External A/D question....

[MichaelAlan]

If I have a firewire interface, but I connect an external A/D converter via Adat and use the external as a clock as well, is the firewire piece going to do anything to the signal? I guess I mean, since the signal is digital already, the firewire interface shouldn't really color the sound anymore right...?

[chris harris]

Nope. The firewire interface is just going to deliver your digital signal to the software.

[MichaelAlan]

Ahh... thank you. So i guess my next question is, what are the drawbacks of using firewire over pci card based systems. (I hear latency is an issue as well as the fact that your computer is doing all the proccessing... am I correct?)

[The Scum]

Your assumption is a bit incorrect, but needs to be properly qualified.

For just getting audio in and out of a computer, they're similarly efficient. From a computer architecture standpoint, there's not much difference. A firewire adaptor is probably sitting on the PCI bus anyways...there will be one more level of translation, but it's in hardware, and done very quickly.

But that's just the audio transport side. The CPU still does all of the processing.

There are devices capable of doing some processing on both sides of the equation, to offload the host CPU. ProTools HD has processing on the PCI cards. But so does the new UAD Firewire converter+FX box. To compare apples to apples, you'll have to tell us specifically which systems you're thinking about.

One downside that hits both: PCI and FW are both becoming obsolote.

Vanilla PCI has been surpassed by PCIx and PCIe...though PC motherboards still have PCI slots.

Firewire was abandoned by it's biggest proponent, Apple, in favor of their new Thunderbolt bus. Its getting harder to find on computers...my fancy new laptop doesn't have it. Compatibility can also be problematic. You have to shop for the "good" chipsets.

[kslight]

Ahh... thank you. So i guess my next question is, what are the drawbacks of using firewire over pci card based systems. (I hear latency is an issue as well as the fact that your computer is doing all the proccessing... am I correct?)

Firewire can be a pain in the ass, especially if you intend to use firewire storage and audio devices at the same time, unless you have a dedicated firewire bus per device (meaning on most computers that have firewire you will want a firewire card as well as whatever is onboard). Its somewhat tough to find a PC that has firewire onboard, and if it is...usually has some junk chipset that is not very friendly with audio devices.

[MichaelAlan]

Ahh... thank you. So i guess my next question is, what are the drawbacks of using firewire over pci card based systems. (I hear latency is an issue as well as the fact that your computer is doing all the proccessing... am I correct?)

Firewire can be a pain in the ass, especially if you intend to use firewire storage and audio devices at the same time, unless you have a dedicated firewire bus per device (meaning on most computers that have firewire you will want a firewire card as well as whatever is onboard). Its somewhat tough to find a PC that has firewire onboard, and if it is...usually has some junk chipset that is not very friendly with audio devices.

Thanks guys. Here's the situation... I have an iMac. I also don't have $10,000 to upgrade to an HD or even HD native system that wouldn't work with my computer anyway. I have always used an 8 channel firewire interface, but in recent years am really able to hear the difference in fidelity between project studio grade interfaces and the higher end stuff. I also hardly ever record more than 1-2 tracks at a time, but I want those tracks to sound CLEAN! So, for about $5000 I have found companies that make a/d conversion and pre's that will essentially replace my analog path and converters and the firewire interface will really just be a router that get's the signal in the box... But a really good signal. Is my logic totally mis-informed here?

[kslight]

Ahh... thank you. So i guess my next question is, what are the drawbacks of using firewire over pci card based systems. (I hear latency is an issue as well as the fact that your computer is doing all the proccessing... am I correct?)

Firewire can be a pain in the ass, especially if you intend to use firewire storage and audio devices at the same time, unless you have a dedicated firewire bus per device (meaning on most computers that have firewire you will want a firewire card as well as whatever is onboard). Its somewhat tough to find a PC that has firewire onboard, and if it is...usually has some junk chipset that is not very friendly with audio devices.

Thanks guys. Here's the situation... I have an iMac. I also don't have $10,000 to upgrade to an HD or even HD native system that wouldn't work with my computer anyway. I have always used an 8 channel firewire interface, but in recent years am really able to hear the difference in fidelity between project studio grade interfaces and the higher end stuff. I also hardly ever record more than 1-2 tracks at a time, but I want those tracks to sound CLEAN! So, for about $5000 I have found companies that make a/d conversion and pre's that will essentially replace my analog path and converters and the firewire interface will really just be a router that get's the signal in the box... But a really good signal. Is my logic totally mis-informed here?

Well if you have an iMac then a PCIe card is certainly out of the question...

As to whether your logic is misinformed? I don't use my firewire interface for anything but a way to get my converters into my computer, so I think its a sound idea to not rely the internal conversion/pres of your interface if you can afford better.