rumpelfilter
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Italy

Just to clarify a bit here, chipsets of FW400 is rarely (I would say never, but just in case) a problem. And since most laptops are equipped with FW400 you shouldn't need to worry. FW800 however is a different story. There I strongly recommend the Texas Instruments chipset.

I would really disagree on this, just search for "Firewire problem audio interface" and you'll get hundreds of forum threads about that. Apparently there is a complex set of problems you can have with firewire, lousy FW chips like the dreaded Ricoh, and driver problems... I tried to get my Firebox to run on many different systems and I never succeeded. Theoretically Macbook pros should guarantee good compatibility with FW interfaces, but with most other manufacturers it's a matter of luck finding a laptop that will work (the only ones that might work fine are the ADK laptops).
USB on the other hand seems to have less compatibility problems.

You need to look at a minimum of 200 USD investment to get a good card

Second that. see it like that, it's better to spend 200 now, than to spend 100 now and then have to spend 200 more next year after months of frustration.

Analog
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Ciudad de méxico, MX

hey, the focusrite USB is about 200 dollars. I have the firewire version (focusrite saffire LE) which is more expensive, but i need it 'cause of the quantity of inputs/outputs. It have the same preamps.

herr_prof
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i thought i recommended an NI ak-1, which sounds great on guitar.. but it might be outside your price range.

Diamonds & Dynamite
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Wolverhampton UK

http://www.korg.co.uk/products/digital_ … /dr_d4.asp

This. Its not a USB one, but you can get them pretty cheap on the eBay, they are great for guitar and have two inputs for recording in stereo. Also got a brilliant built in mic and have a USB connection. Can also be used as an effects unit/mixer when you play live. Pretty Rad man. Pretty Rad.

tRasH cAn maN
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rumpelfilter wrote:

I would really disagree on this, just search for "Firewire problem audio interface" and you'll get hundreds of forum threads about that. Apparently there is a complex set of problems you can have with firewire, lousy FW chips like the dreaded Ricoh, and driver problems...

Some interfaces run just fine on any FW400 chipset which leads me to believe that it's more a matter of flawed audio interfaces or drivers. Never the less, I keep seeing TI chipset being recommended in general.

infradead
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Tacoma WA
tRasH cAn maN wrote:
rumpelfilter wrote:

I would really disagree on this, just search for "Firewire problem audio interface" and you'll get hundreds of forum threads about that. Apparently there is a complex set of problems you can have with firewire, lousy FW chips like the dreaded Ricoh, and driver problems...

Some interfaces run just fine on any FW400 chipset which leads me to believe that it's more a matter of flawed audio interfaces or drivers. Never the less, I keep seeing TI chipset being recommended in general.

i had a m-audio that needed a TI firewire chipset.  what ever is in my computer wouldn't work.

i have a prosounus firebox now and it works just fine with the built in, which is good because the firewire card i installed died.

rumpelfilter
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Italy
tRasH cAn maN wrote:

Some interfaces run just fine on any FW400 chipset which leads me to believe that it's more a matter of flawed audio interfaces or drivers. Never the less, I keep seeing TI chipset being recommended in general.

Well I can only speak about the Presonus Firebox. It would not run on my laptop, no matter what I did, I even tried a FW express card but without any luck. In that case I can't say it's a bad interface (it's no m-audio) or bad drivers. It would run perfectly on any other computer I have tried it on, just not on my laptop!
A friend of mine had the same problems with his Motu, and I mean, Motu is the state of the art regarding mobile audio interfaces!

So I would still recommend the Presonus Firebox. It's a great device, and you can find used ones for about 200 bucks. Just be aware that in some circumstances it might not run smoothly, as might any other fw interface.

UNiX
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Norwich, UK

the behringer is fine for me (i got it unexpectedly free with a midi keyboard and ableton live lite smile) and i'm only using it for monitoring when djing, so unless you want to get a decent one, this would be fine i suppose