Also, for the other end of paranoid who are worried about audio drop outs, sticking to a stable setup will allow you to trouble shoot the root cause of those issue as it’s probably not FireWire bandwidth.
Why?
A number of reasons. If you read the basics of the IEEE 1394 spec (it’s a dry read) or consult the 1394 Trade Association you’ll find that FireWire can connect up to 62 peripherals.
Now, obviously you’re not going to do something foolish like that in a recording session.
In fact, if you read the Digidesign ProTools 8.0 LE System Requirements, you’ll see that Digidesign recommends no more than four daisy chained FireWire drives, which are not to be mixed of FireWire 400 and 800.
However, even at four drives, that gives you quite a bi of leeway before you should start to have any problems.
So, I should just trust you?
Well, ultimately that’s your decision, isn’t it? Personally I think this is just policy and given what I’ve found I’m not the only one.
But if you’re a Mac or PC user with multiple free FireWire ports or a DAW user that uses a USB Hard Drive (shame on you!), then this really is of little concern to you.
Either way, if you’re ever in a situation where the hierarchy of FireWire devices is at issue, I’d recommend placing hard drives in line before audio interfaces.
What’s your take on FireWire connectivity? Do you have a set device hookup methodology? Try it a different way each time?
The Technologist, a.k.a. Kyle P. Snyder, is an audio engineer with innumerable credits in the public and private sector, writing about audio engineering, recording technology, and a multitude of other tropics for ProSoundWeb. Find out more about Kyle at his website.
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