audio interface or hard drive

[biczmusic]

Hello all.

I need to upgrade my audio interface.
I need at least 6 ins/outs (TRS) and midi in/out.

I've asked before for your opinion about FW or USB2 option - but didn't get clear answer

Could you share your views about connections via FW.

I'm working on iMac (FW400, FW800, 3xUSB2)
My HD is Iomega (at the moment connected via FW400).

Would it be better to connect audio interface via FW and external HD via USB2 or other way - audio interface via USB2 and HD via FW.

Thanks for any suggestion.

[forumuser695516]

USB 2 is perfectly good these days. But in my experience, for a Mac, firewire is better. It's that little bit more dependable. Even if you do have an FW audio interface and FW hard drive. You are not going to run into problems until you run a very large number of audio tracks.
And if by chance you did run into a bus bandwidth problem, you should still be able to record/play from the iMacs internal drive, and use the external to back the projects up to.

Firewire all the way

Paul

[klw]

good morning,
I read some about USB [[[ www.usb.org/home ]]]
Some was scary. I don't use USB much at all .. At the time I read about USB there were MIDI timing problems. Look around for more info,, If I see any I'll shoot to you.
Thanks

KLW

[matt keen]

Daisy chain them using FW - one socket

[biczmusic]

Hi

Thank you for your suggestions.

I'm going to go down the FW route.
There is one more thing...

I could daisy chain HD and interface, but...
Since I've got two FW ports on my iMac - FW400 and FW800 - maybe I could use both of them.
Would that make any different?

I think there is a different cable (or am I wrong?) for FW800 - and I couldn't find any interfaces with FW800 connection - are there any?

Thanks again.

[forumuser695516]

My iMac also has 1 FW400 port, and 1 FW800 port. However, I believe they are part of the same internal bus (I could be wrong?!) so daisy chaining from one, or using both wont make any difference.
But yes, the FW800 port uses a different plug & socket. However FW800 - FW400 cables are readily available. I got one in Maplins.
FW800 is completely backwards compatible with FW400 peripherals.

Paul

[biczmusic]

Hi there.

Thanks for suggestion.

There is another thing that just came out.
I'm going to get Liquid Mix 32.

That would be another FW device.
Would I get into bandwidth problems in that case.

Is HD on USB really bad idea?

Thanks