pci vs fw

[mlaverty]

hi

would an pci audio interface be faster than one in FW ?

thanks

[jaffi]

Yes, but the biggest benefit is the bandwidth and the amount of data transfered. In other words, you could send more simultanious audio tracks through a PCI bus than a FW bus.

[mlaverty]

would there be a big difference for 4 or 8 tracks?

[jaffi]

Not at all. I use FW to record 20-24 tracks simultaniously with no problems. PCI only really helps if you are in the 40+ area.

[mlaverty]

ok then
thanks alot Jaffi

[glsimonsen]

What are the advantages to the external FW cards then? (gain controls, etc?) And can you get a PCI card with XLR inputs?

[jaffi]

What are the advantages to the external FW cards then? (gain controls, etc?) And can you get a PCI card with XLR inputs?

More FW I/O. We are talking interfaces, not soundcards. If you look at most FW interfaces, they are small scale platforms. Usually 8-12 channels, though some are a little higher. Most of the time you can daisy chain up to 4 of these FW interfaces to get around 32 channels. That is reaching the upper limits of what FW can handle (at least as far as I know, because I haven't seen any with more than that). Now, look at the PCI platforms... PT HD, 24o/i, etc. These are handling around 96 channels over a PCI-X bus. That is very good considering the 133MHz bus they are running on. The fact is that FW is a great data transfer method for smaller scale audio, whereas PCI is more for large scale production methods (say 4 24i/o's connected to a Neve board running 48+ channels and outboard processors on the rest of the channels so that you can treat them as plugins within your sequencer). Most of us can get away with using FW, I know that I do. Bigger facilities are using PCI for the most part.

[glsimonsen]

thanks!