Which firewire card have you had most luck with?

  • Thread starter Thread starter thebigcheese
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thebigcheese

thebigcheese

"Hi, I'm in Delaware."
I've been recording on my Macbook Pro for a while now because it gave me less problems than trying to record on Windows, but it just occurred to me that I like Windows 7 much better than my Mac and I really don't need my Mac for anything anymore, especially since my PC is a lot more powerful (and it's a completely rebuilt system from last time I tried). I've been using a MOTU Traveler (older one) as my interface and Reaper as my DAW. My motherboard doesn't have firewire on it, so I want to know which add-on firewire cards people have had the most luck with. I think I read that most people have had the best luck with TI cards, but I wanted to make sure and also to see if there was a specific one to look for. Also, are there other Reaper/Traveler users out there on Windows 7? Do the MOTU drivers work?

I think I might still have a VIA firewire card lying around, so I can test that out, but I seem to remember it never really cooperating...
 
Motu and most other pro audio interface manufacturers demand Texas Instruments firewire chips for proper operation (Motu says it right in their FAQs.) TI chips are the gold standard in the audio and video business.

Belkin and SIIG make TI-chip'ed firewire cards and you can get them reasonably priced from newegg.com.... note that you'll have to carefully check the specs of every card because they also make cards with other chipsets and you ONLY want TI.

ALSO - Make SURE that you dont get a combo firewire-usb card... those are known to have problems.
 
Star Tech

I use the StarTech 3 port firewire PCI card

It has 3 on the back on one internal and its 400

I use it with a RME audio Fire Face 800 and did a recording using 26 channels at once with no issues with Tracktion 3.
 
TimOBrien said:
Motu and most other pro audio interface manufacturers demand Texas Instruments firewire chips for proper operation (Motu says it right in their FAQs.) TI chips are the gold standard in the audio and video business.

Belkin and SIIG make TI-chip'ed firewire cards and you can get them reasonably priced from newegg.com.... note that you'll have to carefully check the specs of every card because they also make cards with other chipsets and you ONLY want TI.

ALSO - Make SURE that you dont get a combo firewire-usb card... those are known to have problems.
Click to expand...
Manufacturers demand a lot of things, but do you really NEED the TI card? I just found my VIA card and it seems to work as far as detecting and communicating with the MOTU are concerned. I'm not opposed to getting a new card, but if it ain't broke, why fix it, you know?

I guess what I'm wondering is what the real difference between the chipsets are. Is latency bad or am I going to get nasty clicking or something? I'm going to actually try it out tomorrow, but my external HDD with my projects is formatted for Mac, so it's a pain to move stuff over...
 
thebigcheese said:
Manufacturers demand a lot of things, but do you really NEED the TI card? I just found my VIA card and it seems to work as far as detecting and communicating with the MOTU are concerned. I'm not opposed to getting a new card, but if it ain't broke, why fix it, you know?

I guess what I'm wondering is what the real difference between the chipsets are. Is latency bad or am I going to get nasty clicking or something? I'm going to actually try it out tomorrow, but my external HDD with my projects is formatted for Mac, so it's a pain to move stuff over...
Click to expand...
I hope you're not saying that $49.99 is a "reasonable" price. I can't find any on newegg.com for cheaper than that, at least not by SIIG or Belkin. That's absolutely ridiculous. I bought 2 GB of RAM for that price.
 
I have TI and have had no problems connecting to my firebox with it or other non-music related devices. Worth the peace of mind I reckon.
 
Do you *need* TI? Probably not. You do, however, definitely need to *not* have a combo card, a Ricoh chipset, or any non-OHCI-compliant chipset. :)
 
I mean, the VIA seems to be working, except that when I tried to use one of the MOTU tools I got a BSOD. Maybe not related, but maybe it is. I guess if that eBay card is a real TI card, $20 isn't so bad.
 
Yup that card on ebay is the same. Not a bad price at all as long as it works.
 
Ha, just found a better deal. $5 for a "never used" card on eBay. See, now that's a price I can live with.

...provided it works when I get it.
 
I have a SIIG in my desktop & a SIIG in my laptop. Never had a problem with either one.
 
Well, it works and it was $5. Best $5 I ever spent! I don't really notice much difference now, but I've only been doing very superficial testing. I don't get a BSOD when I try to load up Cuemix FX, though, so that's definitely an improvement. Not that I ever really use that, but, you know, it's nice to have it work.
 
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