Great 2 XLR Firewire Interfaces?

TheShaggyFox · Post by **TheShaggyFox** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 2:44 pm

Hey there,

Back in the day I used to own an M-Audio Firewire 410 I believe, which I thought was OK at best. Back then I had less cash to spend on recording and I kindof fell out of the hobby due to that restriction and my lack of love towards the M-Audio interface.

Now that it's been a few years I'm looking to getting back into the minimal interface game. I'm planning on mostly recording acoustic guitar, vocals, and some ambient/delayed electric guitar so I don't need an extensive interface. Just something that has firewire and sounds real good with two XLR inputs. I'm running Windows 7. What say you, TGP? I'm thinking something maybe in the realm of the Echo Audiofire 4?

After that, I'll be picking up a few essential handymans mics (like the SM57... I lost my old one) and some decent mic stands. If you feel like chiming in on some cool mics for a beginner that fit in the context of what I'm recording, that'd be great too!

Thanks dudes.

Also my price range is fairly low. Around $500.

EasyGo · Post by **EasyGo** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 9:05 pm

So far, I've had good luck with the Presonus FireStudio Mobile. I've used it successfully with Reaper on Windows XP and intend to upgrade to W7 soon. Obviously you gotta make sure your firewire card is compatible. That said, I'm running it with a very old ADS Pyro 1394 PCMCIA card (not on Presonus' compatibility list) into my Lenovo laptop, and it is rock solid so far. I also had success running the Presonus into an older Keyspan PCI firewire interface with the same TI chip as the ADS and it also rocked.

The onboard pres and converters sound good to my ears. I have used it mostly with dynamics such as the SM57 and RE20 and have been happy with the results. Build quality seems solid and the knobs/pots are smooth. Outputs and headphone jack sound good. Very happy so far. I've also had good results plugging into the MIDI, although you didn't really ask about that. I wouldn't mind if it had more outputs, but what can I expect for $300?

TheShaggyFox · Post by **TheShaggyFox** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 10:09 am

Awesome thanks for the advice.

Bumping for more advice if any of you have some. Thanks!

mrc · Post by **mrc** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 7:47 pm

I have a Focusrite Pro 24 DSP, good stuff...convinced me to add the 8 channel LS56, they will work together. Used a firewire card.

KoffeeKommando · Post by **KoffeeKommando** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 12:08 pm

http://www.focusrite.com/products/audio ... rlett_2i2/

$150

Firewire is dead. Apple said so themselves.

That said...I still have a MOTU firewire unit under Win 7.
But...I'm buying one of these the second it comes out in October.

Most PC laptops don't have Firewire anymore. You want something that is universal.
The cheap Firewire chipsets in most stuff never worked good anyway.

Focusrite also has this "full featured" USB 2.0 interface with MIDI and more mic pre gain (external 12v power brick) - $250 (out now):

http://www.focusrite.com/products/audio ... /overview/

winky dinglehoffer · Post by **winky dinglehoffer** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 6:19 pm

Sound Devices USBPre. I know, it's not firewire, but still quite nice. I have the original version, which is nice, but the new version looks really cool.

EasyGo · Post by **EasyGo** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:01 pm

KoffeeKommando wrote:http://www.focusrite.com/products/audio ... 2/Firewire is dead. Apple said so themselves.
...
Most PC laptops don't have Firewire anymore. You want something that is universal.
The cheap Firewire chipsets in most stuff never worked good anyway.

That may be. But you can still buy good quality firewire cards for laptops or desktops. I wouldn't plug into one of those chintzy onboard firewire ports anyway, or expect one to work.

Even if it's considered dead technology, firewire is stable and well suited for simple multitrack audio.

KoffeeKommando · Post by **KoffeeKommando** » Thu Sep 22, 2011 11:50 am

Yeah, I'm just stating the obvious. There has been a lot of stagnation in the "soundcard" realm for a while. But all the new USB 2.0 stuff is finally coming out.

Desktops...sure....but most laptops don't have card slots anymore.
PCMCIA was dead years ago and "new DOA format" Express card equipped machines are rare.

It's USB 2.0 from here on out if you want portable and are using a PC.

Apple has a new port on it's (now) entry level Air laptops.
More confusion for audio manufacturers.

http://www.apple.com/thunderbolt/

"With PCI Express technology, you can use existing USB and FireWire peripherals ? even connect to Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel networks ? using simple adapters."

Now we need audio interfaces that use Thunderbolt.

They should be direct PCI-E. Skip that adapter crapola. Will still take a few years to become "mainstream"...so more tech lag.

Gentleman Jim · Post by **Gentleman Jim** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 10:19 am

I don't have enough comparative experience with different interfaces as to declare anything "great," but here are my thoughts from when I first purchased an Echo Audiofire 4 back in January of 2009:

http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopic.php?t=61586

I still have it, I still use it, and I'm still perfectly happy with it.

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