another Macbook-related recording question

stevo2112 · Post by **stevo2112** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 7:03 pm

I've gotta throw down for another notebook because my old one is crapping out on me. I'm thinking that I'll go with a mac, with the idea of being able to record with it at some point in the future. I've seen some discussion of this topic in another thread, and it seems that a lot of people here have experience with such matters, but I'm wondering, REALLY:

How essential is a firewire port for an effective audio recording interface? Need I spend the extra money on the macbook pro just to get one, or will the USB 2.0 do the trick?

Thanks for your help, and sorry for the partial redundancy-

Bink · Post by **Bink** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 7:39 pm

I've just gone through a similar process so will put down what I found.

Not quite answering the fw vs usb qn but the reasons in the end that swayed me away from the macbook was the lack of a 7200rpm drive and the fact I felt I could get more computer with the Imac for little extra money.

Billy pointed this out to me and also that you can specify to get the pro with a 7200rpm drive.

If looking at USB interfaces be sure to check it can work with more than 2 channels simultaneously. For example the alesis multimix mixers that are USB are limited to 2 tracks simultaneous transport but the firewire interfaces are not.

I thought I was set on a laptop but the Imac is portable enough for me.

There's a big difference pricewise between the standard and pro versions of the macbook and I totally see the dilemma. It's worth noting that USB audio interfaces appear to generally be cheaper.

Hope that helps a little. My decision in the end was guided by the fact I had a pretty good idea of the interface I wanted which was fw.

stevo2112 · Post by **stevo2112** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 7:43 pm

Cool, thanks Chris.

I did notice that I can get a 7200rpm drive on the pro but not the regular macbook, for some reason. Another problem I've just seen is that all the pros only have 1 firewire port, so to use a firewire interface to record to an external drive connected via firewire would be impossible, as I understand it. Not sure what to do about this either. Poop.

stevo2112 · Post by **stevo2112** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 7:47 pm

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by stevo2112
 Cool, thanks Chris.

I did notice that I can get a 7200rpm drive on the pro but not the regular macbook, for some reason. Another problem I've just seen is that all the pros only have 1 firewire port, so to use a firewire interface to record to an external drive connected via firewire would be impossible, as I understand it. Not sure what to do about this either. Poop.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

But it looks like Teddy mentioned that you can daisychain firewire devices. Is this really the case? I'm just not familiar with this possibility.

Bink · Post by **Bink** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 7:50 pm

yeah, that seemed a strange decision to me too unless i'm missing something there.

How many USB ports are there on the new macbooks? (I can't check as I'm on my phone)

Edit: Yes you can daisy chain fw although IZve read reports that you can't chain as much as they claim. Would have thought 2 devices would be fine though.

stevo2112 · Post by **stevo2112** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 7:54 pm

2 usb on the macbooks and pros- 1 added firewire 800 on the pro.

Post by **bclaire** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 8:15 pm

Here's what to look for:

you definitely ought to get a 7200rpm drive if at all possible- all the cpu speed in the world isn't going to help a 5400rpm drive write info but...

... since I've been recording to an external Firewire 800 drive, I haven't had it lock up. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

As far as USB 2.0 is concerned, it is recommended that you only use the USB port on the left side of the machine to hook up to mboxes and other peripherals- it seems there IS a difference even between ports although they are both called USB 2.0 ports. I would hope that USB 2.0 is fast enough to use for an external drive but I know that there is supposed to be a difference in the way information gets handled between Firewire and USB and that Firewire ends up being the fastest.

Plus, it helps to have a bigger screen. Some of those tracks are really small...

markjazzbassist · Post by **markjazzbassist** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 10:38 pm

the genius at the mac store told me that USB 2.0 is faster than firewire 400 now. so you should be fine.

i use Mbox interfaces and they all use USB.

Thinline_slim · Post by **Thinline_slim** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 10:41 pm

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">How essential is a firewire port for an effective audio recording interface? Need I spend the extra money on the macbook pro just to get one, or will the USB 2.0 do the trick?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

With the new Macs that are coming out you need to be careful here. The new Pros have a single FW 800, but I don't know of an AD/DA converter (audio interface) that is FW 800. The only ones I know of are FW 400. So this will put you in a dilemma of either buying a converter cable from Apple (if they even make one) to go from FW 800 to FW 400 or just getting a USB 2.0 interface.

I've been a long proponent of FW for quite a while but I would have to suggest a USB 2.0 audio interface and follow Billy's advice on the external FW 800 HD.

*EDIT* i just did some checking and you can get a FW 400 dual port Express Card to fit in the Express Card slot on the new Mac Pros. The Macbook doesn't have an Express Card slot. Even with this option it looks like FW 400 is getting phased out.

Unfortunately, this looks like the end of FW 400 as a standard port on Macs on the future.

Jake

Bink · Post by **Bink** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 10:45 pm

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by markjazzbassist
 the genius at the mac store told me that USB 2.0 is faster than firewire 400 now. so you should be fine.

i use Mbox interfaces and they all use USB.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
I've been looking at that this evening, and there's totally conflicting stories with people claiming to have done tests with the results working both ways.

AFAIK though firewire stops the potential of any 'data collisions' as you can dedicate bandwidth to a particular device.

stevo2112 · Post by **stevo2112** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 11:08 pm

wow, what a hassle...

why do you think they're so stingy with the firewire ports. low demand?

stevo2112 · Post by **stevo2112** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 11:15 pm

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Thinline_slim
 

*EDIT* i just did some checking and you can get a FW 400 dual port Express Card to fit in the Express Card slot on the new Mac Pros. The Macbook doesn't have an Express Card slot. Even with this option it looks like FW 400 is getting phased out.

Jake
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That is cool. Are these only sold through apple? Wonder how much they're going for.

Thinline_slim · Post by **Thinline_slim** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 11:48 pm

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">That is cool. Are these only sold through apple? Wonder how much they're going for.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I found them just by searching "Express Card 34" in google. Looks like they're around $50-$60 as retail.

Post by **bclaire** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 4:02 am

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by markjazzbassist
 the genius at the mac store told me that USB 2.0 is faster than firewire 400 now. so you should be fine.

i use Mbox interfaces and they all use USB.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I remember reading about it, and it's something in the way data is handled that makes Firewire preferable to USB for audio applications. Firewire is supposedly faster still...

Bink · Post by **Bink** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 11:27 am

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by bclaire
 <blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by markjazzbassist
 the genius at the mac store told me that USB 2.0 is faster than firewire 400 now. so you should be fine.

i use Mbox interfaces and they all use USB.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I remember reading about it, and it's something in the way data is handled that makes Firewire preferable to USB for audio applications. Firewire is supposedly faster still...
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

There's something here on it and a comparison that claims that firewire is quicker than USB: http://www.usb-ware.com/firewire-vs-usb.htm
I've also seen the opposite said though that USB is as quick if not quicker than firewire 400: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr04/a ... cnotes.htm

I'm sure there are other comparisons but these are two I came across quickly. Not sure of their scientific basis though.

I've had a few issues with my UX2 interface which I believe is USB 1.1 when using all its I/O simultaneously which resulted in 'glitching' for lack of a better word! It was fine with 1 input and stereo out but multiple ins it would sometimes 'jump' during recording. No such issues since I've had a firewire interface. Haven't tried a USB2.0 interface though and they have much more bandwidth than USB1.1 so this may have been resolved by that.

another Macbook-related recording question

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