2021-09-11, 01:22 PM
Must admit that nowadays firewire isn't used widely anymore - apart Thunderbolt, but it's still a niche connection.
BUT... indeed it could be handy for someone who would like to get a cheap and good audio interface to capture laserdisc tracks and not only.
The main problem is, most of all the motherboards released in the last few years, there is no firewire, so you are forced to buy a PCI-E card to get it; still, some of these can have sync problems.
According to several posts I read on various problem, the best way to avoid problems using a PCI-E firewire interface with audio cards is to choose one using Texas Instrument chipsets; in particular, the latest one using the XIO2213B.
AVOID the cheap few-bucks chinese cards as they do not use TI chipsets!
Such kind of cards cost around 35/40€; bad thing is, they come without a cable, so you need a 9pin/6pic cable that usually cost further 15/20€, setting the price of the whole set up to 50/60€! So take this in account if you are planning to buy an old firewire audio card, as the whole connection set could could a big fraction of the card itself!
There is another way, though: buy an old iMac!
It could be found for peanuts now; any Intel based one could record several dozen tracks without a problem, and it's possible to add more interfaces easily to get more channels, without having problems like you probably get using the PC!
Sure, two computers (and monitors) take more space than one, but having one dedicated only to audio capture could be useful; then, if you can also got a video capture card working in that same iMac...
BUT... indeed it could be handy for someone who would like to get a cheap and good audio interface to capture laserdisc tracks and not only.
The main problem is, most of all the motherboards released in the last few years, there is no firewire, so you are forced to buy a PCI-E card to get it; still, some of these can have sync problems.
According to several posts I read on various problem, the best way to avoid problems using a PCI-E firewire interface with audio cards is to choose one using Texas Instrument chipsets; in particular, the latest one using the XIO2213B.
AVOID the cheap few-bucks chinese cards as they do not use TI chipsets!
Such kind of cards cost around 35/40€; bad thing is, they come without a cable, so you need a 9pin/6pic cable that usually cost further 15/20€, setting the price of the whole set up to 50/60€! So take this in account if you are planning to buy an old firewire audio card, as the whole connection set could could a big fraction of the card itself!
There is another way, though: buy an old iMac!
It could be found for peanuts now; any Intel based one could record several dozen tracks without a problem, and it's possible to add more interfaces easily to get more channels, without having problems like you probably get using the PC!
Sure, two computers (and monitors) take more space than one, but having one dedicated only to audio capture could be useful; then, if you can also got a video capture card working in that same iMac...