USB VS Firewire!

[santucci218]

Honestly, which is better? I'm going to buy an interface. I have a beefy computer. 6 gigs of ram, quad core, blah blah blah. It has USB 2.0 and Firewire 1394. I hear some people say usb is faster now and firewire used to be faster. Though, firewire seems more "exclusive." Why is this? Which is honestly better.

 

[grifff]

I always though firewire was, but for the type of recording I do it honestly doesn't matter. If something is a little latent I can just time shift the whole thing in sync with the music. I've never had a problem with USB 2.0.

My interface is also just a $70 M-Audio Fasttrack so that may be part of the latency issue.

 

[BassyBill]

I've just switched from a fairly old USB interface (Tascam US122) to a Presonus Firebox and the difference is huge - like, 5 times faster than before, easily (meaning I can run at about 4ms latency now).

 

[Greyvagabond]

USB 2.0 has some sort of technical specification that makes it "faster" than FireWire, but real-world audio performance is still better on a FireWire connection. That's why high-end interfaces use it.

 

[D.A.R.K.]

rme uses both usb and firewire connections with their own protocol for extremely stable, low latency transfer rates:
Invalid Link Removed
not cheap, but a worthy investment so far.
for standard transfers, as i was made to understand:
while usb can have higher burst rates
firewire is better at constant streaming.

 

[agreatheight]

real-world audio performance is still better on a FireWire connection.

This.

 

[bassophil]

Firewire 800 is faster than USB 2.0. Firewire 400 is just a little slower than USB 2.0 (both ~400Mbit/s).

Go with USB. I think Firewire is the better technology but USB will offer you more freedom, like taking your interface out with any notebook for mobile recording.

In general I don't think the speed will be a limit. Let's think of 8 channels recorded in WAV. WAV 44.1kHZ/24bit is roughly about 10MB per minute. 8 channels X 10MB/min = 80MB/min. 80MB/min = 1,333MB/s. 1,333MB/s X 8 = 10,666Mbit/s ...not even close to 400Mbit/s

 

[atheos]

USB devices share the bandwidth and USB controllers depend heavily on CPU which means that USB speed goes down as CPU usage goes up. Firewire on the other hand has dedicated controllers with DMA (Direct Memory Access) so they can skip the CPU while doing RAM reads/writes. Firewire interfaces also tend to be more reliable than their USB counter parts and have lower latency.

USB is OK for gadgets, MIDI keyboards, pointing/controller devices etc. but Firewire is better for devices that do a lot high-speed data transfer such as hard disks and multichannel audio interfaces. USB3.0 will be better than Firewire but it won't kick in big time until next year although a few devices are already available. Intel and Apple on the other hand are preparing an universal super high-speed optical bus called Light Peak which will probably kill Firewire. We might see Light Peak as soon as next year.

So, in a nutshell: Firewire is better for constant data flow (audio interfaces, hard drives) and USB is better for controllers, pointing devices, missile launchers, coffee cup heaters etc.

 

[julio.gamiz]

^ totally agree with this. Gonna look up that Light Peak thing, sounds mighty interesting!

 

[Charling]

Firewire 800 is faster than USB 2.0. Firewire 400 is just a little slower than USB 2.0 (both ~400Mbit/s).

Go with USB. I think Firewire is the better technology but USB will offer you more freedom, like taking your interface out with any notebook for mobile recording.

In general I don't think the speed will be a limit. Let's think of 8 channels recorded in WAV. WAV 44.1kHZ/24bit is roughly about 10MB per minute. 8 channels X 10MB/min = 80MB/min. 80MB/min = 1,333MB/s. 1,333MB/s X 8 = 10,666Mbit/s ...not even close to 400Mbit/s

but, as posts above and below state, real world performance differs, firewire is also capable of bus powering interfaces, you get no more portability with usb!

and for big projects with lots of audio at 96khz etc then firewire 800 is a must, usb or firewire 400 will both throw up warning messages once you go past a certain point!

 

[bassophil]

and for big projects with lots of audio at 96khz etc then firewire 800 is a must, usb or firewire 400 will both throw up warning messages once you go past a certain point!

Thats true! But the advantages of 96kHz are negligible for almost everything.

but, as posts above and below state, real world performance differs, firewire is also capable of bus powering interfaces

Also true but the performance of these days beefy computers, like the OP's, will handle that easily.

you get no more portability with usb!

True again but you get more compatibility. Not many notebooks have Firewire ports and less will have in future.

In my opinion Firewire is better for audio purposes in general but for most "non professional" purposes USB is the better choice. In the end it really depends on what you want to do with it. Want to build up a decent studio? Go with Firewire. Want to record in rehearsal rooms with a PC that is not only for recording purposes? Go with USB.
My opinion.

