firewire 410 question

rs170a wrote on 9/24/2004, 12:34 PM

Sorry for the question but the manual is somewhat vague.
Is this unit capable of operating as a standalone unit (i.e. pass-through for CD listening, for example) or does it have to be connected to the computer at all times to do anything at all? Thanks.

Mike

Comments

David_Kuznicki wrote on 9/24/2004, 1:04 PM

I believe that it has to be hooked up to a computer to pass thru any audio... but I'm really not sure, come to think of it!

I'll be sure to give it a try when I get home! Great little unit, btw.

David.

Coursedesign wrote on 9/24/2004, 5:32 PM

You can use it to amplify an analog input signal and crank it out an analog output.

BUT...

This only works if you have connected the box to your computer via firewire, and the M-Audio drivers are active on your computer. If not, it refuses to start up.

Don't think of this as an amp, think of it is as a computer I/O peripheral.

rs170a wrote on 9/24/2004, 5:39 PM

Thanks for the coments Coursedesign.
When you say M-Audio drivers are active , do you mean Vegas is running - or just simply that the computer is turned on? AS you can tell, I've never used it before and am considering it for a student NLE suite, hence the dumb question :-)

Mike

farss wrote on 9/24/2004, 6:02 PM

The drivers are quite separate to Vegas and it comes with it's own mixer that runs as a service. You don't need to be running anything else to get audio through it, say from mic inputs to headphone outs or line / instrument ins to line outputs. You can use it just as you would any sound card.
I have one, great little box. Only issue I have with it isn't it's fault as far as I can tell, some of the very early firewire devices really need to be the ONLY firewire device on the system. I don't think this is even a driver / hardware issue as I've seen guys have much the same grief on Macs as well.
If you're after one I imported mine from www.sweetwater.com , excellent bunch of guys, not only were they the cheapest they saved me a bundle on shipping as well.
Make cartain you download the latest drivers from M-Audio and follow the installation procedure carefully, it's a little different, not complicated but just read and don't do anything other than what the instructions tell you to do.

Great little box, mic inputs could use little more gain in my opinion but that's about all.

Bob.

rs170a wrote on 9/24/2004, 6:27 PM

Thanks for the comments Bob. Much appreciated. I lookd at Sweetwater's price and we'll still be buying from a Canadian supplier. After factoring in the exchange rate, it works out to almost the same ($400 US vs. $550 CDN.)

One concern with one statement of yours though and it sounds like there's no way no knowing for sure.
You said some of the very early firewire devices really need to be the ONLY firewire device on the system. I sure hope that'sno longer true as we're thinking about installing a 3-port firewire card with a JVC miniDV/SVHS deck (JVC SR-VS30U which I think you have and like) and an external back-up drive hanging off of it in addition to the M-Audio card. All 3 will never be active at the same time - but we will stil need all 3 devices on it.

Mike

Coursedesign wrote on 9/25/2004, 3:43 PM

These are probably OK, but be careful with Canon 1CCD camcorders, even some of the recent ones are said to want to be alone on the firewire.

rs170a wrote on 9/25/2004, 4:58 PM

...be careful with Canon 1CCD camcorders

Our Journalism department bought 4 miniDV Canons last year and we had no problems with them. This was on a 3-port firewire card with an ADVC-100 and an external hard drive hanging off it. Just lucky I guess :-)

Mike