On Sat, Jan 8, 2011 at 12:58 PM, Thomas Orgis <thomas-fo...@orgis.org>wrote:
> Am Sat, 8 Jan 2011 11:34:59 -0500 > schrieb Mike Holstein <mikeh...@gmail.com>: > > > in my experience, USB devices can sometimes > > pick up as much electrical interference as internal sound cards on > laptops. > > I have to spoil the specific take on USB interfaces: "Hey, I hear it when > you move the mouse!" That's what I got with someone listening with > headphones to the main output of my Edirol FA-101. I'm glad that you don't > get that on the recordings (I _think_), just superimposed on the analog > output portion. > But still, I am mightily pi**ed about the lack of protection from such > issues (our dear friend Improper Grounding again, I guess) even when > shelling out several 100 € for the gear. > > Be it USB or any other digital interface, I guess you can have luck and the > bad sort of which. I do not see a technical argument why a USB-connected > device should suffer more than a device connected via FireWire (both being > bus-powered, even) ... you can get bitten on both camps. For simple > recording tasks, I really like the io|2 -- no comparison in bitchyness to > the FireWire setup. I ended up angrily smashing a dual socket mainboard with > a hammer because it featured a southbridge bug that just so might be the > reason for reliable FireWire audio being impossible -- even using a PCI > controller with a "good" FireWire chip. I strongly suspect that a USB > interface would have worked just fine. Perhaps not ultra sharp latency, but > without all the fuss. > > That being said, by current setup with ubuntu studio 10.04 and the FA-101 > on a custom PC worked without major hickup the last few weeks ... but I very > well remember having to reboot the machine (or at least modprobe-cycle > firewire) because the firewire subsystem got stuck because of just another > subtle driver issue. The FA-101 is a rather old device, but still tricky. No > comparison to just having snd-usb-audio loaded and off we go -- with the > added plus that it works without JACK, too. To be fair: USB interfaces may > not like being put behind a hub... so they're not _totally_ trivial;-) > > > Alrighty then, > > Thomas. > > PS: To be a bit more on topic again; I did not test the MIDI performance of > any of my USB or FireWire interfaces (uh, would that work with the FA-101?). > I am using an Alesis ControlPad with in-built USB for triggering drums via > MIDI ... but I don't play seriously enough on that one to judge. > > -- > Ubuntu-Studio-users mailing list > Ubuntu-Studio-users@lists.ubuntu.com > Modify settings or unsubscribe at: > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-users > > do dought USB should be easier than firewire, i just know that this week i was preparing for an audio presentation at my LUG, and a simple little grey ground lift added to the plug on the laptop quieted down my firewire interface, and not the USB interface i wanted to use (because of the size). i can only speak from experience, and i feel that an external USB interface (something like a 2 channel interface without preamps) is probably not a significant enough step up from an internal interface. you can get some nice USB devices though. i really like the ZOOM H4 http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodid=1901 . the preamps and onboard mics are very nice quality, and the standalone recording feature could be nice. i dont think the quality of firewire vs USB can be challenged. i have a presonus firepod that is literally plug and play in ubuntu with ffado. the USB device i use needs the madfuloader, and can be a little more challenging to get up and running, this is again *in my experience. i have several texas instruments firewire chipsets that i like to use, and are supported well. i have a VIA chip set that is not bad either. when trouble-shooting xruns on a firewire or USB device, i think its helpful to look at the output of: cat /proc/interrupts running that in a terminal can help determine what devices share IRQ values. i try and set my firewire card to its own IRQ in the bios (when possible). ive found that using a different USB port on certain laptops can really help isolate a USB audio device, and reduce xruns. i didnt mean to step on any toes earlier about the quality of USB devices. although, you might want to take into consideration that if you were to visit a professional studio, the likely-hood of seeing a USB interface in a rack somewhere, or in the signal path at all would be rather unlikely. -- MH http://opensourcemusician.libsyn.com/ http://wnclug.ourproject.org/
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