Is there any advantage to using a PCI card? I am currently using the M-Audio Audiophile 2496. If I switch to bus-powered firewire, (the Edirol FA-66, or one of the Presonus units), will there be a difference in how well the tracks and MIDI tracks are processed in my DAW (Sonar 7.02)? I.e. will there be a performance hit for mixing effects and sequencing?
Ive noticed that the audiophile is rock solid for midi sequencing, where as the Soundblaster that the computer came with is horrible. Also, Ive noticed that RME PCI cards perform a little bit better (use less CPU for some reason) with big projects. I'm just a skeptic about external devices.
Thanks in advance
mixing/tracking in Sonar with firewire audio vs. PCI card
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- KVRist
- 102 posts since 20 Mar, 2003 from baton rouge, la
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- KVRian
- 1329 posts since 25 Dec, 2005 from Devon, England
All the DAW math is done inside your PC so there's no difference with how tracks are processed and summed. The interface is only there to get sounds and MIDI to and from the outside world. Performance / stability is always related to your individual setup but I'm happy with Firewire. Theoretically PCI is best for speed but the inside of a PC is an electrically noisy environment so theoretically (again) external devices may provide better noise performance. Real world experience may differ though. If your current setup works well there may be no reason to change. However, if you want to go Firewire a Texas Instruments chipset on your motherboard is best for compatibility (although others may work fine). Try before you buy - if you get compatibility issues you'll need a PCI Firewire card with a T.I. chipset. Hope this helps.
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- KVRian
- 1055 posts since 19 Feb, 2003
jonny's right.
Always use TI firewire chipsets.
Firewire is more than capable of handling huge projects, it was designed from the ground up to handle massive data flow (unlike USB). You can stack interfaces to get more than 60 SIMULTANEOUS i/o's (firewire was designed to handle multiple daisy-chained devices).
I've been using a Motu828mkII daisy-chained to a Glyph firewire drive for years with ZERO problems.
Always use TI firewire chipsets.
Firewire is more than capable of handling huge projects, it was designed from the ground up to handle massive data flow (unlike USB). You can stack interfaces to get more than 60 SIMULTANEOUS i/o's (firewire was designed to handle multiple daisy-chained devices).
I've been using a Motu828mkII daisy-chained to a Glyph firewire drive for years with ZERO problems.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 102 posts since 20 Mar, 2003 from baton rouge, la
Thanks for the input guys. I just realized I posted this in the incorrect forum and have reposted. Sorry for any double posting. My response will be in the computer setup forum.
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george freeman george freeman https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=143838
- KVRist
- 193 posts since 15 Mar, 2007
I used to run Sonar 6 with the M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card and then I updated to the M-Audio Audiophile 192 on an XP machine. They both sounded great. Then my system crashed,and to make a long story short I ended updating to Vista OS but found out that M-Audio didn't have Vista drivers at that time. And I waited for awhile but I eventually sprung for an Endirol FA-101 firewire box and it was also great sounding. I had a few issues like my CP usage increased to unbearable when I used it with another firewire device (Focusrite Liquid Mix). Also sometimes I had to reboot the Endirol to get the sound to start. Not too often but enough to bug me slighty. So I brought a (TI chipset)firewire card to put the Endirol on a seperate bus and this helped some. However, when the M-Audio Audiophile Vista drivers were releashed, I couldn't wait to load them and go back PCI and I been living happily ever after every since then. For the record, I didn't have this problem with the FW box (CPU spiking) when using the Endirol along and once again the sound was not an issue. I'm not that technical but that was just my experience shared..... Good Luck
Johann Da Man
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 102 posts since 20 Mar, 2003 from baton rouge, la
It'd be interesting to note how some of these budget/portable firewire interfaces compare in terms of sound quality (pre-amps) with the audiophile 2496. Ive been pretty pleased with the sound quality of the maudio delta cards and wouldnt want to downgrade in terms of recording quality. Did you notice a difference? Ive seen reviews that said the MOTU pre amp was significantly better than the Presonus boxes (only 50-60db of gain). A little out of my price-range though. (shrug)