Chiming in on the 'cheap-usb-audio-interface' conversation

[Thomas Orgis]

Am Sat, 8 Jan 2011 14:47:46 -0500
schrieb Mike Holstein <mikeh789 at gmail.com>: 

> ground lift added to the plug on the laptop quieted down my firewire
> interface,

Still sad that that's necessary, isn't it? But at least it is good to have a way out. For that reason I pointed out the symmetric outputs of the io|2.

> and not the USB interface i wanted to use (because of the size).

Of course, you can get crap on all sides. I won't argue with your experience, just wanted to add mine for perspective.

> i dont think the quality of firewire vs USB can be
> challenged.

I do challenge, though;-) The actual sound quality really should not differ if the device is built well (and more and more high-class USB devices are coming to market) -- it's a digital interface, after all. When it is only about recording, with direct monitoring from the device or external mixer, USB should do the job just as well, shoving down the bytes with a certain rate, like millions of thumb drives.
MIDI may be another issue...

> the USB device i use needs the madfuloader

OK, that sounds ugly. Of course there are USB devices that are a PITA to use (like that Tascam with the "L"), but at least there is a category of plug-and-play with the standard USB audio class driver. I don't see how setup should be simpler with a FireWire device where you _have_ to run JACK because nothing else uses ffado.

> cat /proc/interrupts

... and then that whole business. Yes, I dealt with that. I dealt with a laptop with crappy chipset. I shifted PCI cards around ... this is not funny. Of course, there are ways to get lucky, but I have the feeling that it's the norm to have such troubles when first setting up a FireWire interface, while it is the exception for USB to get a faulty mainboard that for some reason doesn't talk right.
The complication with the io|2 was that it refuses to work when you plug it into a hub, needs direct connection. That is a sort of problem that users can be expected to solve: Unplug here, replug there ... aah! With audio tech you do that pluggin' around all the time;-)

> visit a professional studio, the likely-hood of seeing a USB interface in a
> rack somewhere, or in the signal path at all would be rather unlikely.

Well, before USB 2 devices becoming mainstream, USB was no option for studio work as you only get 2 channels through. FireWire was the only solution to get at least 8 or 16 tracks -- besides PCI cards. I believe one reason to rarely see USB stuff is that simply people don't have reason to ditch working FireWire setups. They bought FireWire gear while digitalizing the studio (or ramping up from internal PC interfaces) and trust that, now. Who knows how it looks in 5 years, or 10?
I also have said FA-101 in my rack, but I surely had my trouble getting a reliable FireWire setup (interface chips, interrrupts, mainboards, ...). I have the suspicion that my life would have been easier with some USB gear of _today_. Back then, there was no alternative, really. Of course, you won't see USB gear in my rack until the FA-101 died, or until I decide that I want more than 8 channels, because chaining up another FA-101 won't work right since Edirol managed to break the synchronization in that model... hm, OK: Hooking multiple USB devices up to each other and get them synched is not known practice (to me). Looks like a point for FireWire, still. My point isn't that it's no better than USB, anyway -- it's that it can add complication in situations where you don't need any advantage over USB.

Though, I must confess: I do not have experienced a multichannel USB interface in action. All I was talking about was simplicity to get some recording going, where latency can as big as it may be, does not matter, and where 2 channels are enough. I would not dare to get into FireWire for that.

Anyhow, this is getting out of hand ... I should stop ranting. Somehow I had to get some frustration off my chest -- combined with the relief of the io|2 just working(tm). Perhaps it is a lucky case ... I just see that people also had their troubles with the Edirol UA-101, mainly because it needs a special driver -- I guess most of the mixers with USB interface are 2-channel after all, so have less issues with just being USB class compliant audio devices.


Alrighty then,

Thomas.
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