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

Firewire faster but more $$

 

[Charling]

Thats true! But the advantages of 96kHz are negligible for almost everything.


Also true but the performance of these days beefy computers, like the OP's, will handle that easily.


True again but you get more compatibility. Not many notebooks have Firewire ports and less will have in future.

In my opinion Firewire is better for audio purposes in general but for most "non professional" purposes USB is the better choice. In the end it really depends on what you want to do with it. Want to build up a decent studio? Go with Firewire. Want to record in rehearsal rooms with a PC that is not only for recording purposes? Go with USB.
My opinion.

Yeah, fair points, I pretty much agree, though most projects I do are at 96khz or 88.2Khz, so it's very necessary for me!

 

[santucci218]

Presonus Firebox it is! thank you men!

 

[Kipaste]

Presonus Firebox it is! thank you men!

NOO!!!

I mean, yes, in real life firewire is the better option, but presonus just came out with the firestudio mobile which is going to replace the firebox. It has the same retail price (but naturally you can get firebox cheaply from blow outs at the moment). FS mobile has better preamps.. not by much but unlike the firebox they can just about power a low output dynamic like a sm58. But the partypiece is new converters. I always though that was the weakest link in firebox.

 

[etherealme]

Firewire 800 is faster than USB 2.0. Firewire 400 is just a little slower than USB 2.0 (both ~400Mbit/s).

Go with USB. I think Firewire is the better technology but USB will offer you more freedom, like taking your interface out with any notebook for mobile recording.

In general I don't think the speed will be a limit. Let's think of 8 channels recorded in WAV. WAV 44.1kHZ/24bit is roughly about 10MB per minute. 8 channels X 10MB/min = 80MB/min. 80MB/min = 1,333MB/s. 1,333MB/s X 8 = 10,666Mbit/s ...not even close to 400Mbit/s

This.

In addition USB is not likely to be obsolete anytime soon. The demand for that port design is huge, while I'm having a hard time finding firewire compatible devices lately.

 

[BassyBill]

NOO!!!

I mean, yes, in real life firewire is the better option, but presonus just came out with the firestudio mobile which is going to replace the firebox. It has the same retail price (but naturally you can get firebox cheaply from blow outs at the moment). FS mobile has better preamps.. not by much but unlike the firebox they can just about power a low output dynamic like a sm58. But the partypiece is new converters. I always though that was the weakest link in firebox.

This is true to some extent, but the Firebox, though, is still a great device (a major upgrade to my US-122, anyway) and sounds dang good to me - especially as you can pick them up really cheap at the moment as they've just been replaced, so you're right about the prices. The Firestudio mobile is the same MSRP, but on ebay today you can buy the old version for about half the price of the new one ($150/$300). The Firebox is an absolute steal at that price if you can get one. I'm really pleased with mine (had it about a week).

Just for info - the latest drivers for the Firebox also upgrade the firmware in the device. When I did this it seemed to boost the mice pre's input sensitivity, but I couldn't be sure without testing this out properly and a) I don't think rolling back the drivers would also change the firmware back and b) I'm too lazy to try it.

 

[bassophil]

(...) But the partypiece is new converters. I always though that was the weakest link in firebox.

Oh yes! The converters in Presonus products I tried sounded clearly noticeable bad.

 

[kevinmoore73]

The only place where USB is superior to FireWire with regards to latency and throughput is on *paper*. USB is theoretically faster, but it isn't when the bits start flowing.

If you look for multi-channel interfaces, you'll find that there are very few USB interfaces that can handle simultaneous recording of more than two channels. You won't find this limitation with FireWire.

 

[vin*tone]

USB devices share the bandwidth and USB controllers depend heavily on CPU which means that USB speed goes down as CPU usage goes up. Firewire on the other hand has dedicated controllers with DMA (Direct Memory Access) so they can skip the CPU while doing RAM reads/writes. Firewire interfaces also tend to be more reliable than their USB counter parts and have lower latency.

USB is OK for gadgets, MIDI keyboards, pointing/controller devices etc. but Firewire is better for devices that do a lot high-speed data transfer such as hard disks and multichannel audio interfaces. USB3.0 will be better than Firewire but it won't kick in big time until next year although a few devices are already available. Intel and Apple on the other hand are preparing an universal super high-speed optical bus called Light Peak which will probably kill Firewire. We might see Light Peak as soon as next year.

So, in a nutshell: Firewire is better for constant data flow (audio interfaces, hard drives) and USB is better for controllers, pointing devices, missile launchers, coffee cup heaters etc.

Yep.