Recommended USB or Firewire interface?

I used to run Sonar 7 back on an old PC with an Emu internal interface card that won't even work in my new PC. I've been away from recording for a while and figured I needed to get back at it. I upgraded to Sonar X3 on this PC, but I'm having an issue with my Focusrite Saffire Pro 14 firewire interface. I bought it a while back when it was on sale and I never really got it working well. It's confusing as hell and it also makes a ton of noise, or at least is picking up a lot of interference from something. I tried different cables but it didn't help.
 
So, I think I'll dump this one and try something else. I just need a couple of Mic/Instrument inputs and a couple of outputs, as well as MIDI in/out and a headphone output. Nothing too exciting. I'm not overly impressed with Focusrite based on this product (or maybe my lack of knowledge of the product!). 
 
I have one Firewire port and several USB ports, including a USB 3.0 port. I think I'd probably rather do USB but I don't care too much as long as I find something that works well and doesn't require a ridiculous amount of time to setup.
 
Any recommendations?
 
Thanks!

What is your budget? Check out the RME range because I have been using their interfaces for years and they still work.  Currently I am using the Fireface 400 and the UFX and they are rock solid.

I'm always for solving current issues too. If you can't, RME is definitely a good way to go.

For me firewire was too much cpu wasted on just keeping audio up.
Brand new machine 2010 - and could not get it down below 8%(20% one core).
And latency I could not get below 162 samples for WDM, or 192 for ASIO(Focusrite Pro 40).
 
But experimenting for three months this is how I got it working:
a) legacy windows drivers, was it 1094 or something firewire is called.
b) turn off in bios - core parking and dynamic overclocking.
c) see to that firewire cable is not bent but have really relaxed connection to interface
This is really the culprit as I see it - really old connector interface(from 90's or so).
Really long circuit board fingers, kind of, and a tiny bend on cable - and you are in for trouble.
d) cards I tested was TI and VIA - and they behaved ok both
 
Today I would go USB for external interfaces.

c5_convertible
@lfm: Actually, you are the first person that sees the same issue I see with my Saffire pro 40. I have one core always running between 4-8% when I switch on the saffire pro 40. I have mentioned this to Focusrite, and they say they cannot replicate. It is a problem with the driver from Focusrite, as I don't have the same problem with my Motif XF Firewire card (other issues happen with that one though...) going to the same firewire chipset.
Regarding latency, I can go to 64 samples on the Saffire, but comfortably work with 96 samples. Both on Asio.
 

I talked to Focusrite at the time - and they just released drivers that were supposed to run with stock firewire drivers in Windows 7. Heard if they had ability to reduce the number of ins/outs that you actually use, or something like that - but no such settings. It had 4500 context switches/second - which is a lot compared to normal app switches threads about 50 times/second(20ms timeslice).
 
I felt something is very wrong with this. Either motherboard or drivers.
And I had one evening of troubleshooting lost - just finding the cable was just a bit bent between table and wall - and that was enough for audio to come and go as it wanted.
 
I had a fresh Sonar Studio 8.5 install and ran a tutorial project with about 11 tracks or so. That was only audio so that went well with 128 samples. But inserting any VST instrument i crackled and had to go up one step which was 192 for ASIO. Card reported very different latency on ins and outs - and how Sonar insert samples into stream from VST instruments was my conclusion - but don't know that.
 
I also ran a TC Electronics Impact Twin - and same cpu. For me it started with 60% on one cpu core, and then doing bios+driver settings mentioned it went down to 20% one core. And IT drivers seemed shaky - clicking monitor on an input I got BSOD with that.
 
Overall - firewire is ancient technology to me. New computer and having to make so many compromises - no, not for me.
 
USB is embraced and improved by every generation computers.
But it will take wild horses to get me to use anything but internal cards even next gen - unless laptop and needing an external. Absolutely zero issues with soundcard.

All else being equal, USB is the way to go.  FW is fading and as it gets older there will be more and more problems.  I doubt if anybody is writing new drivers.  The last FW unit driver upgrade I know of is for my home TC Electronic Konnekt and that was over a year ago.  TC has no USB units, while most companies are switching to it.  Note that I have no problems w/ FW, but I bought my unit many moons ago.
 
