Laptop Recording Interfaces, Help!!!

rh4blade · #1 October 28th, 2006

Hi Guys and Gals,

I'm in the middle of setting up a Portable Songwriting Studio based around a Laptop.
I'm using Hafler M5 nearfield monitors, AKG K240 HEADPHONES and a couple of EV ND979 mics. I was wondering if anyone could give advice on any benifits or cons of a couple of USB and Firewire interfaces, as I haven't had much experience with these devices. The units I'm looking at are Digidesigns' Mbox, Presonus Inspire, Line 6 UX2 or a Yamaha I88X.

Any advice or personal experience would very greatly appreciated as I have to make a decision this wednesday. By the way, I can get the Yamaha for $300AU.

Warm regards

Andrew

Australia

Kirk Lorange · #2 October 28th, 2006

I'm on the same quest myself ... let's hope we get some good advice.

scotty_b · #3 October 28th, 2006

Depending on what you are looking at recording, Yamaha have introduced some new desks with USB capability, and they come bundled with Cubasis. They are a little over the $300 mark, but offer xlr inputs and faders etc.
They look pretty good for the price.

OldG · #4 October 28th, 2006

I would opt for a firewire device over USB, Its a faster, more stable interface. My camcorder won't work properly on USB, but flies on firewire,for instance.

On this desktop PC I have 6 of the 8 USB ports taken already, which makes my choice for me (if I ever raise the cash

). I think the best thing to do, would be to visit the troubleshooting section of the manufacturers forums to see which one has bugs/glitches least relevant to yourself.

cshude · #5 October 28th, 2006

Here's the mack daddy laptop interface out on the market right now. I have heard nothing but rave reviews from people who have bought it, including people in the recording industry since the early 60's.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct0...s/emu1616m.htm
Sounds like you're not afraid to invest to get some serious sound quality, so I figured this would be right up your alley. Should have everything you would ever want/need.

rh4blade · #6 November 4th, 2006

Hi guys, thanks for the advice. I ended up opting for the I88X, and I have to say that it is one awesome piece of kit. The 2 mic pres are the most transperant that I have heard.( They aparently are from Yamaha's top of the line digital mixing console.) All the other features mean that I can easily take my laptop and a small rack, and have the ability to record and monitor up to 18 tracks live. Not bad for a $300.00AU investment. If you have the opportunity to pick one of these up, I'd say go for it. The drivers are all updated and everything is working fine.

I'll post some recordings as soon as I get a chance to do a bit of serious recording.

Have a great day.

fly135 · #7 November 4th, 2006

OldG, I didn't know there were any camcorders that used USB for video. The ones I know of use the USB just for xfering photos.

OldG · #8 November 4th, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by fly135

OldG, I didn't know there were any camcorders that used USB for video. The ones I know of use the USB just for xfering photos.

It's a Sony Digital 8 jobbie ( DCR-TRV238E), it has the choice of USB or firewire transfer... obsolete now, but well decent video and sound

fly135 · #9 November 4th, 2006

OldG, check your manual. The USB is only for pictures, not video. USB is now 400Mbps, but when the camcorders makers decided on 1394, USB was only 11Mbps.

OldG · #10 November 4th, 2006

I have actually used the USB to transfer video - the results weren't so good even on a new board with USB 2.0 ports - as I got a firewire port built onto this new board also, a cable was all I needed to switch

fly135 · #11 November 4th, 2006

That's because the USB video is MPEG and the 1394 video is DV25. The quality of the USB video is by design of the camera. It has nothing to do with USB in terms of it's capabilities. Except that version 1 USB cannot support DV25, which is 25 Mbps vs the 11 Mbps of USB v1. The video xfered by USB is a feature of the camera that allows you to store photos and MPEG on a memory stick. The main video feature of the camera is based on DV25 and that is only available through 1394. If the camera supported xfering DV25 through USB V2 it would look exactly the same.

Doug · #12 November 7th, 2006

rh4blade - looks like you got a great deal. A search on the web gives prices around$400 US. What kind of software comes with the unit? Does it include the power supply? The only negative I can see is that it's not very portable.
I've got an Echo Gina 3G which is fine except that it requires a PCI card to be installed in a desktop PC. My PC is really noisy - I'd really like to be able to use a quiet laptop.
Firewire seems to be the way to go since it'll work with either a laptop or a desktop. The Emu 1616 that Chris's post was talking about uses a PCMCIA card so you're limited to a laptop. I guess you could buy a PCI to PCMCIA card.

Doug · #13 November 9th, 2006

Hi All,
Scotty_B mentioned some new devices from Yamaha. I checked it out - they just released two units - a GO46 and a GO44. The GO46 has two XLR inputs with individually switched phantom power. Same pre's that are in the I88X apparently. A bit pricey - ~$400us. But it's my b'day so I bought it. I'll try it out tonight and let you know my impressions.
I'm off on a business trip to Minneapolis next week and I'm going to pack along my guitar and this unit along with some mics for playing around in the hotel room in the evening.
Other units I looked at were the presonus firebox - quite well respected. and the focusrite saffire - also well respected.

6string · #14 November 9th, 2006

Doug

Doug · #15 November 9th, 2006

why thankyou.