27 Feb
2003
27 Feb
'03
7:57 a.m.
Patrick Shirkey wrote:
Umm, I've been shopping for an audio interface for a laptop I hope to
purchase within the next few months. USB audio devices start around
$200 US. I haven't seen FireWire for under $500 US. If anyone knows of
a cheaper FireWire card, I need to know about it.
Yes, I know USB is pretty much broken for audio. But my main desptop
box can handle most of the serious duties (it's got a Delta 1010) - I
just need something cheap, portable, and stereo for gigs with the
laptop. From what I've seen and read, USB does perform this task
adequately, even if it does require ugly driver hacks.
-dgm
yes, you can
move audio over USB. the question is not whether you can,
but whether you should, and my feeling is that professional or
semi-professional users should avoid it completely, regardless of what
Yamaha, Tascam, Edirol and others who want to provide *cheap*
connectivity to home studio users say in the advertisements.
Actually they're not cheap at all. The main benefit of usb audio
devices is the portability. However, now that firewire is becoming a
much cheaper alternative usb devices are probably going to become
obsolete like the Laser disc has.
But it would be very nice if I could use my usb quattro to manipulate
the sounds of my bandmates in realtime at lowlatency. I tried with ssm
at 64 bytes and there was noticible lag so we couldn't do anything live.
The best I can get out of jack is 1024 but 2048 is more reliable.
Having to use PCI devices is a PITA when you are trying to gig at
different venues as they require a lot more space. There is also
something elegant about being able to instantly connect your setup to
a different computer by simply moving the USB cable.
However, it could be said that any sound device running on a PC is a
waste of time for serious musos as you cannot beat the sound quality
from a top of the line recording studio.
Each to their own but I would just like to be able to show people the
true potential of Linux Audio and currently I cannot unless I get a
PCI device. That, IMO, is what really sucks.