Members pbognar Posted January 1, 2006 Members Share Posted January 1, 2006 I'm going to be getting a fairly decent HP laptop at work and I was thinking of also using it as a DAW - maybe get a M-Audio Ozonic (Firewire based 37 key keyboard controller, with audio and MIDI interface built in) and possibly a Firewire hard drive later. The only thing is that there is no Fire Wire port on the new computer!!!! Then I started researching PCMCIA based Fire Wire 800 cards and found a couple at www.newegg.com - here are a couple of links: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16839113005 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815150030#DetailSpecs Has anyone tried something like this with their laptops? Could I actually use a FW based audio device along with a FW hard drive? With VSTi synth plugins and decent (Sonar?) DAW software, I'm considering selling a couple of hardware synths (I'm not a keyboard player) to finance this little pursuit... Any comments or experiences? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kevinnem Posted January 2, 2006 Members Share Posted January 2, 2006 well I am not to sure what your looking for, but I might have a RME multi face, with pci AND pcmcia cards avalible. it has midi onboard , so you would just need a midi controler. Kev. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members John Sayers Posted January 2, 2006 Members Share Posted January 2, 2006 I run a PCMCIA dual USB 2.0 interface so I see no reason why either of those firewire units wouldn't work. here's a USB 2.0/Firewire comparison BTW. http://www.cwol.com/firewire/firewire-vs-usb.htm cheersjohn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus Lozada Posted January 2, 2006 Share Posted January 2, 2006 Get a PCMCIA Card / FireWire with a Texas Instruments chipset into it. Those are the best-working ones. You should be OK while using a FireWire dick and the interface, if you link the Disk first and then to the interface, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus Lozada Posted January 2, 2006 Share Posted January 2, 2006 Originally posted by Gus Lozada Get a PCMCIA Card / FireWire with a Texas Instruments chipset into it. Those are the best-working ones. By the way, from your TWO mentioned options, THIS ONE has a Texas INstruments chip into it. Go for it! Detailed SpecsChip set: TI TSB81BA3 (PHY) and TSB82AA2 (LYNX) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BLAblablah Posted January 2, 2006 Members Share Posted January 2, 2006 Originally posted by Gus Lozada You should be OK while using a FireWire dick Where can I get one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wooden Posted January 2, 2006 Members Share Posted January 2, 2006 Originally posted by BLAblablah Where can I get one? :D Are those hot swappable? :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus Lozada Posted January 2, 2006 Share Posted January 2, 2006 Originally posted by wooden :D Are those hot swappable? :D Of course ! .. but you need some kind of anti-virus, anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pbognar Posted January 6, 2006 Author Members Share Posted January 6, 2006 Originally posted by Gus Lozada By the way, from your TWO mentioned options, THIS ONE has a Texas INstruments chip into it. Go for it! Detailed Specs Chip set: TI TSB81BA3 (PHY) and TSB82AA2 (LYNX) Gus, I went to the M-Audio web site to investigate PCMCIA/Firewire cards, and there were only a couple that were "certified", but I think they are kind of old - however, they indicated that a power supply for the card would be necessary for the PCMCIA card if you didn't want to use the power supply on the Ozonic - no big deal... With the drivers which come with the Ozonic, and an Windows XP based system running some soft synths - what is the latency going to be like? Could I actually get rid of my Roland XP-30 and Yamaha AN1x? Also, how is the latency when recording audio through the built-in audio interface? I would really look forward to hiding from the wife and kids at home with my new laptop, an Ozonic, sequencer, softsynths and guitar - hell, I could record in the bathroom! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus Lozada Posted January 6, 2006 Share Posted January 6, 2006 Originally posted by pbognar Gus, I went to the M-Audio web site to investigate PCMCIA/Firewire cards, and there were only a couple that were "certified", but I think they are kind of old - however, they indicated that a power supply for the card would be necessary for the PCMCIA card if you didn't want to use the power supply on the Ozonic - no big deal... With the drivers which come with the Ozonic, and an Windows XP based system running some soft synths - what is the latency going to be like? Could I actually get rid of my Roland XP-30 and Yamaha AN1x? Also, how is the latency when recording audio through the built-in audio interface? I would really look forward to hiding from the wife and kids at home with my new laptop, an Ozonic, sequencer, softsynths and guitar - hell, I could record in the bathroom! yes, that certification is rather "old" -a year, perhaps - The important part of it is that as the most of the guys in her agree, Texas Instruments chipsets are the rule, Latency will depend in a big part on your computer's CPU, Speed, RAM and other things. With a decent machine -assuming it is Athlon or Pentium 4 at 1.8 or better with 512 MB of RAM minimum-, with Windows XP totally updated and the latest driver -dang!- you might be ok doing below 12 ms. People thinks I'm insane because I'm always about 512 samples on buffer size which gives me around 20 ms of latency, but I can track and do lots of soft synths / plug-ins with no problems. Remember, low latencies while tracking, "mid" latencies while mixing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Magpel Posted January 6, 2006 Members Share Posted January 6, 2006 Take caution and learn from my experience: If your laptop is new, there is a GOOD chance (70% to be exact) that the expansion slot is ExpressCard/54 or ExpressCatd/34. Your laptop lit will claim that these slots are PCMMIA-compliant HOWVER that does not mean that CardBus cards fit in ExpressCard slots. THEY DO DO NOT! CardBus devices are useless to you if your laptop has ExpressCard. To make matters worse, the ExpressCard standard is virtually unsupported, even though it is 2 1/2 years old. Newegg, my favorite online vendor ever, does not sell a single ExpressCard device. Abocom (Xterasys) makes an ExpressCard FireWire adapater (one for FW 400, one for FW 800, I think) and Siig has announced that theirs will be hitting the market soon. So: if your slot is CardBus, there's a million to choose from, and they start at under 20 bucks. If your slot is ExpressCard, there is one to choose from, they are asking 100 bucks for it, and they do not make it clear how, exactly, it can be purchased (not from their website certainly). Please don't share my woe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted January 6, 2006 Members Share Posted January 6, 2006 Originally posted by wooden :D Are those hot swappable? :D I was at that party but I walked out before things got, uh, interesting... