Best $36 I've spent (Laptop Recording)

Lance Blair

Up until now, I've never been satisfied with my recordings on my Windows XP Laptop. Mic and preamp upgrades sounded a bit better, but things still always sounded a touch brittle and veiled. Then I considered that I use the Presonus Firebox...and even though I'm not crazy about it, I know people were getting better sounding recordings than I was with equal or lesser (it's all relative, of course) gear.

That lead me to consider replacing the Firebox, which led me to look at the E-MU 1616M, which uses at Card Bus input to the computer instead of firewire. I started thinking about Card Bus possibilities, thinking that my computer even though it has TI firewire just wasn't working well through the firewire: dropouts, freezes, high latency...

So I plopped down $36 at Staples last night for a Belkin F5U512 FireWire Notebook Adapter ($54 Online). It's plug & play and all you do is just attach your firewire device to the adapter. Simple.

I will post some samples of before and after the adapter later on today. It's smoother, warmer & richer, and all the harshness in the high end has been tamed and turned into a really nice sound comparatively. Also, it's making the Firebox rock-solid and operating at lower latency.

Chris Clementson · **Voice Seeker** Joined: 14 Jan 2008 Posts: 216

Lance Blair · Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008, 04:31 (GMT) Post subject:

It's strange, I agree...but it works. Also, I never "blew out" my firewire port if you're wondering...it's always been as is. The adapter is just a card bus card that then has an extra small box attached with room for three six pin fire wire ports. Perhaps my laptop (HPzv6100) just stinks at handling straight firewire...I made sure there weren't any conflicts for fw on my computer. I did see on a few boards some people saying that card bus was superior to firewire on some laptops, but they too were really at a loss to provide substantial reasons why. I promise the files are coming!

Chris Clementson · **Voice Seeker** Joined: 14 Jan 2008 Posts: 216

Lance -

I revisited this message and I'm wondering whether your Firewire port was supplying the proper voltage to the Firebox. As you know, once audio gets to the digital domain it's ones and zeroes and there is no way a Firewire port could affect the timbre. If your Firebox weren't getting the proper voltage from the FW port it would make sense that the timbre would be affected in the analog domain.

Just a thought.

Lance Blair · Posted: Tue May 20, 2008, 00:27 (GMT) Post subject:

Hi Chris,
I agree with what you're saying, but the Firebox was plugged into a wall wart. I've upgraded to an Echo Audio Fire and my computer still is happier recording a signal coming in from the Belkin adapter than straight through the-four pin firewire port.

My computer is whack anyway. Wink

Lee Kanne · Posted: Tue May 20, 2008, 05:59 (GMT) Post subject:

I have no way of verifying these figures, but someone had these posted on another site when addressing a similiar issue.

These are bandwidth benchmarks for various popular ports for typical devices:

5. USB 1.x 12Mbps = 1.5MBps
4. FW400 400Mbps = 50MBps
3. USB 2.0 480Mbps = 60MBps
2. FW800 800Mbps = 100MBps
1. PCI/PCMCIA 1.1Gbps = 133MBps

It would seem then, that the Cardbus, or PCMIA slot, it pumping almost three times the bandwidth that a standard firewire port
would. So even though you are attaching a firewire device to the
Cardbus adapter, it's origination from the computer had got a much wider bandwidth then the firewire port you were using with the Firebox.

Chris Mezzolesta · Posted: Tue May 20, 2008, 12:44 (GMT) Post subject:

I had to go this route when I got my notebook back after it had been stolen and was gone for a few months, when I got it back neither FW port worked, the computer guy said the ports on the motherboard were shot, so all I had to do was get a PCMCIA/FW card and no problem....I was skeptical but sure enough it does work fine - as to whether it has any effect on audio I kinda doubt it but it has saved me from having to get a whole new computer. I thought PCMCIA was a dinosaur protocol, but am glad it's still around!

Chris Clementson · **Voice Seeker** Joined: 14 Jan 2008 Posts: 216

Lance Blair · Posted: Wed May 21, 2008, 01:04 (GMT) Post subject:

Perhaps it's an issue more in the guts of the computer, if that makes any sense. Even though my computer has a TI firewire chipset and I've done everything possible to optimize my firewire, the computer still might not be optimally built for firewire. That's my only guess.

Chris Clementson · **Voice Seeker** Joined: 14 Jan 2008 Posts: 216

You can't change the timbre of a sound in the digital domain unless you open a file or stream and apply an effect such as reverb or filtering. Assuming you did none of that, the change in timbre would have to have been in the analog domain.

Lance Blair · Posted: Thu May 22, 2008, 05:33 (GMT) Post subject:

The sound recorded on my computer can sound radically different with different latency settings while the analog settings remain the same.