Hot answers tagged usb
16
The Fast Track Pro is an audio interface. It takes an analog signal and converts it to digital, and provides a way to connect to the computer. The USB microphone simply has a built-in interface.
It comes down to what you want. If you specifically don't want to always use the Fast Track Pro, then the USB mic might be a good option, although like you said, ...
9
Which is better? That depends on a lot of factors.
Bandwidth
Both FireWire (400 & 800) and USB (2.0 and beyond) have plenty of bandwidth available for multi-track audio recording, even at high sample rates and bit depth.
Latency
Latency has much to do with the drivers, the host computer, and the audio interface used.
Now, I've seen someone else ...
9
Firewire became really popular in the mid-90's when Apple dropped traditional SCSI from their boxes and started pushing the Firewire format instead.
Firewire has always been faster and have lower latency than USB, but obviously USB is a far more prevailant interface to be found on virtually every computer made in the last 15 years, but often you have to go ...
7
If you are trying to get 5 discrete mic signals into a computer onto 5 discrete tracks for under $50.00, I think you are out of luck.
There are a few USB products that can bring in audio for under fifty bucks, and there are many products that can record 5+ channels of audio to discrete tracks, but I think your guess is correct that you are not going to find ...
7
Ideally, a converter won't have any "sound". It will just transparently pass through the signal. From the spec sheet you can check things like
dynamic range/signal to noise ratio - the amount of hiss that the converter will add to your recordings. 24-bit converters aren't inherently better than 16-bit. They need to have low noise or you're just ...
7
I bet this won't be the best answer but let's give it a shot shall we?
Different DAWs do different things.
I wouldn't recommend Ableton Live or Propellerhead Reason for someone who wants to record a live band - both DAWs are oriented to a more software generated sound and sample handling situation.
The same way I wouldn't recommend Pro Tools for someone ...
6
Please, please, please get a mic with an XLR over a USB connection unless you are just cranking out podcasts. If you are recording songs, you will eventually want to introduce a nice preamp and maybe some analog eq and compression into your signal path. This will be impossible of the A/D is built into the mic.
6
Another thing to consider in the Windows world (and maybe OSX as well, but I'm not familiar enough with that kernel), is latency due to Deferred Procedure Calls (DPCs). This can cause audio drop-outs and latency that is independent of the USB/FW choice. Several tools exist to measure and analyze DPC latency:
The Syscon's DPC Latency Checker
TC Electronics ...
6
I used to obsess a lot about specs, but I've shifted from buying the equipment that looks the best on paper to getting the equipment that makes me smile when I use it :-) I know it's an oversimplification, but even with specs, you make subjective decisions on what kinds of measurements to favor, or what frequency plot looks the best. In the end, all that ...
5
USB was designed as a general purpose bus. Hence, there will always be some latency. The more devices you have connected to the bus, the more problems you will run into. I suppose the only purpose a USB large diaphragm mic would have is for one or two mics during a pod cast. I would never use such a mic in my studio.
That being said, if you plan on adding ...
4
Firewire is better for video, because firewire is a more sophisticated interface. Firewire provides for device to device communication, DMA transfers and other performance features that USB does not. Therefore Firewire does not rely on the host computer's CPU. USB does not provide DMA transfers. All data on the USB bus must be managed by the CPU loading it ...
4
For the best quality and/or High Definition you want to use the fastest computer input you have that your streaming app will accept. That would normally be Firewire. Most online streaming sites will accept both USB or Firewire.
Take a look at http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDxTalks/search?query=tedxsanantonio+2011. These are TEDx Talks we shot using a SONY ...
4
You might want to check out the Line 6 Pod Studio GX, which has nothing more than a guitar input and headphone out. The nice thing is that it comes with their PodFarm software which gives you some nice guitar effects that will work at low latency. I've got its predecessor the TonePort GX, and also the TonePort UX2 which has more inputs and outputs and ...
3
Your guitar will give out MIC level at best, I have rarely seen a guitar with LINE LEVEL outputs.
MIC level is significantly lower than LINE level. In every mixer the gain pot is adjusted to bring MIC level up to LINE level. 1
It sounds like the device you are using is just a slightly better ADC (analogue-digital convertor) than what is built into your ...
3
Few things to look at, and I'm speaking from just the question text - not a good idea to listen to YouTube in the middle of a meeting...
Step 1
What is the recording level for the USB device?
In your computer's Volume Control settings, what is the Volume level for your Light Snake? I've seen where Windows will automatically set the recording level very ...
3
It is best to use regular microphones and a small mixer, which then hooks to a USB or other sound interface to your computer.
