Ableton Forum

OK im about to order a RME fireface 400 interface and a summit audio 2Ba pre amp.
I know ive allready posted about this, so appologies if your bored.... but its a pretty big purchase and i want to be sure to be sure.
I mostly (like the majority of people here) record one track at a time and somtimes in stereo, the usual vocals, guitars, bass, miscilanious synths and bleepy things.
I have a neuman 103 and a couple of sm57/58s.
I have an mbox 2 at the moment and want much better quality A/D, D/A, volume, clarity, and a bit of tube warmth if i feel like it.
If nobody screams "STOP YOU FOOL, YOU CAN DO A LOT BETTER FOR THE MONEY!!!!"... then ill go ahead and buy.

may the force be with you.

Jesse (Ireland, county Kildare, where men are men and sheep are nervous)

jesso wrote:OK im about to order a RME fireface 400 interface and a summit audio 2Ba pre amp.
I know ive allready posted about this, so appologies if your bored.... but its a pretty big purchase and i want to be sure to be sure.
I mostly (like the majority of people here) record one track at a time and somtimes in stereo, the usual vocals, guitars, bass, miscilanious synths and bleepy things.
I have a neuman 103 and a couple of sm57/58s.
I have an mbox 2 at the moment and want much better quality A/D, D/A, volume, clarity, and a bit of tube warmth if i feel like it.
If nobody screams "STOP YOU FOOL, YOU CAN DO A LOT BETTER FOR THE MONEY!!!!"... then ill go ahead and buy.

may the force be with you.

Jesse (Ireland, county Kildare, where men are men and sheep are nervous)

Do it. With one tweek. Get the RME cardbus. I'm guessing that would be the multiface or something. Faster is always better and the cardbus beats the pants off of firewire. Let your firewire drive sit on that bus alone and use your lonely pcmcia slot.

Cheers

Ok so the multiface is the same as the fireface but it uses a pcmcia slot? Excuse my ignorance, ive never used that slot before... i assume i have one on my powerbook?
will i ever have issues if i want to use the multiface with a different computer?
Faster than firewire you say? Interesting... why dont more people use it?
Thanks knotkranky your as we say, "a legend"!

jesse

jesso wrote:Ok so the multiface is the same as the fireface but it uses a pcmcia slot? Excuse my ignorance, ive never used that slot before... i assume i have one on my powerbook?

Yes, Powerbooks have them, IBooks, MacBooks dont.
The other major difference is the larger Cache RAM on the pro models.

jesso wrote: will i ever have issues if i want to use the multiface with a different computer?

My guess is No, you'll be able to use it somehow.

jesso wrote: Faster than firewire you say? Interesting... why dont more people use it?

Yes faster than firewire.

Because firewire is cheaper ?

EDIT.

ahm...

macbook pros do NOT have pcmcia

they have the newer expresscard

for wich there is yet no soundcard available...

i suppose that is one of appeals of fw over it,

increased universality...

also alot of people is expecting expresscard / pcmcia adapters to use the multifaces/emus on the intelmacs...

better to wait for propper expresscards IMHO

there are converters on the way for expresscard <-> pcmcia.

...go rme.

I don't know anything about your purchase, but your tag cracked me up.
I've been rereading A portrait of the artist as a young man by Joyce, and it reminds me of the part where he's a daydreamy kid writing in his schoolbook,

stephen daedelus
cosgrove school
county cork
ireland
europe
the world
the universe

I wonder why you'd want to buy an extra preamp when the Fireface already has very nice ones. Did you make an A/B comparison with the TLM103?

Blazes Boyle is my favorite.
Ive heard the fireface pres are good, but i want the flexibility of having another nice preamp so i have a few options. To be honest, i havnt made an A/B comparison cos i dont know anyone with an rme. I like the idea of a tube preamp that i can se to dirty up things a little.
pcmcia it is then....

pmcia's ok...but...what if you want to use it on someone's lapper that has no pmcia or a desktop? You say you're pretty much only recording one or 2 channels at a time, do you need the extra speed? Not denying the loveliness of pmcia or the wisdom of that choice, simply thinking options and future...

Well i want this interface to last for a while... at least till i can afford that 24 track neve desk i have my eye on!
So the extra speed mite come in handy down the road sometime.
Do the imacs/mac pros have pmcia?

no new computer has pcmcia

expecially apple ones

only some lowend pc laptops still feature it

nonnus wrote:no new computer has pcmcia

expecially apple ones

only some lowend pc laptops still feature it

Well jesso, ya gotta dig and find out rme's plans for new cards and maybe wait a minute or two. Rme is a solid company, maybe it's just around the corner. You have a non intel pb and there is a retro fit for the cards I hear Anybody got the facts on that ?
The card component is not so expensive either. Switching up later is an idea.

Anyway, keeping your interface on the pci buss is worth the effort.

TheAnimal wrote:I wonder why you'd want to buy an extra preamp when the Fireface already has very nice ones. Did you make an A/B comparison with the TLM103?

I second this. The fireface 400 has two high quality mic pres. I have owned a RME multiface/pcmcia cardbus setup for almost 4 years and absolutely love it. If I were to buy a new setup today, I'd definitely buy the fireface 400 over the multiface II. Here's why: the 400 can plug into most any computer, laptop or desktop straight up--ie no $300 cardbus card and no $270 desktop card, just a firewire cable. Also, the multiface cardbus card includes a fancy cable to connect the multiface to the card, and it is a bit delicate--lose it or break it and get ready to shell out more cash. Second, the 400 has built in mic pres with gain knobs, more readily adjustable input impedance and level control, clipping lights, etc.
Third, it can run on bus power, no pluggin in. Fourth, you can chain it with another 400 or 800 to expand in the future. Fifth, the future of pcmcia is unsure--it seems to be rapidly being phased out by the pci express slot. Sure, there is talk of adapters, but that's more money and possible conflicts and latency issues--who know.

The only downsides I see in buying a 400 over a multiface is the lack of midi I/O on the 400, but obviously there are many ways to overcome that. The others are sharing a fw port with a hard drive (which many fw audio interface users do with no problems), and the speed/latency issue with fw vs. pcmcia, which I don't think is as big a difference as some are making it out to be. Anyone who has actually used both soundcards on the same system could speak with authority on performance comparisons, otherwise it's more conjecture that the multiface will be "faster" or have lower latency than the 400 on any given system.

For basically the exact same price as a multiface II and cardbus, you get the 400 with mic pres and connectivity to laptops and desktops of past, present, and presumably future. With the multiface you get no mic pres, connectivity to only laptop or desktop (or shell out another $300), and the distinct possibility of pcmcia going bye-bye and you're left to buy a third-party adapter that may or may not work with your system, may or may not cause latency issues.

nonnus wrote:no new computer has pcmcia

expecially apple ones

only some lowend pc laptops still feature it

this is not really true, and you contradict your first line with your third. toshiba, one of the Live users' most used and respected pc laptop manufactures is still providing pcmcia on many of it's high end machines like this:

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/pde ... oid=-30605

so saying "no new computer has pcmcia" and "only some lowend pc laptops still feature it" it simply not true.

you make your case very well....
I reckon the firewire pluses outweigh the multiface pluses, and i dont really have time to wait and see what rme do next....
Great stuff thanks for all your responses, really lookin forward to my new setup, ill let you know how i get on!

jesse