Oh no!

[The-Warlord]

was going to buy a MOTU Traveler with a Macbook pro...MOTU needs a 6 pin firewire to be bus powered, and Macbook has a Firewire 400 and 800! Not going to work
Anyone know of any firewire interfaces that are bus powered and coem with atleast 4 mic preamps? :?

 

[kithsa]

The sad truth is, Firewire power isn't strong enough to power many preamps. I think 2 is the hard limit, though I may be wrong. The MOTU Traveller has a battery pack, if I'm not wrong. That can help.

 

[The-Warlord]

I might as well get the Presonus firepod then? 8 pre amps..

 

[unsane]

i had a bad experience powering up preamps/interfaces off firewire..theres simply too much current drain or something and i actually ended up blowing up power supply/motherboard/some other computer shit, TWICE before i figured out what was going on. use the external PSU if there is one.

 

[gkinsingapore]

It's fairly well documented that hotswapping FW peripherals can fry the FW port. I have a bus powerd interface off a desktop and it's sweet....never a problem.

FW 400 is a transfer speed not how many pins are on the connection. 6 pin cables supply power, 4 pins dont. Are you saying you cant run a 6 pin cable on the macbook? I think you can! If your macbook cant supply bus power via a 6 pin cable then it wont power any interface....

I think once you clarify the situation you'll be fine with the MOTU. even tweakheadz recommends the macbook/traveller combo for mobile bus powered recording:

http://www.tweakheadz.com/rigs2.htm

 

[The-Warlord]

Cool. Sorry im a new one when it comes to Firewire and macs..cant wait to to portable recording! Wheee!

 

[gkinsingapore]

Go forth and conquer...thats some pretty sweet gear you got on your shopping list!

 

[The-Warlord]

Go forth and conquer...thats some pretty sweet gear you got on your shopping list!

It's going to cost me an arm and a leg though! Crazy money...

 

[kithsa]

The Firepod isn't bus-powered, by the way. You'll need to use the PSU.

If you still want to go 100% portable, I'd seriously go for the MOTU. It still survives on battery power.

 

[unsane]

It's fairly well documented that hotswapping FW peripherals can fry the FW port. I have a bus powerd interface off a desktop and it's sweet....never a problem.

didnt hotswap anything in my case, but the computer in question was pretty much left on 24/7 though. whether that was a contributing factor i have no idea. m-audio firewire 410, draws 16V i think. good that you havent had any problems but i'm not risking it anymore heh.

 

[parablue74]

i had a bad experience powering up preamps/interfaces off firewire..theres simply too much current drain or something and i actually ended up blowing up power supply/motherboard/some other computer shit, TWICE before i figured out what was going on. use the external PSU if there is one.

Ain't got any problems on the Firepod at all. Don't know much about Mac, am using PC. If you want, get the latest Mac or something. I don't think it's your interface, more your computer speed ain't fast enuff. Firewire should send a constant signal to your comp, it shouldn't drain any more power than it need to. More like the signals going in are not well received due to lag of RAM and speed from your comp itself.

 

[audiovox]

Hi warlord,

Don't worry, Apple's computers all use 6 pin firewire plugs, so getting power to your Traveler wont be an issue. Firewire 400 and 800 are simply different interfaces. All macs currently carry at least one 6 pin firewire 400 port, which is what the traveler needs for power and data transfer.

All the best! :wink: