Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

For anything relating to music-making on Windows computers, with lots of FAQs. Moderated by Martin Walker.

Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by mjfe2 »

hi, just wanted to hijack this thread to ask about my mackie onyx 400f which i use with a blekin firewire pci port attached to an old pentium 4 beast (512mb RAM).

the latency in cubase reads 11 ms input and 20 ms output latency -- is this a generally acceptable length?

cheers!
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Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by kenwyn »

Hi Guys

So I want to buy one of these cards and I am finding it hard to find a place to buy. I went to this site

http://www.stuff-uk.net/c-1384-firewire-cards.aspx

They start at 6 then go to 94 pounds. The maplin one quoted above is out of stock at the moment. Anyone have a link for any others already reviewed above.

Thanks :)
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Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by kenwyn »

P.S.

Would rather pay 6 pounds if poss :)
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Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by kenwyn »

Thought I would post this link with the recommendations for the Focusrite range,

http://www.focusrite.com/answerbase/en/var/attachments/Focusrite_IEEE_1394_compatibility.pdf

:)
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Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by Basari Studios »

Interface: TC Impakt Twin
FW Controller: SIIG; http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/629062-REG/SIIG_NN_E38012_S3_FireWire_800_PCI_Express_x1.html
Chipset:TI XIO2213
Rating: EXCELENT!!!

Never had anything better in my life or any better configuration.
Working on 128 BS, no clicks, no dropouts, freezes or anything at all.
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Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by GooGoo »

If I get a TI chipset card do I need drivers for Windows 7 64 bit or does Windows 7 sort all that out itself?? Thanks.
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Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by tommygear »

1. FireWire Audio Device: TASCAM FW1884 (V183)

2. Adaptor Make & Model: Belkin Firewire 3 Port PCI Card (F5U503 Rev.S-3)

3. Card Format & Ports: PCI, 3 External Ports

4. Adaptor Controller: TI Chipset(1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller)

5. Rating: Very Good
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Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by Dee »

Hi guys,

My head is spinning due to trying to get a compatible PCI firewire card and audio unit. I have a windows 7 64 bit system and I am looking for something that will be relatively hassle free with regards to drivers......
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Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by sami12 »

I have an M-Audio FS410 bus powered and it connects to the PC by way of a cheapo USB/Firewire PCI card. DOn't know what the chipset is but the properties say VIA OHCI. My motherboard is an Intel - quite an old P4 board, but it keeps going!
<a href="http://www.downloadvlcplayer.net">vlc player download</a>
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Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by Karmakoza »

1. FireWire Audio Device: MOTU Traveler

2. Adaptor Make & Model: LaCie FireWire 400 PCI Card

3. Card Format & Ports: PCI, 3x 400 external

4. Adaptor Controller: Texas instruments Chipset

5. Rating:
Excellent (achieves low latency with no clicks or pops)

I also have a Focusrite Liquid Mix 32 connected to my PC mobo's f/w port. This is also a Texas instruments Chipset. In my case, I used to get severe dropouts, crackles, Liquid Mix problems & system crashes. After a lot of frustration and experimentation I figured it out that the 2 firewire devices, although separate devices, were sharing the same bus! Looking at the schematic of my mobo in the manual, I was able to put the Lacie card in another PCI slot. Problem solved. I can now use both without problems.

BTW: I have a Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4 mobo with intel i5 CPU running W7 32bit and Cubase 5
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Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by Dee »

Hi,

I am hoping I can get pointed in the right direction for a new soundcard. I think firewire will be best for me and have a budget of around £300 - preferably less considering my outlay over the past few months - put it this way, divorce proceedings could get underway soon :headbang:

I have a i7 running windows 7 64bit with 12gb ram - I currently am using a 0404 but bought a node nt2a and would like to go hook up.

My requirements would be this:

Connect the nt2a directly to soundcard via xlr

connect keyboard via 1/4 jack stereo

midi in and out

that's it......if there were a few extra connections then I'll not complain but that is my basic setup.

Any recommendations?

My motherboard is a Asus P6X58D-E intel X58 (socket 1366) - the spec says it has two firewire ports but I have no idea if these have the TI chipset.........basically, I don't really know what I'm talking about!! Therefore any advice, hints and/or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
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Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by RonnieG »

Karmakoza wrote:1. FireWire Audio Device: MOTU Traveler

2. Adaptor Make & Model: LaCie FireWire 400 PCI Card

3. Card Format & Ports: PCI, 3x 400 external

4. Adaptor Controller: Texas instruments Chipset

5. Rating:
Excellent (achieves low latency with no clicks or pops)

I also have a Focusrite Liquid Mix 32 connected to my PC mobo's f/w port. This is also a Texas instruments Chipset. In my case, I used to get severe dropouts, crackles, Liquid Mix problems & system crashes. After a lot of frustration and experimentation I figured it out that the 2 firewire devices, although separate devices, were sharing the same bus! Looking at the schematic of my mobo in the manual, I was able to put the Lacie card in another PCI slot. Problem solved. I can now use both without problems.

Hmmm.
i have 3 PCI slots . 3 is empty 1&2 have firewire cards in. Liquid Mix in No 2 Presonus Firestudio mobile in No1 ) (no onboard firewire). Are you saying that there may be a possibility that the Pci slots in some combination or another (slot 1&2.. or 1&3 etc etc) could be using the same Buss? Hence me having real issues with a Liquid mix (on slot 2) continually dropping out.
Could it be worth (silly question!) me changing the slot combinations? (1& 3 ?)
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Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by Martin Walker »

Hi Ronnie!

Have a read of this of this rather arcane PC Musician feature of mine entitled ‘The Musician's Guide To PCI Slots & Interrupts’:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may03/a ... an0503.asp

It will explain the intricacies of the Interrupt Request Table, which may be just what you need to know, as it determines how the various slots and other PCI devices share their interrupt resources ;)

Martin
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Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by RonnieG »

Thanks Martin
I've started a new thread for my questions to avoid thread hijack.... :blush:
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Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by BenoMill »

thanks for the info, appriciate it.
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Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by Metheny »

Dear all,

I have read the posts in this thread, please let me tell you about a problem I'm experiencing with this hardware:

Audio interface: Echo Audiofire 4
Laptop: Dell 1558, with built-in Ricoh firewire port and a Express Card expansion slot.

This Dell 1558 laptop has a Ricoh chipset, bad for audio production. The audio stops while using the ASIO driver.

I have purchased a Startech express card:
http://www.startech.com/Cards-Adapters/FireWire/2-Port-ExpressCard-IEEE-1394-Firewire-Card~EC13942

But unfortunately, this card does not work with this laptop. Windows does not start because of a resource conflict. And trying to plug the card after Windows startup did not work too, the system does not detect the card and does not install the IEEE Texas Instruments driver.

I'm thinking of buying a second Express card (the following), but I'm afraid it won´t work. I have contacted the manufacturers, but they do not provide any information about compatibility.
http://www.delock.de/produkte/F_259_FireWire_61387/merkmale.html

Any ideas or feedback is appreciated.

Regards,
Martin
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Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by Guest »

Due to the wide range of FireWire (IEEE 1394) chipsets and cards available today it is not possible for us to test every possible configuration. In many situations users will not experience any problems using their Focusrite product with their current setup.
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Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by midierror »

Thanks for the heads up! I have been given a liquid mix and have just ordered the recommended card.
Cheers
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Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by Dramatic Hammer »

The last post here is pretty old but does anyone have any idea how I can get my firewire card working in windows 7? It's a new skylake/z170 build and I'm getting a code 10 error with a Dynamode PCI-3PFW card (VIA chip).

I've tried choosing legacy drivers in device manager, to no avail :frown:
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Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by Exalted Wombat »


There have been reports of Firewire problems with these new motherboards. Sometimes grabbing the latest BIOS has helped.

If it's new build, why is it Windows 7? With brand new hardware, at least give Microsoft a CHANCE to keep up-to-date alongside you!
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Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by Dramatic Hammer »

Well it was an unplanned upgrade and I wanted to get everything working as it was previously, before thinking about moving to 10. I also have a few bits of older hardware that aren't supported any more and I'm not keen to upgrade them too!
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Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by Dramatic Hammer »

As I don't have time to mess around with this, I've ordered a PCIe (apparently runs natively, no bridging chip required) card to arrive this evening - cost 4 times as much so let's see if it was me being cheap that was the problem :headbang:
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Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by robinv »

Dramatic Hammer wrote:As I don't have time to mess around with this, I've ordered a PCIe (apparently runs natively, no bridging chip required) card to arrive this evening - cost 4 times as much so let's see if it was me being cheap that was the problem :headbang:

Yes, PCI firewire cards stopped working a few generations ago, this is the most compatible one i've used with recent motherboards:
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/lycom-pe-107-pci-e-2-port-fi...
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Re: Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

Post by Dramatic Hammer »

Wish I'd known that a few days ago haha! Thanks though, I'll try that one if the one tonight doesn't work.
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