usb sound cards

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rozzie
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usb sound cards

Post by rozzie » Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:16 am

Hi,
I'm on the look out for a USB 2 or Firewire Sound card for my keyboard player ! He'll be using a laptop running V-stack with various vsti's ! Priced around the two houndred mark..
Any idea's??

hammertime
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Re: usb sound cards

Post by hammertime » Mon Dec 20, 2004 5:09 pm

As far as I know, I don't think any company, for whatever reason, has taken advantage of usb 2.0. Firewire -- you have a few options. The RME stuff looks pretty interesting -- I think it's called the fireface. Then you have the digi 002 and the 002r. I think m-audio makes a relatively cheap firewire interface -- the audiophile or something.

hammertime
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Re: usb sound cards

Post by hammertime » Mon Dec 20, 2004 5:10 pm

200 -- you might be looking at the m-audio. I think the other stuff is around a grand.

toastchee
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Re: usb sound cards

Post by toastchee » Tue Dec 21, 2004 7:14 am

Ya, I know, this is > $200, but the good dudes at Presonus are making the Firebox, which is the Firepod's smaller sibling.

You gotta remember really good pres need more voltage than the USB bus can provide, IMO.

I have the Firepod and am amazed at its quality. And it's american made, which is kind of cool. I recently got the Tracktion free version and I am rockin'.

I think the Firebox is $399 list.

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syrupcore
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Re: usb sound cards

Post by syrupcore » Fri Dec 24, 2004 3:31 am

proly want to stay away from USB unless it's usb2(I think there's an edirol box). The latency is generally much higher on the usb bus and if the keyboard player intends to play the laptop live, latenecy is likely the most important factor.

check out the m-audio everyone is suggesting.

will

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alexdingley
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Re: usb sound cards

Post by alexdingley » Sat Dec 25, 2004 6:38 am

Hey there, here's my 2 cents...


I am getting out from under my USB i/o for my laptop, but not because of latency.

The problem with USB in a live situation is that when the CPU gets taxed with lots of number crunching, USB seems to be the first thing to get unstable. Someone else on the board here explained to me that USB is a Low Priority system bus. Things like Firewire are higher priority and less likely to crap out on you.

For instance, I use Reason 2.5 on my Powrbook (1ghz CPU, 1gb of Ram). Most of my songs have pretty involved backup tracks... lots of synths and FX running... and on top of that, I play a sound or two live from the same reason project... so it's working pretty hard. My old powerbook g3 couldn't hack this, so I got the 1ghz G4... now the problem isn't the CPU (it barely ever gets over 1/3rd of the cpu lights up in reasons cpu meter) but completelyl at random, my system will just drop out. and stay out. when the CPU needs to rearrange some processing... it just momentarily drops USB communication. Things like USB mice and Keyboards, printers...etc... they don't care about that... but USB sound and MIDI controllers just disappear when that happens. So, I'm left with a USB midi controller, and sound I/O that don't do squat once it freaks out... then I have to relaunch the software after unplugging and replugging the usb cables (praying that they re-detect the devices)

... that's not something I want to do on stage... so I'm trying to get a hold of a MOTU 828, which used... seems to be the cheapest way to go FW today... I'm expecting to drop around $300 for a used 828mkI.

japmn
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Re: usb sound cards

Post by japmn » Sun Dec 26, 2004 9:03 pm

ummm,

USB = good
USB 2 = better
Firewire = better
firewire 2 = bestest

Now, usb for audio (multi track/mixing) = not so good
I have had a lot of problems with USB audio interfaces.
Firewire for audio (same as above) = All Good

Now they could make USB 2 interfaces for audio but wouldn't it be beter if they
made firewire 2 interfaces?

lets kill USB and push for SUPER FIREWIRE AUDIO I/O

will.record.for.food
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Re: usb sound cards

Post by will.record.for.food » Wed Dec 29, 2004 9:16 pm

I have no issues with my USB2 interface (Edirol UA-1000). I can record up to 8 tracks at once with no problem at all... That being said, I dont know how it would perform in a live situation, but thats not whats its made for either
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