If you can afford it, the Tascam uh-7000 is the best sounding in- class USB stereo unit.  Superb converters and pro preamps.  Latency is high, no midi and the soft mixer is pretty low rent, but for sound you can't beat it w/ a red-headed rented mule.  I use mine via AES to the TCK 48 when recording.
 
If I was looking for a new unit I'd probably go w/ TASCAM too.  Their new USB units are cheap, Craig likes 'em and the USB drivers are done in house, not rented out like the 7000.  I'd still check the latency on them, but otherwise they look like winners and should be well tested with SONAR since Gibson owns both.  RME is good, pro hardware with superb drivers but more expensive.  A step up is the new lynx PCI units, but of  course you need a desk top for that.  But it is the best of all worlds - low latency, great conversion and  a decent price @ $1000.  Lots of people still use their older lynx units for pro work, and these spec better (tho I haven't heard them myself).  If you just want great, go for a Burl and Focusrite Red, starting about $7500.
 
When asking about equipment it is always nice to put out a price range.  People will go for all price ranges even if you do mention it, but at least some restraint is shown if you do.
 
@

The Steinberg UR-22 is currently 150.00. I paid 200.00 a year ago. Works perfectly for me. As for the sound, I was under the impression that all professional sound cards sound alike. So I'm confused when people say that expensive ones sound better. If it's all digital, how is this possible?

It looks like there are quite a few units in the $200-400 range. The Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 looks pretty good, but I think it requires their Mix Control software, which I found to be a little confusing. After looking at some reviews on Amazon, the Steinberg UR22 seems to be a great choice. I'll do some more research and read some more reviews, but that looks like it might be a frontrunner for me. I just want simplicity and low latency. Nothing else fancy is required. 
 
The Focusrite does come with several plugins, but I'll have to do some digging to find out if they're all that useful or not.

Sweet! If I learn Mix Control, the Focusrite might be a better option. I wish the unit I had now wasn't so busted. The noise is ridiculous. It's almost like it's picking up noise from the environment. Maybe even from the computer, which would suck. lol  I don't know what else to do with it, so I might just trash it and start over with something new.

Sorry if this question is silly, but are you sure that what you have is not a ground loop problem?

Connecting the power adaptor is definitely worth a try. And it has to be said that firewire under Windows has been an increasingly hit and miss thing for several versions now.

As for the noise, what sort of noise is it? White noise, hum, whine....? If you record an audio track in Sonar from an interface input with nothing connected to it does the noise get recorded or is it only on the output side of the inteface?

tlw
Connecting the power adaptor is definitely worth a try. And it has to be said that firewire under Windows has been an increasingly hit and miss thing for several versions now.

As for the noise, what sort of noise is it? White noise, hum, whine....? If you record an audio track in Sonar from an interface input with nothing connected to it does the noise get recorded or is it only on the output side of the inteface?

I'll have to try a recording to see what happens. The noise is a constant hum, definitely like a ground loop, but there is also an intermittent component that is cutting in an out. That noise is higher frequency and irregular. Not constant, but it pops in and out a couple of times every second, on average. It's an odd sound. It's almost like that sound that cheap PC speakers make when they're picking up cell phone signals, but not quite, and it doesn't get better when my phones are out of the room.

Okay, so I just did a quick test. I disconnected the firewire connector and plugging in the DC adapter to provide power. With the unit on and connected to my monitors, there was no noise at all. The noise didn't start until I connected the box to my PC with the Firewire cable. Not sure what that means, other than perhaps to dump this firewire solution and go out and buy something with USB.  

The noise did not persist with the FireWire cable disconnected when using the DC power adapter, so the noise appears to be something related to the connection to the PC. I have no idea what chipset is on that motherboard. It's a Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 mobo. I'll have to look up the details.
 
EDIT: According to the website, it uses the VIA VT6308 chip for FireWire.

neiby : Install cpu-z....I want motherboard make and model....and the board's current bios rev......your Os 8.0 ..8.1 ? .. whats the make and model of your video card.. I will look back later..
 
VIA VT6308 chip for FireWire is more than likely a issue... Nec chipset is standard !