core 2.2 GHz with 3 gb RAM with Reaper. Does anyone know if this is USB 1.1? I'm pretty sure it is. Anyways, I'm not looking to spend over $300 and preferable around $200. Thanks!
Click to expand...
There is absolutely, positively, no way in heaven or hell, that any PC with a dual core processor running Vista has USB 1.1 jacks. Not. Possible.

As far as the interface goes, USB 2.0 has been around for a decade now. How old is the Tascam?
 
TimOBrien said:
Yes you really want to use TexasInstruments firewire chips.
Dont buy anything that doesn't have them.
Belkin and SIIG make PCI and PCMCIA/Expresscard firewire cards for reasonable prices, check newegg.com
Click to expand...



I have a SIIG PCI and a SIIG Expresscard. Both have TI chipsets and both work great. About $30 for each at Newegg.
 
TheGuitarMan said:
There is absolutely, positively, no way in heaven or hell, that any PC with a dual core processor running Vista has USB 1.1 jacks. Not. Possible.

As far as the interface goes, USB 2.0 has been around for a decade now. How old is the Tascam?
Click to expand...

To clarify, I know i have 2.0 USB on my cpu. I was wondering if the us-122 is 1.1 which now I know is.
 
TimOBrien said:
USB vs. Firewire

USB1 maxes out at two channels in and out.
Click to expand...

I don't generally dispute this (necessarily) and would not, as a rule recomend USB 1(in any implementation) for any audio I/O, but . . . I used usb1 tascam688 recording 4 tracks via a 300 mHz computer into 10k rpm SCSI drives and was able, with appropriate mental adjustment mix at least 8 tracks

but, as a rule, mixers that employed USB interconnect with computer were stereo only whether USB 1 or 2

I still use Win XP on machines typically of XP vintage so have no idea as to whether driver & OS issues have improved on current machines but as a rule I would try to avoid USB in any flavor on a wintel machine doesn't mean it can't work

as for coolcat make sure you have appropriate (as possible) drivers for the OS you use . . . from my experience with TASCAM locating appropriate drive remains an issue
 
GuitardedMark said:
To clarify, I know i have 2.0 USB on my cpu. I was wondering if the us-122 is 1.1 which now I know is.
Click to expand...
Interesting. I don't remember when it was that USB 2.0 became ubiquitous. That was a changeover that was somewhat convoluted and drawn out. Many people were confused about the compatibility, cables and such. I suppose manufacturers kept making products with USB 1.1 for some time even after 2.0 started appearing on PCs since many wouldn't have switched yet.
 
I have run across a few older products from Dell and Intel that had both USB 1.1 and 2.0 USB ports on the same motherboard. But that's rare, generally anything in the last couple of years has USB 2.0 only. And USB 3.0 ports are starting to appear now on the newest motherboards.
 
If you check in device manager and you have at least one port title Enhanced USB than all of your usb ports are 2.0. I've never heard anything other than this. However in some VERY rare cases they are some cpus that have both 1.1 and 2.0. I used to work at apple tech support and I learned that regardless of what manufactorers say, the usb ports in the front often times act differently than the ones in the back. I never found out for sure but I think they get less power in the front. Anyone know?
 
GuitardedMark said:
I used to work at apple tech support
Click to expand...

Hey. A colleague. I used to work in repair here in Europe. But that's many moons ago. In the beige G3 era :p

USB can be confusing because of the way things are named:

USB 1.1 is max. 12 Mbit/s total or 6 Mbit one way and per device (full speed)
USB 2.0 is max. 480 Mbit/s total or 240 Mbit per device one way (high speed)

But they also support a low-speed rate of 1.5 Mbit/s, mainly for mice and keyboards. And USB 3.0 has several Super speed modi up to 5 Gbit/s.

If you connect a low speed and a full speed device on the same hub, they both will work at low speed. Some manufacturers (Apple) have extra ports (on the keyboard, for example) that only support low speed.

Most of the times, you don't know if the external USB ports share a hub or not. Better computers often have a hub per port, or one hub for ports in the back and another for ports up front. Often, not always. In fact, any config is possible. That's why using another USB port somtimes solves problems.

And audio is mostly one way, so the theoretical 480 Mbit/s is really only 240.

FireWire is simpler: 400 or 800 Mbit/sec, always available in both directions and to each device on the chain. It's also more intelligent, so it will put less strain on the CPU.

And than there's power. USB supplies 5V, 500 mA or 2,5 W which is plenty for a mouse or keyboard, but not so plenty for a big audio interface and certainly not enough for some harddisks. Result: kludges that use up 2 USB ports for an external bus powered HD. Firewire has at least 12V, 1.000 mA or 12 W.

To confuse things even more, there's also powered USB, USB-on-the-go and other stuff in the standard, but you'll see hardly any of those in audio.
 
Do you know why usb ports in the front seem to cause issues for certain devices (ipods, iphones, etc...) but not the usb ports in the back?
 
GuitardedMark said:
the usb ports in the front often times act differently than the ones in the back. I never found out for sure but I think they get less power in the front. Anyone know?
Click to expand...



I've seen this before. I had a Dell Dimension (I think) and the front USB ports wouldn't work for everything. Sometimes I had to use the rear ports. I think it was probably a power issue, but I'm not certain. I can't remember exactly what devices wouldn't work, but I remember thinking that it was strange. :confused:
 
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