• Registered: 2010-06-05
  • Posts: 2

Topic: Using a Fireface 800 with a firewire 400 port

Hi,

I'm considering buying the Fireface 800, but at the moment my laptop is a Sony VGN-FW11ZU and has no firewire port but has an S400 port. If I got a cable like this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Belkin-IEEE-139 … amp;sr=1-2 would the fireface work?

Would the performance be worse than getting an Expresscard 34 adapter to use a firewire 800 port?

2 Reply by Laurence Payne (edited by Laurence Payne 2010-06-05 11:10:49)

  • Registered: 2007-05-09
  • Posts: 174

Re: Using a Fireface 800 with a firewire 400 port

I looked on Sony's web page.  The specs for your machine make no mention of a Firewire port, but the pictures show something that looks very much like one on the side of the case!  And S400 is just another name for Firewire 400.

So, if it IS there, a simple 4-6 pin Firewire cable will work with your Fireface 800.  Connect it to the Firewire 400 port on the FF of course!  RME tell us that Firewire 800 is only required when daisy-chaining two FF800 units.  Us mortals can get along perfectly well with Firewire 400 (and I think most of us do:-)

The cable you mention is the correct type, but rather over-priced.

You might also like to run DPC Latency Checker on your laptop. Grab it from
http://www.thesycon.de/eng/home.shtml
Unfortunately, many laptops (particularly those crammed full of "features") suffer from latency spikes making ANY serious audio use problematic.  Maybe yours does, maybe not.  You may as well find out now if you're likely to have problems.  And I'm afraid if you do, adding a FURTHER device - a separate Firewire card - is no guarantee of a cure.

The FF800 has a LOT of in/outs.  Probably more than a laptop should realistically be expected to deal with.  Do you really need all those channels, the ADAT ports, etc?  Maybe the FF 400 would suffice.  Maybe what you really want is something with fewe advanced features but more mic inputs?  You're using a laptop, so you need portability.  What do you DO when you take it out?  Multi-mic location recording?

  • Registered: 2010-06-05
  • Posts: 2

Re: Using a Fireface 800 with a firewire 400 port

Thanks for the reply,

I want to get the FireFace 800 as my M-Audio Fast Track Ultra has been rubbish - there is an issue with the power supply, all the line ins and outs don't work, and generally a badly built product. At the end of the year I'm getting a Project Studio, and I will use a high spec Mac Pro, probably 2 FF 800's and some more preamps, but I want to get the Mac Pro when I get my studio, but until then I'm using my Vaio and Ableton Live 8 and I need an Interface, since I need to make some demos for my band.

I downloaded the Latency Checker and do I need to run Ableton for it to get a good reading of the latency?

  • Knut
  • Knut
  • DAW Mastermind
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  • Registered: 2007-04-06
  • Posts: 1,618

Re: Using a Fireface 800 with a firewire 400 port

I downloaded the Latency Checker and do I need to run Ableton for it to get a good reading of the latency?

No. Latency checker measures the hardware/driver environment of a computer system to handle real-time audio or video streams. So it behaves like an audio application, streaming audio data - but with better chance to find the reason for excessive latencies or latency spikes.

best regards
Knut

  • Registered: 2007-05-09
  • Posts: 174

Re: Using a Fireface 800 with a firewire 400 port

nathanone wrote:

Thanks for the reply,

I want to get the FireFace 800 as my M-Audio Fast Track Ultra has been rubbish - there is an issue with the power supply, all the line ins and outs don't work, and generally a badly built product. At the end of the year I'm getting a Project Studio, and I will use a high spec Mac Pro, probably 2 FF 800's and some more preamps, but I want to get the Mac Pro when I get my studio, but until then I'm using my Vaio and Ableton Live 8 and I need an Interface, since I need to make some demos for my band.

I downloaded the Latency Checker and do I need to run Ableton for it to get a good reading of the latency?

Fair enough!  You might want to look at alternatives to a pair of FF800s.  It's a good do-everything box, but that's an inefficient way to get just 8 mic inputs.