Firewire devices with SAC

[Bruce Callaway]

Hi all,

For small gigs (vocals and acoustic guitar), I want to buy a firewire device to use with SAC on my laptop. I only need a small number of channels. This will save the need to take my full RME setup which is overkill in these instances. I am considering PreSonus Firebox, Echo Firewire4 and M-Audio (there are a couple of interest).

Does anyone have any experience/advice with any of these?

Thanks
Bruce

[DominicPerry]

I have an Echo AudioFire4. It gets quite good low latency performance with my old laptop, but the mic-pres are not really usable and the headphone output is not good enough. The audio quality on line in and line out is good though. Drivers are pretty reliable but not up to RME standards. In fact, they are the second best I have used. Worse, in no particular order are - Sound Devices, M-Audio, Alesis, Presonus, Focusrite, Tascam (nearly the worst), ESI, Mackie (shocking, worse than Tascam), Centrance.

For Firewire, I'd buy an RME, although personally I had problems with the FF400 because it had 48v on the TRS and no output volume control. FF800 is brilliant though.

Dominic

[MikeDee]

The M-Audio FW-610 is a fine choice. M-Audio has excellent drivers, and this unit is an upgrade of their now-discontinued FW-410, which provided solid bang for the buck.

If you want to save a li'l cheddar (and who doesn't these days?), search for an FW-410 on eBay or Craig's List...should be around $200.

UPDATE: Perhaps the 410 is not discontinued per sé, since it's still listed on the M-Audio site. However, it might be very difficult to find a vendor who has one in stock...and I would consider the $399 retail price to be a bit on the high side at this point...buy YMMV.

HTH,

[DaveS]

I have an M-Audio FW1814 which seems to work ok with SAC. I also have a MOTU Traveler that works well too. MOTU has an 8Pre (I believe that is what it is called) that looks really interesting and has 8 mic pre's built in.

M-audio has their new interface out - the Profire 2626 which looks pretty good -8 mic pre's, etc..

But for size - I agree with the others - look for a FW410 or 610. Small, prett good support from the company. Just make sure that you have a good FW interface for the laptop...that seems to be the Achilles heal in most firewire audio systems.

[Bruce Callaway]

Thanks for all the replies. I am investigating all the recommended units below. One key feature is the ability to flexibly route inputs and outputs. As this will be used for playing small live gigs with no serious recording taking place, lower price is good too The Profire610 looks the goods so far. The RME firewire is too exxy for me given I already have a Digiface setup.

I have a pretty recent HP laptop that is well equipped however I haven't checked the firewire connection. Time to check it out too.

[HapHazzard]

I'm using a Konnekt Live with a IBM Thinkpad T61 for small stuff.
It's little tough to sort out the signal route but still nice stuff.

Plus 8 ch of adat
Hap

[Bruce Callaway]

I'm using a Konnekt Live with a IBM Thinkpad T61 for small stuff.
I little tough to sort out the signal route but nice stuff.

Plus 8 ch of adat
Hap

Very interesting, I haven't come across this one before...

[HapHazzard]

The Konnekt Live claims a A to D delay of 0.68 ms / 0.63 ms @ 44.1 kHz / 48 kHz

I haven't checked but it's fast enough for me.

Hap

[Bob L]

Why worry about any routing options... you have SAC... it does all the routing for you... in fact... i would prefer the soundcard does nothing but pass high quality audio in and out at the fastest driver performance level it can.

Bob L

[HapHazzard]

Why worry about any routing options... you have SAC... it does all the routing for you... in fact... i would prefer the soundcard does nothing but pass high quality audio in and out at the fastest driver performance level it can.

Bob L

True
When you first install the software and diver, it comes up with a TON of stuff you don't want, but after setting that aside and let SAC do it's thing, the world becomes a more peaceful place to.......Mix.

Hap