Acoustic Trio traveling system Q?

[jlklein]

Hey folks,
My wife and I have a small acoustic cover trio with our daughter, basically 3 vox, acoustic guitar via Digitech Stereo Looper and percussion/cajone mic.
I'm currently using a small Mackie ProFX8 analog mixer with onboard FX that we set to mimic the various cover song styles and I use the Amplitude Acoustic iPhone app for my acoustic effects.
It works fine when we use our own PA, but if the house has a PA we currently plug our mixer main outs into the house system so we can retain our FX changes.
Even if the venue has a sound guy and an effects processor, it's a lot to expect them to figure out and change the effects we want for each song.

I'd like the option to be able to send either 1) a full mix to our PA, or 2) discrete channels plus an effects mix to a house PA so they can mix to the room. I also want the ability to run both Vox and Guitar FX from the mixer with Scene control instead of having to set my Amplitude app to my guitar fx preset and the Mackie to the Vox FX preset. So, I plan to put together a small 8x8 SAC setup with a laptop and a Profire 2626 that I have for testing that's looking for a more purposeful life

My old firewire-equipped Sony Vaio is having mouse/trackpad issues so I though about using one of my newer ExpressCard/34-equipped Dell Inspiron Core Duos with a Firewire card.
Has anyone had any issues with using ExpressCards like the SIIG or Startech TI-chip-equipped ExpressCards with Firewire interfaces like the Profire 2626?
Any pressing reason not to get the Firewire800 vs the Firewire400 versions? The Profires are FW400, but a FW800 card should be compatible with a simple FW800/FW400 adapter cable.

Thanks,
Jeff

[mr_es335]

Hello,

Most of the current laptops these days are using Ricoh chipsets which are not recommended for use with FireWire.

In the end, I just gave up looking and went back to desktop environments.

There are units available, but they are not inexpensive, such as Eurocom, Sage and other custom systems.

Hope this helps?

[jlklein]

Hello,
Most of the current laptops these days are using Ricoh chipsets which are not recommended for use with FireWire.

Correct, but I'm not asking about onboard Firewire chips...I'm talking about using TI-chip-equipped Firewire ExpressCards (TI=Texas Instruments).
(Note: Ricoh's, and VIA's for that matter, are actually fine for "non-audio" use, such as hard drives and video camera connections.)

The Sony Viao laptop I mentioned has built-in Firewire with the preferred TI chipset, which worked fine, but as I said it's having mouse/trackpad issues.
I have other laptops that don't have onboard Firewire of any kind, but do have a slot for an ExpressCard/34, which are available with Firewire and USB3.0.
That is what I'm interested in.

Thanks,
Jeff

[mr_es335]

Jeff,

I understand, but the ExpressCards will still be using the Ricoh bus...so, it is still Ricoh. in the end.

[jlklein]

Jeff,

I understand, but the ExpressCards will still be using the Ricoh bus...so, it is still Ricoh. in the end.

The ExpressCards themselves can have Texas Instruments, Ricoh, VIA, etc chipsets, depending on the ExpressCard configuration (Firewire, USB, RS232, Ethernet, etc). However, regardless of the type of ExpressCard, the ExpressCard slot goes straight to the laptop's internal PCIe bus. Using a Firewire ExpressCard with a TI chipset in a laptop should be the same as using a Firewire PCIe card with a TI chipset in a desktop PC.

Jeff

[Mattseymour]

I've had no problems with the startech express cards. Used one with a profire 2626, a motu 828 mk2 and also a Presonus RMai mixer.

[mr_es335]

Jeff,

However, regardless of the type of ExpressCard, the ExpressCard slot goes straight to the laptop's internal PCIe bus. Using a Firewire ExpressCard with a TI chipset in a laptop should be the same as using a Firewire PCIe card with a TI chipset in a desktop PC.

...This IS interesting!!

I contacted Lenovo, Dell and Toshiba and they told me that the PCI-e bus is indeed governed by the chipset - but in every case the chipset was the Ricoh chipset.

I literally spent months on this one - see my previous posts on the subject, and I finally had to revert to a desktop environment. This is not to say I am disappointed in any way, other than the weight.

[jlklein]

I've had no problems with the startech express cards. Used one with a profire 2626, a motu 828 mk2 and also a Presonus RMai mixer.

Matt,
Did you have the FW400 or FW800 version?
I'm thinking of just going with the faster FW800 with an adapter cable for future capabilities, which I've used with hard drives and such.
Just not sure if it makes a difference with FW400 audio devices...they *say* FW800 is backward compatible...but you know how that sometimes goes

Thanks,
Jeff

[jlklein]

Jeff,
...This IS interesting!!

I contacted Lenovo, Dell and Toshiba and they told me that the PCI-e bus is indeed governed by the chipset - but in every case the chipset was the Ricoh chipset.

I literally spent months on this one - see my previous posts on the subject, and I finally had to revert to a desktop environment. This is not to say I am disappointed in any way, other than the weight.

I suppose that could be true, however, a Ricoh PCIe chipset would not be the same thing as a Ricoh Firewire chipset. Ricoh is a company, not a model number, and they make a plethora of chipsets ranging from Firewire to card readers to toner cartridges (really...). The issue with non-Texas Instrument chipsets for audio uses has to do with the Firewire chipset itself (internal or external), not the PC or Laptop bus architecture.

Looking into it myself, I didn't see any mention of Ricoh in conjunction with PCIexpress chipsets, rather Intel, AMD and Nvidia are common there.
The only mention I saw of Ricoh relating to PCI Express referred to external or onboard cardbus or memory card host bus controllers, i.e. memory card readers, which have a *connection* back to the PCI Express bus but aren't the *chipset* for the PCI Express bus. Incidentally, I did find a Lenovo-related mention for the Ricoh PCIe related controller, but it was referring to the SDXC/MMC Host Controller (built-in multi-format memory card reader).

Hope this helps,
Jeff

[Mattseymour]

I used the 400 version. Never had any need for the 800 and it was more expensive.

As you say the Ricoh pci bus chipset is not the same as the firewire chip.