On Sat, Jan 8, 2011 at 12:58 PM, Thomas Orgis <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:thomas-forum@orgis.org">thomas-forum@orgis.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"> Am Sat, 8 Jan 2011 11:34:59 -0500<br> schrieb Mike Holstein <<a href="mailto:mikeh789@gmail.com">mikeh789@gmail.com</a>>:<br> <div class="im"><br> > in my experience, USB devices can sometimes<br> > pick up as much electrical interference as internal sound cards on laptops.<br> <br> </div>I have to spoil the specific take on USB interfaces: "Hey, I hear it when you move the mouse!" That's what I got with someone listening with headphones to the main output of my Edirol FA-101. I'm glad that you don't get that on the recordings (I _think_), just superimposed on the analog output portion.<br> But still, I am mightily pi**ed about the lack of protection from such issues (our dear friend Improper Grounding again, I guess) even when shelling out several 100 € for the gear.<br> <br> Be it USB or any other digital interface, I guess you can have luck and the bad sort of which. I do not see a technical argument why a USB-connected device should suffer more than a device connected via FireWire (both being bus-powered, even) ... you can get bitten on both camps. For simple recording tasks, I really like the io|2 -- no comparison in bitchyness to the FireWire setup. I ended up angrily smashing a dual socket mainboard with a hammer because it featured a southbridge bug that just so might be the reason for reliable FireWire audio being impossible -- even using a PCI controller with a "good" FireWire chip. I strongly suspect that a USB interface would have worked just fine. Perhaps not ultra sharp latency, but without all the fuss.<br> <br> That being said, by current setup with ubuntu studio 10.04 and the FA-101 on a custom PC worked without major hickup the last few weeks ... but I very well remember having to reboot the machine (or at least modprobe-cycle firewire) because the firewire subsystem got stuck because of just another subtle driver issue. The FA-101 is a rather old device, but still tricky. No comparison to just having snd-usb-audio loaded and off we go -- with the added plus that it works without JACK, too. To be fair: USB interfaces may not like being put behind a hub... so they're not _totally_ trivial;-)<br> <br> <br> Alrighty then,<br> <font color="#888888"><br> Thomas.<br> </font><br> PS: To be a bit more on topic again; I did not test the MIDI performance of any of my USB or FireWire interfaces (uh, would that work with the FA-101?). I am using an Alesis ControlPad with in-built USB for triggering drums via MIDI ... but I don't play seriously enough on that one to judge.<br> <br>--<br> Ubuntu-Studio-users mailing list<br> <a href="mailto:Ubuntu-Studio-users@lists.ubuntu.com">Ubuntu-Studio-users@lists.ubuntu.com</a><br> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-users" target="_blank">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-users</a><br> <br></blockquote></div><div><br></div>do dought USB should be easier than firewire, i just know that this week i was preparing for an audio presentation at my LUG, and a simple little grey ground lift added to the plug on the laptop quieted down my firewire interface, and not the USB interface i wanted to use (because of the size). i can only speak from experience, and i feel that an external USB interface (something like a 2 channel interface without preamps) is probably not a significant enough step up from an internal interface. you can get some nice USB devices though. i really like the ZOOM H4 <a href="http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodid=1901">http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodid=1901</a> . the preamps and onboard mics are very nice quality, and the standalone recording feature could be nice. i dont think the quality of firewire vs USB can be challenged. i have a presonus firepod that is literally plug and play in ubuntu with ffado. the USB device i use needs the madfuloader, and can be a little more challenging to get up and running, this is again *in my experience. i have several texas instruments firewire chipsets that i like to use, and are supported well. i have a VIA chip set that is not bad either. when trouble-shooting xruns on a firewire or USB device, i think its helpful to look at the output of:<div> <br></div><div>cat /proc/interrupts</div><div><br></div><div>running that in a terminal can help determine what devices share IRQ values. i try and set my firewire card to its own IRQ in the bios (when possible). ive found that using a different USB port on certain laptops can really help isolate a USB audio device, and reduce xruns.</div> <div><br></div><div>i didnt mean to step on any toes earlier about the quality of USB devices. although, you might want to take into consideration that if you were to 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.<br> <br clear="all"><br>-- <br>MH<div><br><a href="http://opensourcemusician.libsyn.com/" target="_blank">http://opensourcemusician.libsyn.com/</a></div><div><a href="http://wnclug.ourproject.org/" target="_blank">http://wnclug.ourproject.org/</a></div> <br> </div>