USB or firewire soundcard?
i was looking for a soundcard and the first question i asked myself was: would i go for USB or firewire?
here are some arguments…
pro’s for USB:
con’s for USB:
pro’s for firewire:
con’s for firewire
can anyone give me other arguments for USB of firewire?
get usb, imo, doesnt make a huge diff in terms of the sound. USB 2.0 is fucking fast. Firewire is kind of better for some things (video or mass data transfer mostly). Firewire is just a bitch as most PCs dont have it. Not to mention having to use a power adapter is a bitch.
Firewire has lower latency than usb thats correct.
If you have a firewire-400 port you will need a power adapter.
I am pretty sure if you did a blind test of a decent USB vs its firewire competitor you would have a hard time telling the latencies apart, thats if you could tell the difference at all.
However… generally speaking firewire devices seem to contain higher level quality components. Digital to Analogue converters seem to be more or less standard across the board when you get into USB or Firewire units. The Analogue to Digital converters are generally much better in firewire devices than their USB counterparts.
You should really research any device you wish to purchase so you know exactly what you are getting before it lands at your door, USB or firewire.
so if you have an the Edirol UA 25 (USB) and the Edirol FA 66 (Firewire) and you just want to playback music from traktor with low latency, the Edirol UA 25 does the job?
You’ve pretty much got the main points there. The reasoning behind lower latency comes into play when you’re doing real-time recording or processing of input signals. Say you’re recording someone singing into a mic and you want to play a processed version of what they’re singing back into their headphones - that’s when latency is really important, any noticeable delay will throw them off.
For just pushing sound out of a laptop then USB is fine, and the ability to bus-power the USB device is a godsend. I went with the Firewire option (FA66) because I do occasionally record with my Condenser mic and I needed the lower latency, but I pay the price in having to carry around a Wall Wart power brick.
If you’re not going to record much or use your soundcard for studio production with real-time inputs, go with the USB. If you find yourself recording a traditional band with guitars, bass, multiple mics on the drums then USB would be fine, it’s just inputs. If you then want to play back some prerecorded tracks into their headphones for them to play along with as you record them, you need to look at Firewire or internal soundcards as you’re mixing inputs and outputs, and delays becomes a problem.
That’s why there’s no clear advice on what to buy, there are so many different situations. But for the Digital DJ the issues are clear:
Also, make sure you have at least 6 usable outputs on the device - one day in the future you might want to add some elements to your DJ setup that take another couple of channels or you might need to run some Booth speakers. Having the option to route some sound out of another set of outputs will future proof you (e.g. 2 for headphones, 2 for Stereo Left, 2 for Stereo Right into a hardware mixer, or route a couple of Ableton Live channels through an external Effects device.)
Hope that helps.
I agree with the outputs thing, i’ve got an audio kontrol 1, and altough its great and pretty much all i need for now I can see me getting pissed off in the future that it doesnt have more outputs, and inputs for that matter, and will probably buy a new card.
i can have the Presonus Firebox (nearly new) for just 190 euro’s (2/3 of the price here in europe)
but if i look at the back of the firebox, i see 4 ouputs and 2 mix outs… so does that make 6 usable outputs?
and what do you think of the ESI U46 XL (USB), because that’s my second option in that price range (up to 200 euro)
so if you are a DJ who:
a USB soundcard would be best, right?
next question: which one is decent enough? 
(around 200 and 250 euro)
Thats right TomBomb just make sure you do your research on whatever you buy
researching as we speak 
not easy though, good to know that the firewire-option can be cancelled for my use
choosing the right soundcard is actually more difficult than choosing the right midi-controller 
an M-Audio Fast Track Pro perhaps?
Erm i shouldnt say best though…
I personally chose the firewire option for the latency/quality of the device, but it doesn’t matter that much - just make sure you get a decent usb one.
Try the Audio 8 DJ if you have the money. That way you can always add Traktor Scratch to it later on if you feel you may be leaning that way.
Not everyone has Audio8 money.
I did a bit of research on external cards myself, as I’ve recently got a lappie after my desktop died. I had an m-audio audiophile 192 in it but the so called vista drivers for it were very cut down compared to their xp drivers (I couldn’t get spdif out to work with vista).
You want to make sure whatever card you get has good drivers to suit your os.
I ended up ordering this http://www.echoaudio.com/Products/FireWire/AudioFire2/index.php
one reason I got firewire is that I didn’t want anything else on the usb bus when using the vci-100, don’t know if it makes any difference to latency of course, but just in case.
Nice one!
[quote]
one reason I got firewire is that I didn’t want anything else on the usb bus when using the vci-100, don’t know if it makes any difference to latency of course, but just in case.[/QUOTE]
Don’t know if it would be noticable, but it is always better to be safe than sorry right?
You can buy a PCMCIA or Expresscard that will have firewire jacks -
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=277548
You need to check to see if your laptop has an Expresscard port or a PCMCIA port before going ahead to buy one of these and buy the right one suited to your laptop.
Good point!
Get a decent one now and you wont worry about having to upgrade into the future for a long time
Well.. I am still pretty comfy behind my PC, and also my laptop has enough USB2.0 ports.