SonicExplorer
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Does this USB/1394 card look okay?
Hello, I'm a PCI (Delta 66) user but was planning on getting a USB2.0/1394 combo card. Over the years, I recall reading some posts about incompabitilities with certain chipsets and soundcards as they pertain to USB/1394 cards. So I'd be very appreciative if some forumites would be kind enough to glance at the link below and let me know if anyone sees anything about the card I should be concerned about... (ALI chipset) http://www.penguin-gear.com/product/pci_card/pg-com-303.htm FYI, initially it would be going into an older Intel Chipset Dell box running W2K. Thanks, Sonic
post edited by SonicExplorer - February 21, 07 12:55 AM
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SonicExplorer
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RE: Does this USB/1394 card look okay?
February 21, 07 10:17 PM
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Okay, I guess nobody is aware of any major concerns regarding this board, I'll place the order tomorrow.
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calaverasgrandes
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RE: Does this USB/1394 card look okay?
February 22, 07 4:18 AM
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Nobody chimed in on this? Itis genreally considered nota good idea to use a combo card for firewire audio. I cant see vry well what kind of chip it uses nut it appears that it is using one VLSI to handle USB and 1394. I would worry about glitches.
On a positive note I had bee living with glitches on my system if I had the ASIO buffer at less than 512. Today I decided to stop playing with internal settings and 3rd party widgets. I opened up the box and moved my powercore DSP over one slot. WOW! now I can record while playing multiple tracks and softsynths with the powereocre hosting several plugs, all ot the lowest amount of samples the ASIO box will go to. 2.1 msecs? My faith in digital audio is once again restored.
Sonar 7.0.3, Mattel Synsonics, Motu 828MKII (BLA), TC-powercore, Stillwell plugins, Moog MG1, Korg Poly 800, DX27s, Moogerfooger Lowpass, Ovation Magnum, Stingray fretless, Mesa Bass 400, Waldorf Edition, DBA fuzz war, Summit 2BA221, etc
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SonicExplorer
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RE: Does this USB/1394 card look okay?
February 22, 07 5:51 AM
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Wow, that's the kind of information I need to hear, wasn't aware of that.... It's an ALI chipset (whatever that is). FWIW, I won't be using USB and FW concurrently, it will be either one or the other. I use internal IDE for audio disk access, and the FW would be used for audio signal path. USB would only be used for external hard disk backups of the audio projects and also for ghosting the system, none of which would happen concurrently with FW usage. Does this alleviate any concerns WRT to this being a combo-card??
Sonic
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coldsteal2
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RE: Does this USB/1394 card look okay?
February 22, 07 8:28 AM
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WOW thats really cool info!! you tricky nerd you! 
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calaverasgrandes
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RE: Does this USB/1394 card look okay?
February 22, 07 3:14 PM
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the problem as I recall is that USB is asynchronous and firewire is isochronous. For one chip to support both, one will have to suffer. Do you need extra USB ports? I would do some more checking and see if you can find a straight 1394 card with a TI or Lucent chipset. Not all interfaces NEED the TI chip but it cant hurt. FWIW I went so far as to get a Gigabyte Motherboard with the TI firewire built in. Isnt it freaking annoying that you have to be a rocket scientist to make music at home these days? I really do miss my old setup with the 2 reel to reel decks and the double cassette all feeding a radio shack mixer. With a Gibson spring reverb!
Sonar 7.0.3, Mattel Synsonics, Motu 828MKII (BLA), TC-powercore, Stillwell plugins, Moog MG1, Korg Poly 800, DX27s, Moogerfooger Lowpass, Ovation Magnum, Stingray fretless, Mesa Bass 400, Waldorf Edition, DBA fuzz war, Summit 2BA221, etc
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SonicExplorer
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RE: Does this USB/1394 card look okay?
February 23, 07 3:12 AM
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Yes, my system is older and only has USB 1.x. I need USB 2.0 and figured while in the process to get a combo FW card since I'll probably be getting a new audio interface (and PCI is on the chopping block anyway) and there's no guarantee that future motherboards will have onboard FW either. So I was trying to kill two boards with one stone.... or something like that....  Sonic
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