After doing some reading, it seems that most people don't like Vista. The drivers aren't there for all their studio gear. Outside of 64 bit applications, XP seems to be the best thing around for computer audio.
Today I upgraded the ram in my PC to 1 gig in anticipation of getting Sonar 7. I've decided to use George W's rebate check($300 for me) to get an interface to connect my PC to everything else I've got.
I've never done this before. Furthermore, I don't know anybody else who's done this before. The two other studio musicians I know both use Roland VS(one the 880EX and the other a 1680). Nobody uses PC DAWs.
I was reading some message boards related to this sort of thing and now I'm afraid to buy the wrong thing, then regret it down the road.
I can't see myself needing more than 4 inputs. Maybe two for microphones, one for guitar, one for whatever else. The questions are:
#1-Who here does PC multitracking and what kind of gear do you use?
#2-Firewire vs. USB for the interface. What kind of problems native to either one, benefits, based on your experience?
Even a link to something that could help me figure this all out would be helpful.
Firewire vs. USB
Re: Firewire vs. USB
1) I always multitrack, all of my compositions are 'live' i.e. I never mixdown to audio tracks until I want to record the hold take in one go. That way if I want to change anything it is easiest.
I use an Echo Layla 3G PCI card which has about 8 i/o and into that I plug a V-Synth GT, Fantom XR and a mic for the vocoder + headphones + monitors. Access virus is on usb audio. At the moment the Layla also handles midi for the V-Synth.
I have had similar results using Vista and XP and Cubase 4, it works fine most of the time.
2) I would go with Firewire, it seems to be the preferred standard for musicians even though USB2 has similar bandwidth. Go with firewire and you will doing what most musicians do. Failing that I would choose PCI although that means opening up your rig.
I use an Echo Layla 3G PCI card which has about 8 i/o and into that I plug a V-Synth GT, Fantom XR and a mic for the vocoder + headphones + monitors. Access virus is on usb audio. At the moment the Layla also handles midi for the V-Synth.
I have had similar results using Vista and XP and Cubase 4, it works fine most of the time.
2) I would go with Firewire, it seems to be the preferred standard for musicians even though USB2 has similar bandwidth. Go with firewire and you will doing what most musicians do. Failing that I would choose PCI although that means opening up your rig.
Re: Firewire vs. USB
I'm not afraid to open up my PC. I've already upgraded the RAM, installed a second hard drive, and installed a DVD-RW drive. Installing a PCI card would take ten minutes. I am concerned about latency. Is PCI better than Firewire in terms of latency? I don't have firewire on my PC. I could buy a firewire card and install it with no problem, but I'd just as soon install a PCI card.
Re: Firewire vs. USB
during this upgrade process- I recommend running DPC Latency Checker (google this). I have found it to be a really great tool to ensure what I do to my system doesn't impact general latency. Check it out and run it while you do your upgrades.
Re: Firewire vs. USB
I am not sure how the different interfaces compare with respect to latency, tried to google it but no joy.
Latency is also affected by your motherboard too.
I get 3.9ms in and 6.8ms out with a buffer size of 128.
Latency is also affected by your motherboard too.
I get 3.9ms in and 6.8ms out with a buffer size of 128.
Re: Firewire vs. USB
Hi Patrick.
With regard to the FireWire vs. USB question, I'd agree with Shambler for a few reasons.
USB is designed exclusively around a star network configuration, similar to how most modern computer networks are designed. This works fine for sharing data (or power) from a central host to multiple clients (or tips of the star). However, it also requires a lot of hardware because many computers only have 2 or 3 USB ports (laptops, in particular), limiting the number of devices that you can connect and thus requiring cascading USB hubs. Hubs draw power to operate and cost money (though not much now days). FireWire is designed to use both a star network layout as well as a daisy-chain network layout, making it more flexible in terms of uses. A daisy-chain layout is exemplified by a string of decorative lights. All the lights must be connected and working for the entire set to work. However, you only need one power source. Because of FireWire's flexibility to use either layout design (as well as a its slightly higher power output, early adoption by Sony, and a number of other things, I'm sure), most media distribution standards specify it over USB. You'll find FireWire 400 (400 Mbps) or 800 (800 Mbps) used as the standard data transfer bus for all DV, HDV, DVC-Pro, and DVC-Pro HD video standards, for the mLAN standard, for D-VHS decks, for digital cable boxes (upon customer request per US FCC regulations), and for most semi-professional and professional-grade audio capture hardware (as well as external hard drive enclosures, large format professional digital cameras, and high end photo scanners). Standard IEEE 1394 PCI cards are very inexpensive too, and most don't even need special drivers for Windows XP (32-bit) or Mac OS X as the controller chip design is also quite standardized. FireWire, unlike USB, does not require a host controller (usually a computer). Any FireWire device can connect to another and share data without any computer (provided the devices know how to talk to each other). In fact, you could daisy-chain 4 or 5 FireWire devices and share data among them (again, assuming they knew each other's communications protocols).
With regard to the FireWire vs. USB question, I'd agree with Shambler for a few reasons.
USB is designed exclusively around a star network configuration, similar to how most modern computer networks are designed. This works fine for sharing data (or power) from a central host to multiple clients (or tips of the star). However, it also requires a lot of hardware because many computers only have 2 or 3 USB ports (laptops, in particular), limiting the number of devices that you can connect and thus requiring cascading USB hubs. Hubs draw power to operate and cost money (though not much now days). FireWire is designed to use both a star network layout as well as a daisy-chain network layout, making it more flexible in terms of uses. A daisy-chain layout is exemplified by a string of decorative lights. All the lights must be connected and working for the entire set to work. However, you only need one power source. Because of FireWire's flexibility to use either layout design (as well as a its slightly higher power output, early adoption by Sony, and a number of other things, I'm sure), most media distribution standards specify it over USB. You'll find FireWire 400 (400 Mbps) or 800 (800 Mbps) used as the standard data transfer bus for all DV, HDV, DVC-Pro, and DVC-Pro HD video standards, for the mLAN standard, for D-VHS decks, for digital cable boxes (upon customer request per US FCC regulations), and for most semi-professional and professional-grade audio capture hardware (as well as external hard drive enclosures, large format professional digital cameras, and high end photo scanners). Standard IEEE 1394 PCI cards are very inexpensive too, and most don't even need special drivers for Windows XP (32-bit) or Mac OS X as the controller chip design is also quite standardized. FireWire, unlike USB, does not require a host controller (usually a computer). Any FireWire device can connect to another and share data without any computer (provided the devices know how to talk to each other). In fact, you could daisy-chain 4 or 5 FireWire devices and share data among them (again, assuming they knew each other's communications protocols).