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Author Topic: usb vs. firewire  (Read 2307 times)

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Offline intpseeker

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usb vs. firewire
« on: March 04, 2009, 08:33:49 PM »
I just read an opinion that an interface that is usb 2.0 was inferior ro firewire. The jist of the comment was that you could not record the same number of tracks with usb.

Any thoughts?
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Offline live2496

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Re: usb vs. firewire
« Reply #1 on: March 04, 2009, 10:28:55 PM »
Did a little looking around and found this...

http://www.usb-ware.com/firewire-vs-usb.htm

Quote

Read and write tests to the same IDE hard drive connected using FireWire and then Hi-Speed USB 2.0 show:
 
Read Test:
     
    * 5000 files (300 MB total) FireWire was 33% faster than USB 2.0
    * 160 files (650MB total) FireWire was 70% faster than USB 2.0

Write Test:   

    * 5000 files (300 MB total) FireWire was 16% faster than USB 2.0
    * 160 files (650MB total) FireWire was 48% faster than USB 2.0


48% faster when writing. That would mean more tracks when recording.









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Offline ghellquist

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Re: usb vs. firewire
« Reply #2 on: March 05, 2009, 04:54:48 AM »
48% faster when writing. That would mean more tracks when recording.

Not necessarily. It is a bit like comparing apples and oranges (very nice both).

USB2 and Firewire work a little differently inside the computer. They use different amounts of CPU power and set different requirements on the computer. This will show up in different maximum number of channels and in different minimum latency (and these two numbers affect each other). Reading and writing to a hard disc uses these resources in the computer differently from how you interface with a sound card. So simply looking at the transfer speed of disc writes does not give any accurate figure on how many channels of sound the interface can carry. To make things even more multifaceted different computers handles things differently, some better some worse. So it all sort of depends.

To boil it down, in my limited experience, USB2 handles fewer channels of sound. Yes. But enough is enough. I rarely record with more than 12 microphones at the same time. Add 2 channels for listening and the total goes to 14. And on a good computer, USB2 handles this at 96kHz sample rate, 24 bit. Enough for me and probably for almost everyone on this forum. Probably not all though, and then the point does become valid.

On one of my really old computers, there is not even any USB2 and that one could barely handle four channels at 44.1k. Things does indeed change, and in this case to the better.

Gunnar

Offline intpseeker

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Re: usb vs. firewire
« Reply #3 on: March 05, 2009, 06:25:16 AM »
Sounds as if the difference, for my purposes, might not be a problem.

Thanks for the input.
Mics:        Akg 451 eb A51's, ck-1's, ck-2's, ck 8's
                Peluso CEMC6 MK2, MK4, MK21, MK41
                AKG 391
                CA-11 cards and omnis
Pre:          ST-9100
Cables:     XTC Silvers, DT47-12's
Recorders: ACM PMD660
                 Busman modded R-4
                 PCM-M10
                 DR-70D
                 Church modded R-09 micsketeer
“One good thing about music, when it hits- you feel no pain” - Bob Marley

 

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