Mbox and Firewire vs USB transfer rate.

[darthpony]

Hi guys

I'm currently running M-Powered, but I want to switch over to LE so that I can use the DV Toolkit.
I'm mainly looking at doing some post work, occasionally recording a bass/guitar/voice or MIDI.. Now, since the DV Toolkit is quite expensive and I'm working on limited budget, I'm looking at the Mbox 2 Factory..

I'm just worried about the USB transfer rate vs Firewire (Mbox 2 Pro)..

Can anyone give me some input? I have USB 2.0.

Regards,
S

[casperfun]

Don't think too much. Their both quite capable of making music or else they won't be an option.

More investigation should be done on the computer it will be used on.

OO2R & Mbox2 owner.

[darthpony]

Pentium 4, 3.0ghz.
Intel mobo
2gb RAM
128mb graphics card.
80gb OS drive
250 data drive

That sound ok?

[cruisemates]

I said this years ago... Digi insists on firewire for outboard drives, however, I have recorded and mixed from a USB2 (emphasis on the 2) with no problems at all. If your drive has both kinds of cable attachments, you probably want to go to firewire, but personally (as stated above) they both have about the same throughput rate and I had no problems (though I do use firewire for my main drive).

[Obsidian Dragon]

I think the questions was not so much about firewire vs. USB2.0 for the hard drive. The question was more about firewire vs. USB2.0 for the audio interface.

All the Digidesign interfaces work with the computer connection they are designed with. You will note that the firewire based 003,003R, 002, 002R, and Mbox 2 Pro have more i/o than the USB1.1 based Mbox (original), Mbox 2, and Mbox 2 Mini. The units were designed to work with the bandwidth necessary to support the number of i/o on the interface. At a time, USB ports were much more prevalent in most computers (Windows PC's at least) and therefore USB was a logical choice. As firewire gained popularity and was available on more systems, it was the logical choice for higher bandwidth interfaces that had more i/o needs. Since the discontinued Digi 001 uses a PCI card to connect to the computer, it uses neither USB nor firewire.

Now back to the hard drive choices: (in case that WAS the question)
Some clearly have used USB2.0 hard drives and it works for them. Others have had nothing but problems (things like increase buffer, decrease buffers, and something about system held off interrupts too long, etc.). Digidesign clearly states that you should use firewire and not USB for external hard drives so I wouldn't risk using USB if possible. Technically, firewire has a higher sustained throughput necessary for streaming high sample rate multitrack digital audio. Don't even think about USB1.0/1.1 hard drives.

[darthpony]

The question was more about firewire vs. USB2.0 for the audio interface.

That's what I meant yeah, sorry if it wasn't clear.

So, if the Mbox 2 uses a USB connection, it would in theory be the same as using the Pro or 003 running on Firewire.. Right?

Am I understanding correctly?

S

[MarkGenero]

I have the MBOX2 factory and the digi website speces say it uses USB 1.1, not USB 2.0. I don't know the exact difference, but I believe 1.1 is signicantly slower than 2.0

That said, the latency is not all that bad. My biggest problem is the headphone volume with the mbox series. I was used to the robust headphone amp of the 001. The mbox headphone amps give a barely adequate volume.