USB recording devices for powerbook G4?, USB recording devices for powerbook G4 Options

[Frizzy Lizzy]

hi. I have a powerbook G4 and am looking to record voice and guitar onto Pro Tools Free. I have been reading your posts about audiosport quattro and other devices. i was wondering if anyone could compare Emagic Emi 2/6 with M-Audio USB Duo? is the Duo even on the market anymore? I heard that there were problems... Also is it possible to get perfect time recording with USB? i know firewire is much better but is the sound quality really that noticable if the mics are good? also can someone explain the benefit of having a midi port? if you wanted to use sound effects or a keyboard couldnt you mic it in okay? and also does anyone with a laptop have a delta series m-audio device? ok thats it thanks if you can anwers any of these... love rachel

[sambeau]

Found this meassage in a search on Macs and USB. Just wondering how you got on with audio for your powerbook. What did you get in the end?
I'm wanting to go down the same route with my TiBook and so am looking for a little advice.

ta.

Sam.

[DigitMus]

My advice would be to forget USB for audio and get the VX pocket for your cardbus slot. Much better quality (especially on the analog side of the A/D converters) and about the same $$ as one of the better USB boxes. This is just from research and word of mouth, I don't own the VX device, but I do have several USB audio devices - the quality and reliability just aren't there . I mean, think about it do you want to share your paltry 1.5MB/sec bandwidth between bi-directional multichannel audio, input devices, storage devices, webcams, etc.? There are too many drivers that want the USB buss's attention, even if you're not using them. Just keeping a reliable 44.1 or 48khz audio clock going on this buss is hard enough.

Scott

[goon]

Hey DigitMus:

Which USB audio interfaces do you have? What quality and reliability problems you are experiencing?

I have an iMac, so the VX pocket is not an option for me. I just got started using the Girvin iMic, and before that I was just using sound manager (with PT Free, and now DP3.02).

I only need 2 analog ins and outs, so I was hoping something like the M-Audio Audiosport Duo, or the Edirol UA-5 would be an affordable upgrade from the iMic. The SoundDevices USBPre probably has much nicer pres, but it's more than twice the price, so if data transmission over USB is the limiting factor, that doesn't make a lot of sense. Am I still going to get clicks and pops with one of these fancy USB interfaces?

[DigitMus]

I haven't used the Audiosport, but the Edirol will do a decent job, if you make an extension set (with all USB extensions not needed for audio turned off) specifically for audio work. I have a pretty high-end home studio (I use mic pre-amps & converters that cost thousands of $$), so maybe I'm a little too critical of the USB audio devices. I have experienced pops & clicks at random times when using USB for audio - after a lot of troubleshooting, my best guess is that something was polling the USB buss, degrading the clock timing. These incidents were not consistant, happening maybe once out of 5 passes. I did find they happened less with an 'audio only' extension set, and were more likely to occur on longer pieces. It may be that the USB audio drivers at the time (this was over a year ago using OS 9.0.4) have been improved on in more recent OSs. I now use firewire (MOTU828) when I need to transfer digital audio into or out of my computers. It just does a better job for me. FWIW recent announcements from Apple & others suggest that USB audio on OS X will be (or perhaps allready is) rock solid.

Scott

[goon]

Scott:

Thanks a lot for the reply. I gather you have had some relatively positive experience with Edirol products -- but it can't have been the UA-5 -- that wasn't out a year ago; I'm not sure they're easy to find even now. Did you use the UA-3? That's only 16-bit I believe...

goon

[DigitMus]

It was the UA-30, and yes it's 16 bit. I was attempting to use it for recording stereo mixes out of a digital mixing board, using Apogee's UV22 to reduce bit depth. I subsequently bought an Alesis Masterlink for 2-track 'pre-mastering' duties. It does a much better job with less hassle, and I can apply compression, limiting, EQ and gain changes at 24 bits before rendering at 16 bits for CD burning.

Scott