On 4/28/2013 10:33 PM, Trevor wrote:
Right, they are already obsolete. Buying new hardware with that interface is
just plain silly.
But what choices do you have today if you need to buy something today?
Audio hardware development and computer hardware development are about
120 degrees out of phase.
(except for $10 stuff which you can throw away without a second thought)
It's all $10 stuff. Only problem is that some of it costs a few hundred $
Buy a USB interface to ADAT optical and in ten years nobody will be making
an 8-channel mic preamp with ADAT output.
I wouldn't bet on five let alone ten.
But if you buy a good mic preamp today, you won't need to buy another
one in five years. Are you suggesting that USB will become unavailable
in ten years? What you'll have to worry about is if you buy a new
computer in three years, the maker of your USB interface may not have a
USB3 driver. So the trick is not to worry about replacing your audio
hardware, but rather what happens when you replace your computer.
The audio business isn't big enough to respond instantly to changes in
computers. You may not have a USB3 driver. You may not have a Windows 9
driver. If you'r "$10 stuff" cost $250 (and other stuff proportionally)
then maybe the audio companies would have enough money to jump right on
to needed updates. Think Lynx, not M-Audio.
If USB4 follows USB3, USB2 and USB1 backward compatibility, that won't be a
problem.
But we've already discovered that the audio hardware is not fully
backward compatible.
What will be a problem is getting Windows 9/10 drivers for the
interface, or getting Windows 8/7/XP drivers for the computer to downgrade
the OS.
And here's another root of the problem. The computer industry doesn't
believe in sustaining working systems. If I want to set up a new
computer and run WinXP, I have to go to the "used" or black market in
order to get a copy to install. I can't go to my friendly local computer
store and buy a new, licensed copy of WinXP. Maybe I should buy a retail
copy of Win7 while I still can. Maybe you should, too.
Why on earth do they want to use FW800 when FW400 is sufficient for the job
and compatible with FW800, while not the reverse?
Probably because they (we're talking PreSonus StudioLive AI mixers)
expect that new customers will be buying a new MacBook Pro to go along
with it, and that has Firewire 800. Their next generation of hardware
will incorporate control as well as audio data
Of course the real question is why would they want to use Firewire at all
now it is becoming more rare. The MOTU idea of combo FW and USB seems more
logical to me at least.
PreSonus' choice for the next generation is Dante. The mixer includes a
one-computer license for the Dante Virtual Sound Card application that
allows a computer to recognize Dante-enabled audio devices that are
connected over a standard Ethernet network. For example, if you have
their AI speakers connected to the same network as the mixer, you'll not
only be able to get audio from the mixer to the speakers, but you'll be
able to adjust the DSP speaker management from the mixer (once the
mixer's firmware catches up). Focusrite has a whole line of
Dante-enabled boxes for audio production.
But Dante isn't the only game in town. While it's never been a problem
to connect between audio devices from diverse manufacturers using plain
old analog electricity, it'll be a while before you can connect
different brands of hardware over an Ethernet network
Right, don't need to upgrade mine at the moment anyway. But the problem
never goes away, you just have to face built in obsolesence with all
computer equipment. It's been that way since my first in 1980 and will
probably be that way long after I'm dead.
We're both saying the same thing here. If you're in a part of the
business where you need to have the latest toys, then you should be
getting paid enough to continue to upgrade and just take it as a matter
of course. This stuff isn't all that expensive. But for tinkerers like
me (and really that's where most of the audio equipment sold today goes,
it's not only a pain in the butt to keep up, but a financial drain on
our non- or low-profit projects as well. Best advice is to assemble a
system that works, and stick with it, and with projects within its
capabilities.
--
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http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com