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pbognar Posted January 6, 2006 Author Members Share Posted January 6, 2006 Originally posted by Magpel Take caution and learn from my experience: THEY DO DO NOT! CardBus devices are useless to you if your laptop has ExpressCard. Please don't share my woe. Thanks so much for the heads up... I will try to squeeze an existing PCMCIA device into my new PC when I get it to make sure. Actually, since it's going to be an HP, maybe I can dig up what I can on their support site before the laptop even arrives. How crappy would it be if I had a choice of one device (probably not the TI chipset) and not even know where to buy it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members elsongs Posted January 6, 2006 Members Share Posted January 6, 2006 Originally posted by Magpel Take caution and learn from my experience: If your laptop is new, there is a GOOD chance (70% to be exact) that the expansion slot is ExpressCard/54 or ExpressCatd/34. Your laptop lit will claim that these slots are PCMMIA-compliant HOWVER that does not mean that CardBus cards fit in ExpressCard slots. But if your laptop is new, it's also 70% likely that it will already have a Firewire/iLink port built in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Magpel Posted January 6, 2006 Members Share Posted January 6, 2006 Originally posted by elsongs But if your laptop is new, it's also 70% likely that it will already have a Firewire/iLink port built in Aye, perhaps. Not my new Dell, of course, but maybe his. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pbognar Posted January 6, 2006 Author Members Share Posted January 6, 2006 Originally posted by Magpel Aye, perhaps. Not my new Dell, of course, but maybe his. No, I scoped it out - no firewire That's why I started this thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Magpel Posted January 7, 2006 Members Share Posted January 7, 2006 Originally posted by pbognar No, I scoped it out - no firewire That's why I started this thread But did you find out if the expansion slot is CardBus or ExpressCard? I looked at one budget laptop on the HP site, and it was CardBus. If that's true across the board, you're golden for a firewire adapter. ExpressCard is supposed to be considerably faster than CardBus. It's true: I can hear gale-force winds whipping through that USELESS HOLE in the side of my Dell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members elsongs Posted January 7, 2006 Members Share Posted January 7, 2006 AVOID Dell laptops like the plague. Firewire or not. I got burned on a bad laptop I bought, and subsequently returned not much long after, in 2003. The damn thing came with ONE USB port!! And the screen was built like a kid's toy. Wassup with that??!?!? To top it off, it had a pixelation problem in the VGA controller. I hate Dell with a passion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pbognar Posted January 9, 2006 Author Members Share Posted January 9, 2006 Originally posted by Magpel But did you find out if the expansion slot is CardBus or ExpressCard? I looked at one budget laptop on the HP site, and it was CardBus. If that's true across the board, you're golden for a firewire adapter. ExpressCard is supposed to be considerably faster than CardBus. It's true: I can hear gale-force winds whipping through that USELESS HOLE in the side of my Dell. I may be in luck I looked on HP's web site for the NC6220 which I'm supposed to be getting, and here is what is said about the PCMCIA: "1 Type I/II PC card slots which support both 32-bit CardBus and 16-bit PC Cards, 1 Integrated Smart Card reader" So I have high hopes!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BLAblablah Posted January 9, 2006 Members Share Posted January 9, 2006 > You should be golden! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted January 9, 2006 Members Share Posted January 9, 2006 Originally posted by elsongs But if your laptop is new, it's also 70% likely that it will already have a Firewire/iLink port built in My perception is that this is going the other way... And now that Apple is forgoing FW on almost all their models, that may even accelerate, since FW is perceived as Apple's baby. Natch... I've got a FW interface... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Magpel Posted January 9, 2006 Members Share Posted January 9, 2006 Originally posted by pbognar I may be in luck I looked on HP's web site for the NC6220 which I'm supposed to be getting, and here is what is said about the PCMCIA: "1 Type I/II PC card slots which support both 32-bit CardBus and 16-bit PC Cards, 1 Integrated Smart Card reader" So I have high hopes!!! Yep, looks like you have our choice of FW adapters. When I was shopping for them, Newegg had one for 9.99 after mail-in rebate! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pbognar Posted January 13, 2006 Author Members Share Posted January 13, 2006 Originally posted by Gus Lozada Get a PCMCIA Card / FireWire with a Texas Instruments chipset into it. Those are the best-working ones. You should be OK while using a FireWire dick and the interface, if you link the Disk first and then to the interface, (not related to the typo thread ) How do FW-400 / FW-800 drives (yes I know the 800 would be twice as fast...) compare with 7200rpm IDE drives? And would a FW-400 drive be usable as an audio drive in a DAW setup? It seems that FW-800 drives are way more expensive than FW-400's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus Lozada Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 Originally posted by pbognar (not related to the typo thread ) How do FW-400 / FW-800 drives (yes I know the 800 would be twice as fast...) compare with 7200rpm IDE drives? And would a FW-400 drive be usable as an audio drive in a DAW setup? It seems that FW-800 drives are way more expensive than FW-400's. It's all about the dick... I mean, THROUGHPUT. FireWire diSks can be 7,200 RPM too but the transfer rate from the computer to the diSk is way diferent from a FW400, FW800 and IDE drivers. The higher, faster, the better. Get the baddest, fastest, higher througput diSk you can afford and you will be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.