Hello!

I'm looking at devices to get audio into my computer.
I'm keen on the Alesis MultiMix http://www.alesis.com/mixers and wonder about the benefits of Firewire over USB 2?

There won't be much traffic, but as I want to get audio into my computer for web streaming.

Would someone be as kind as to offer me their experiences on the subject?

Cheers
Gwion

Technically USB2 is as fast as Firewire but...

My set up had issues with USB2 as my keyboard & mouse are usb, and other peripheral storage too. This resulted in glitches on the audio. Moved the audio to Firewire and no further problems.

Thank you Andrew C
That solves the dilemma!

Just to confuse the issue...

Firewire will win on reliable throughput, often because the USB bus (yeah, I know the "B" stands for "bus" but "US Bus" sounds wrong) is shared. However, on the other hand, a good many firewire devices are fussy about drivers and chipsets. I personally do use firewire but I did a fair bit of online research before buying my hardware because there were horror stories about problems with particular firewire chipsets not playing nicely with certain hardware.

I've never used the Alesis mixer you mention--but if it was my money I'd do a bit of Googling first to make sure the firewire chipset in your computer works properly with it.

Bob

Just my 2p, but firewire has the best sustained data transfer rates, where as USB2 is better for burst data transfer (marginally). Not really a problem for a mixer though...

I've just done a very brief Google and got a very large number of results talking about problems for some people using the firewire version of the multimix. The running advice seems to be that Alesis only recommend the TI firewire chipset and many people have sorted their issues by changing to, for example, a Belkin firewire interface that used the TI chipset.

This is all very familiar to me because the same problems and advice existed when I chose my firewire hardware (an M-Audio Profire Lightbridge bringing in up to 32 channels via ADAT from my DM1000). I actually chose my present computer at least in part for the TI firewire chipset it included. For me, the system has been 100% stable right out of the box.

As I say, this was a very cursory bit of research so please don't take this as gospel. However, I suggest you do some reading of the various computer audio forums and Alesis FAQs to double check compatibility before spending your money.

Bob

This is quite correct, MOTU say the same thing. A TI-based PCI firewire card is about £20 though worst case, and it should usually be possible to disable the on-board ports in the BIOS setup should you find yourself with an incompatible board.

Just my 2p. I use a firewire interface as I run 24 in 24 out soundcard.

If the mixer your considering provides just a stereo input to your computer then usb2 will be fine. Like others have said the bandwidth of usb2 is similar/slightly more than fw400 (480kbs IIRC) but the sustained transfer rate is higher with fw400. For a stereo signal it shouldn't get close to this bandwidth limitation.

I've used an alesis usb mixer (not sure of the model) to record conferences etc and it has performed brilliantly. Recording straight into soundforge at the time.