useing firewire and usb 2.0 together on laptop

[rivilee]

I'm on the verge of buying a laptop (never bought one before) and want to use an external HD to store audio on. I have the 16 channel Tascam USB 2.0 interface to use w/ it. Will a firewire HD and the audio interface work together simultaneously? Anything I need to look out for w/ the laptop?
Thanks- Rick

 

[dgatwood]

USB is more likely to have pops, crackles, and other random glitches than a FireWire interface because most hardware manufacturers assume that USB is a relatively low priority bus and set up IRQ steering/sharing accordingly. Make sure you buy a laptop that Tascam certifies to work with the interface.

Using a FireWire HD shouldn't add significantly to the risk inherent with USB interfaces unless you're using one a USB/FireWire combo card (or a laptop whose guts are designed with such a chipset internally), in which case there's probably close to zero chance it will work usably.

 

[TimOBrien]

I have an XP laptop with a Glyph firewire drive daisy-chained to a Motu828mkII interface, plus I use a Seagate USB2 drive for sample libraries and video editing.

The key with Firewire is to have TexasInstruments firewire chipsets; they are the gold standard.
If the laptop doesn't have them internally, consider adding a firewire PCMCIA or Expresscard with TI chips.