M-Audio FW-410 and WDM Drivers

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PappaWheely
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2005/02/02 14:42:12 (permalink)

M-Audio FW-410 and WDM Drivers

Hi all,
I finally upgraded from ProAudio9 to Sonar 4PE and I find I need to buy a new soundcard. I'm having a hell of a time. Lots of options, little accurate information. I was looking at the Presonus Firebox, but I was told that it works better with ASIO drivers. Infact, I was told that firewire technology works better with ASIO. Well, I'd prefer to work with WDM drivers, and I'm looking for actual experiences or opinions from people better informed then I. On the otherhand, I really haven't found a PCI with external A/D converters that has mic pre's and midi around the same price, but there might be...and do I want to go down that road? And what about USB...don't know if I even want to go there. Thanks in advance.

Tom
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    ohhey
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    RE: M-Audio FW-410 and WDM Drivers 2005/02/02 14:49:10 (permalink)
    Don't listen to too much of that talk. Just try it and see. I have a Presonus Firepod and I'm using the WDM driver and it's perfect, rock solid and low latency. ASIO and firewire are two unrelated technologies There is nothing about firewire that would cause one type of driver to work better then another, it's up to the development folks to make sure the driver is solid no matter what computer I/O it's for, PCI, Firewire, USB, whatever. That being said USB 1.x seems to hard to get working right and that may be because it's not very fast and is used for so many other things on a modern computer. USB 1 or 2 also requires more attention from your CPU and the OS to keep things going. Firewire on the other hand is a true peer to peer network and allows devices to do almost anything with help from your computer. For example two firewire camcorders and record from one to the other without help from a computer, USB devices can't do that, they have to have a "host". From the way things are going it looks like most sound card vendors have found that firewire is the way to go and you see new ones out almost every week. The Presonus firebox is VERY new and there may be a few bugs till the drivers get updated a time of two. By judgeing from what they have done with the Firepod it should be no problem from them. Presonus got off to a bad start with Yamaha MLAN but they learned quickly and switched to firewire and their own in house developement for drivers. I would buy a firebox without worry of support, to me Presonus is one company that "gets it" and is on the right track.
    < Message edited by ohhey -- 2/2/2005 3:10:57 PM >
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    flatpicknut
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    RE: M-Audio FW-410 and WDM Drivers 2005/02/02 15:13:48 (permalink)
    Another thing to consider is the levels of the ins and outs. Ideally, a device (like the MOTU 828mkII) lets you choose -10 or +4 for each and every in and out (Man, I wish I could have gotten that 828 to work with my laptop...). Other devices a little lower down the food chain have one or the other, or maybe some of each. The M-Audio stuff seems to be -10 levels (and unbalanced). The Edirol stuff (the FA101, the UA25) are +4, balanced. The Firepod and Firebox are +4, balanced. The newly announced Edirol FA66, on the other hand, has two +4 balanced ins and two -10, unbalanced RCA ins.

    The reason why this is important... If your synths, effects, etc are -10, you'll get better results (better performance, lower noise levels, etc) if you plug them into -10 inputs. When I was testing the 828, I could set the levels appropriately and everything was great. With my new FA101, sound from my synths directly into the FA101 sound poor because of the level mismatch. So the extra ins do me less good than they did with the 828. Once I put my mixer back into the equation (+4 balanced ins and outs for the buses), I could work properly. (Also, the 828 can function as a mixer, so you can set your levels more carefully. With the FA101, you can set the levels for the two front inputs and two of the back inputs - the others are at the mercy of whatever volume your synth is capable of outputting. So mixer/router capability can be important. The Firebox has it, the Firepod does not. The Firewire 410 has it, the FA101 and FA66 do not.)

    You really need to consider the equipment you have and the equipment you want to use in the future when you decide which audio interface to hunker down with.

    [Implicit in this is a strong recommendation for the MOTU 828mkII IF you can use XP SP1 until (and if) the SP2 problems are worked out. And there are users that will assure you that the 828 works fine with SP2, but on Monday of this week (after I bought an 828 on Sunday and couldn't get it to work right), MOTU Tech Support assured me that SP2 is a major problem for their equipment and that their stance at this point is that they can't do anything else with their drivers and that they are going to wait and see what Microsoft does with SP2. My version of Windows came with SP2. I'm actually mourning the loss of the 828 and the replacement - an FA101, is much more limited than I would have guessed.]
    #3
    PappaWheely
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    RE: M-Audio FW-410 and WDM Drivers 2005/02/03 13:28:46 (permalink)
    Thanks...This helps.
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    Tesgin
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    RE: M-Audio FW-410 and WDM Drivers 2005/02/21 00:04:36 (permalink)
    Hi. Could you explain what that means to me? The levels of the ins and outs? I'm somewhat ignorant (newbie) and don't know what that means.

    And do I take it that -10 is not necessarily better or worse than +4, but that the issue is that it more has to "match" my external hardware?

    Thanks,
    TB
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