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Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Jan 31 2009, 12:04 AM

Hi there! I'm planning to update my studio's multitrack soundcard in the future and I found that some companies are currently offering Firewire and USB models.
Does anybody know which one is better or which are the differences?

Posted by: Toni Suominen Jan 31 2009, 12:19 AM

Well, Firewire has a higher data transfer rate, so if you are planning on recording multiple inputs at the same time (for example micing up drums) I would suggest a Firewire version

Posted by: Trond Vold Jan 31 2009, 12:24 AM

Firewire is offcourse the best, it's got alot more bandwidth (400Mbps), but for the ordinary guitar-track recordings you wont notice much difference with a USB card
USB is more cpu consuming though, but once again.. for just basic guitar recordings, you can get just as much use out of a USB box than paying the extra cash for the firewire version.

But for full studio usage, firewire is better. Atleast for now.

Posted by: Toni Suominen Jan 31 2009, 12:37 AM

Yeah, I can't wait for the USB 3.0 to become the new standard. It would mean great transfer speeds even in portable hard-drives.

What brands/models of soundcards are you considering Gabriel? I know that Presonus makes some very good Firewire interfaces.

Posted by: MickeM Jan 31 2009, 12:40 AM

I'd go with USB for the only reason that it's a lot more steady than Firewire. Firewire puts high demands on the interface itself and it can vary from one model to another = from one soundcard model to another.

USB works stead and won't surprise you by crashing or stop working in the middle of your project. I looked into this before when I had a computer upgrade in mind and found out that especially DELL computers use firewire that you should stay away from when you work with music. They are a gamble.

So USB for me. A working environment is more important to me than a faster but more unstable one.

Posted by: Toni Suominen Jan 31 2009, 12:54 AM

Hmm, I've never heard of anything like that before. Maybe this is the case because of the different brand of Firewire chips manufacturers put on their motherboards? I've heard that there are atleast couple of different kinds of Firewire chips, and that the one that Texas Instruments produces is the best. I'm not sure though..

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Jan 31 2009, 01:08 AM

Thanks a lot you guys for all this information! However now I'm more confused

I have been checking the Motu 828 Mk2 & 828 MK3. The Mk2 is Firewire and the Mk 3 is a newer one and is USB (this last one is bit more expensive). I always thought that firewire was better but why Motu offers their last model with usb?

I know that presonus is a very good brand too.. ( I have a comp and I used a pre in a studio)
Which other ones has the same quality than motu? Presonus?

Posted by: Toni Suominen Jan 31 2009, 01:31 AM

Check out Focusrite audio-interfaces aswell, I've heard that they are high-quality products.

But I think that any of the three will do the job. (Focusrite/Presonus/Motu).

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Jan 31 2009, 01:45 AM

Thank you Toni! I'll check their products.

Posted by: tonymiro Jan 31 2009, 10:29 AM

Gabe,
all the info I've seen shows that there are also a firewire version of the MkIII and a USB for the MkII.

One major reason for using firewire would be daisy-chaining in my opinion. Also, if you can host Firewire800 it will be significantly faster then USB2. As to USB3 - that will be great as and when it becomes available but that will not be for quite a while.

Cheers,
Tony

Posted by: utak3r Jan 31 2009, 11:40 AM

I've never had ANY problems with FireWire - and I'm using it every day for my camera.

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Jan 31 2009, 12:07 PM

I think firewire is a good option...If you have a standard PC you can buy the good quality firewire interface PCI card (those are cheap)..That interface is much faster then USB.

Posted by: audiopaal Jan 31 2009, 01:00 PM

In a studio I'd go for a firewire soundcard, hands down

Posted by: utak3r Jan 31 2009, 01:06 PM

I have to disagree - it's USB which is almost all software communication. It's not a real interface, most of its communication gets through its drivers - and THAT is consuming your CPU. FireWire is a professional interface, which can send you really huge data streams without hogging your computer. I'm using it for years now, and didn't had any problems with it even on relatively weak computers.

Probably you have some weak FireWire card... and that's why you have problems with it. I strongly recommend buying a good mainboard - it's the only part of your computer, on which you can't save your money...

Posted by: audiopaal Jan 31 2009, 01:12 PM

If you're using Cubase I'd check the http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/hardware/mr816csx.html
Lexicon has a great new soundcard out called http://www.lexiconpro.com/ProductIndex.aspx?ProductID=150
And the http://www.tcelectronic.com/StudioKonnekt48.asp is awesome

Check them out..

I got the Steinberg soundcard and it's great

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Jan 31 2009, 01:18 PM

Thank you guys! So I'll go for the Firewire!

Thank you toni! I didn't know this.. Here the national distributor is just importing the firewire MK2 and the USB MK3.

Posted by: malo Feb 1 2009, 09:40 PM

About USB vs Firewire.

There are a very fundmental differnece between USB and firewire that make comparing speed (bits/s) not so useful.

USB is i kind of master-slave protocol that means that all data transfer must be initiated from the computer, that by it self introduces latency.

USB is not full duplex at its full speed ( that means it can only transfer data in full rate in one direction at a time, that also causes latency).

Firewire is a multimaster bus in full duplex. That means full speed in booth directions at any time. It means that the sound card can initate data transfer, it can send data when it has data in other words.

Firewire 400 can be a better choice than USB2 in many cases ( especially when handling conitinous realtime data flow ).

I have however not checked the new USB3 standard, it may be better in some arease but i dont think that they will be able to implent multimater cababilites in USB.