The reason is that USB microphones are simply regular microphones with built-in sound cards. Even if you set them to sample at 44.1kHz for example, they will drift apart over time, as their clock rates are completely independent.
...
3
The usual reason for these being external are:
No conflict with internal devices
Size and heat requirements
Requirements for multiple interfaces: midi, spdif, line-in, mic etc
User interface requirements - mixer controls, EQ etc
Occasionally power requirements - an externally powered sound card can provide a lower noise floor, higher quality and dedicated ...
3
If you look at the information on the web page you linked to, this is by design:
Channels one and two have independent gain trims, while channels three
and four are configured as a stereo pair at the level and pan
controls.
and
The MultiMix 4 USB mixer has four input channels, all of which can
accept a 1/4" line input. You can can plug XLR ...
2
USB passes each read/write packet through the CPU.
Firewire bypasses each read/write packet, avoiding CPU usage.
This has been the main issue with USB-1.0 and USB-2.0, and I'm unsure about USB-3.0. Intel USB-3.0 requires proprietary Intel drivers, and there are no generic USB-3.0 drivers for Windows platforms, except for Linux.
Many audio related ...
2
There are companies making great USB interfaces now (RME). I'm going USB due to the computer upgrade issues - ie apple not putting firewire on certain lower cost computers. Very irritating. I have one of those new pcmcia express cards which has also been removed from all but the 17" Macbook Pro - so choose your connections for the long haul. You'll need ...
2
Yes, a faster transference decreases latency, but as far as I'm concerned it wouldn't be any less latency than USB 3.0 or firewire if you are not transferring a large number of tracks. Latency relies more on hardware and processing power than the transfer itself.
In the case of computer audio, the latency depends more on the driver and the transfer protocol, ...
2
Focusrite Saffire
I have been using consumer-priced Focusrite hardware for quite some time now. I've started with the smaller 2in/2out series but then bought a Saffire PRO10IO, which is now discontinued. Been using it ever since. A friend of mine has a newer version with is even easier to use as a standalone mixer, which is what you asked for, too.
The ...
2
I'm posting this because I just went through the same issue with OS X 10.7.5 on my macbook pro and my original MBox.
DoktorHauser above is correct. I was able to use the generic driver for original MBox on OS X Lion. download it from http://www.usb-audio.com/usb-audio_2.1.7.dmg and install.
I was then able to choose "MBox Demo" from System applet > Audio > ...
2
The USB mic will be much easier to connect to the computer (no extra cables or equipment needed) and, as a bonus, bypass the notoriously noisy internal sound card.
The only issue you might have with the USB mic is the sound quality, which will be based on the quality of mic and the quality of the D/A converters in the mic itself.
I would recommend finding ...
2
I would happily trade you for a synth with a piano mode. :-D
I don't have one of these, but the nature of this synth is a bit different than a sampler with basic envelope. If there is a piano sample on there, I suspect the reason that it won't go on the full keyboard is because it would sound terrible! You would be loading one "piano" sample for the ...
2
I suggest returning the Macbook Air and getting a Macbook with Firewire. USB interfaces will give you latency when monitoring the recording signal, unless you have one that allows for hardware monitoring. (Perhaps someone else can speak about this. My interface is supposed to have this, but I've never used the feature. I also don't know what will work with ...
2
You need the Apple Camera Connection Kit which includes a connector with a USB outlet. Just use this and a USB cable to connect to your Mac. If the app supports CoreMIDI it should work just fine.
You can check using "Audio MIDI Setup.app" on your Mac. This is also the place where you configure your Mac to use Wireless MIDI sent from an iPad. (no cables ...
2
This keyboard should work just fine. The keyboard hooks up to the computer via USB. The computer then needs the proper USB MIDI driver to communicate with the keyboard.
A quick Google for "m-audio 88es linux" got me this result among others which seems to say that at least someone got it working.
2
USB MIDI is a supported standard on Linux, so it should be plug and play. I've had success with a Korg nanoKontrol and an M-Audio UNO MIDI interface, although the latter needed me to install an extra driver. I don't know if that is required for all MIDI devices.
I've not done much with MIDI, but I've had to set the MIDI Driver in JACK settings to 'seq' and ...
2
I have the M-Audio Keyrig49 and it works perfectly on Debian/Ubuntu/Mint.
The setup is like:
MIDI controller -> JACK(Qjackctl as a frontend) -> fluidsynth(Qsynth as a frontend) -> Monitors/Headphones.
I've used with Linux MultiMedia Studio and it works too.
No external drivers needed.
Just make sure to have a proper JACK configuration.
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