The Macbook Pro USB or Firewire issue

beats me · Post by **beats me** » Thu May 17, 2007 6:59 pm

I've pretty much given up on deciding which reasonably priced audio interface I should get based on people's opinions because there is equal arguments for and against just about every interface you can find. They all sound great, they all "work for me", they all produce clicks, they all break within a month, they all never get returned from the service department. The only interfaces that seem to lean towards one direction is m-audio, 80% say they are crap. Fine, off the list.

But here's one deciding factor I don't want to ignore. I'm on a Macbook Pro, Duo Core, not the Quad or whatever they are on now. I've seen a lot of people complaining about the firewire connection being jacked up. Has this been fixed? Is this something I should even worry about with my model Mac? It sounds like firewire would be the better option but not if it's a known issue with my computer.

Thanks for letting me learn from your mistakes.

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Thu May 17, 2007 7:11 pm

The main issue, is that SOME audio devices have problems turning on when they are only buss powered, the power supply in the newer MacBooks and MBP's is not as strong as it used to me. From various forums, the only audio interfaces that DON'T have this issue are MOTU's.

Although honestly I'd never power something as important as my soundcard on buss power alone anyway.

beats me · Post by **beats me** » Thu May 17, 2007 7:39 pm

Thanks for that explanation. So it's more of a bus power issue than usb or firewire connection. I was considering the MOTU Ultralite but it's a little more than I need and a little more than I want so spend. So I'll look for interfaces that have an actual power supply, or at least that option.

beubbo · Post by **beubbo** » Sat May 19, 2007 7:40 pm

Tarekith wrote:The main issue, is that SOME audio devices have problems turning on when they are only buss powered, the power supply in the newer MacBooks and MBP's is not as strong as it used to me. From various forums, the only audio interfaces that DON'T have this issue are MOTU's.

Although honestly I'd never power something as important as my soundcard on buss power alone anyway.

Hi Tarekith... & others !

I would like to *push* this topic just a little bit further by asking the experienced Live Mac users if there are any trade-offs (performance CPU & system stability-wise...) by using USB 2.0 externals disks for streaming audio & eventually sample banks compare to using regular FW 400 ones ?

In fact, as I own a Motu 896 HD, I was lurking toward Intel Mac Mini & new Imacs that have usually only one FW port & 2 or 3 USB 2.0 ports

Thanks

shaneblyth · Post by **shaneblyth** » Sat May 19, 2007 9:31 pm

beubbo wrote:
Tarekith wrote:
Hi Tarekith... & others !

I would like to *push* this topic just a little bit further by asking the experienced Live Mac users if there are any trade-offs (performance CPU & system stability-wise...) by using USB 2.0 externals disks for streaming audio & eventually sample banks compare to using regular FW 400 ones ?

Thanks

Any UB 2 device is going to suck some more CP out of your system than firewire 400 this has been shomn many times
That said streaming samples from a disk off my external drive mo matter if it is running the USB or firewire 400 port doesnt seem to make an noticable difference on my Macbook pro
I have my presonus firebox set to my firewire 400 port now and hook the external drive to the USB port to stream RMX samples/Loops If you have the choice I'd always use the firewire port for the audio interface though as I believe that will make a bit of a difference

Winterpark · Post by **Winterpark** » Sun May 20, 2007 1:39 am

i thought i'd just add my experience.

i can run a motu traveler and a korg microkontrol both powered from the computer at the same time, no problem with my MBPc2d2.33

kugutsumen · Post by **kugutsumen** » Sun May 20, 2007 4:05 am

Also if you use a firewire audio interface on a MBP that has a firewire 800... make sure you use the SDK drivers.

robbmasters · Post by **robbmasters** » Thu May 24, 2007 6:19 pm

kugutsumen wrote:Also if you use a firewire audio interface on a MBP that has a firewire 800... make sure you use the SDK drivers.

As a PC user who's probably about to switch to MBP, can you expand on that (i.e. how and why)? Thanks.