Want to get a new Macbook and import audio through USB? Look here.

Question

FWIW, as I was reading many of these posts, a lot of folks are suggesting that you NEED firewire for audio interfaces. Here is a link to twenty (USB) audio interfaces and that is just at one site. I myself record hi end audio for film using a M-Audio Fast Track Ultra (8 in and 8 outs) along with Logic and Final Cut Pro. Firewire is great, can have less latency, and a lot of users still have gear. I won't get into that debate, it's been beat to death. Just wanted to be accurate to any budding musicians, etc. who might be scared off by all this talk re: Firewire a necessity for pro audio. Latency (a problem 'sometimes' associated with USB devises transferring slower data) is old news. Technology has come a long way since the days of a USB 1.0 MBox. Get a new Macbook, a good audio interface, write a great song and you're in business -- all in style with your new sexy MB. Here's the link: http://www.sweetwater.com/c695--USBAudioInterfaces

Answer 1

I'd still beg to differ, and I would hazard a guess that most people who work in Audio would agree that firewire interfaces are as a general rule of thumb, far superior. Now a reason that I'm not too inclined to recommend M-Audio is because I had an M-Audio USB interface, and it was nothing but trouble, pops clicks, dropouts, high on the CPU, it would reset the USB bus and cause crashes, often forcing me to reboot mid session. Plus the MIDI interface never did work!
I hope they've cleaned up their act since then, and I guess if you can get work done on your interface that they must have done.
I do find it odd though that the company who Apple partnered with to release some audio interfaces that work seamlessly with Garageband and Logic chose firewire, so if you buy a new macbook and want to use the interface that Apple recommends to use with garageband you can't.
Now one of the reasons I have a macbook, is that last year my iBook died, and I needed a new notebook to go with my MOTU interface, I could just about have stretched my budget to a MBP, but seeing as they used the Lucent (Agere) firewire chipset, there was a strong chance that any decent firewire interface wouldn't work with it, and I've heard that the new MBP uses the Lucent chipset, rather than the more dependable TI one, so there's a chance that professional audio may have to skip this whole generation of notebook refreshes, that is until Apple start using a decent chipset again.
And I'm sorry, the argument that Pros would only use the Pro machine seems a little naive (see above reason), sometimes portability is a pre-requisite for a persons needs, the portability that say the old 12" Powerbook had, which many still miss. Plus as far as portability goes many firewire multi channel interfaces are bus powered, something that AFAIK you can't get with USB.
But all audio interface disagreements aside, one thing that USB does not have, and I don't think could have, is DSP, like the SSL Duende, the TC Powercore, the Focusrite Liquidmix. All three which come in a variety of flavours, including the less powerful, but more price friendly variety, perfect for end users who want a bit of class but without paying the earth.
Message was edited by: myca