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Has anyone here had experience with Phonic Mixers?  They have a new unit out that has direct firewire recording to pc built right into the mixer at an extremely reasonable price and I was thinking of picking one up but I can't find anyone who has used one or even seen one in action.  Thanks Guys.

PK I'm not familiar with the phonic but I am interested in using firewire for recording.. Contrary to specs firewire compared to usb 2.0  has a 15% faster data transfer and access. It has a lower latency and better multi-tacking capabilities.  And of course if you are using anything else on the usb bus the bandwidth is reduced...

Currently using a delta44 with 4 recording channels and dont know if I can access the m-audio control panel via firewire and use all channels for ex with the onyx....


Addendum:
Further googling tells mr I need one of these  Which is another $400  Ithinl I'll stick with what I've got for awhile...Does that Phonic come with an i/o board with multi-track capabilities?

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See, I am a bit curious on immediately discounting the USB 2.0 because of bandwidth issues?

You don't start seeing bandwidth issues until you have LOTS of usb stuff hooked up. AND it's always best to have the devices that send OUT via usb on one path and those that send IN on another. USB supports up to 127 devices (which is extreme... I can't for the life of me determine what you would need that way, especially in a stand-alone entertainment media pc that's hooked up to a usb mixer.

I have seen stats that states that firewire is also better... but then, BETAMAX was better than VHS! !

It's nice to know of the different options, though.

I know for a fact having multiple firewire and usb hard drives and recording interfaces that firewire is way faster and more reliable, however it also tends to be much more expensive.

yes, it is faster... but does it make a smidgeon of a difference in audio or video output?? So far, I've not seen a hint of a lag... so I think going to the nth degree is a waste of effort. We're not talkin' xmission over a net or lan... we're talkin' from a computer to an audio mixer!

I can see it for studio or corporation type efforts, but even then, if you're not coming close to maxin' out the capabilities of what comes standard with a puter... I just wonder if it's worth it all!

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Normally it doesnt Mat
I have done many shows with up to 15k karaoke and 10 k mp3 on an external hard drive usb to ide converter... Years ago I was doing tech support when windows me had usb... With anything hooked up to the usb and add a usb scanner at high res meant a complete system crash... 2.0 and xp is a vast improvement over those days  and you are right a normal karaoke seup should not have any problems...

Presently I am using a delta44 with 4 channels record capabilities.  i use 1/2 for music and 3/4 for mic1 mic2 res.  Once in a while I record with sonar3 which has mult-track capabilties..Sometimes I would like to have more channels in I could add another delta 44 for about $150  but with the unit above its up to something 16  which I would never use... But it is expensive Since I dont charge for trackin mixing or mastering it is hard to justify the cost... So the interest is there like I said above but the money isnt

One thing I did find out today the onyx models have a rec plug out with all the channels That would work with another delta44...or 1010  Just window shoppin Matt....

With permission I copied and pasted a response from another forum and knows alot more than me  but it is a good answer

Dgatwood "1. USB causes heavy CPU load when doing high speed transfers. This means that USB audio is more likely to glitch when something takes a little longer than expected in software.

2. FireWire at its current maximum spec (800 Mbps) is almost twice as fast as USB 2.0. The protocol has more room for future expansion.

3. There -is- no USB 2.0 audio spec yet. "USB 2.0" audio devices are just USB 1.1 devices running at a higher data rate. Thus, the protocol is not optimized for the USB 2.0 bus, leading to further performance issues.

4. The large number of players in the USB 2.0 space, coupled with relatively lax spec compliance enforcement, has led to an awful lot of devices that just don't work very well.

5. FireWire's isoch support is more reliable than USB. Your device is pretty much guaranteed to retain an isoch reservation (joining two heavily laden FireWire busses together or introduction of buggy hardware notwithstanding), which generally means that bus contention isn't a significant issue with FireWire no matter what else is on the bus. I don't believe the same can be said of USB, or at least not to the same degree."

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that's an excellent answer dude!

I am only voicin' my opinion that I've had multiple usb (like up to thirty at one point) all hooked up. I LOVE USB Hubs! !

Anyway, as long as I kept one path out and one path in, with hubs cooresponding to that same hookup, I never ran into a problem!

And you're absolutely right. Firewire IS nearly twice the speed, but as I jokingly pointed out, BETA was a highly superior video tape system... but everyone accepted the VHS after the first year or two of the home competition!

I just see more compatibility with usb 2.0 than I have EVER seen with firewire, so I was instantly curious as to why. You guys have answered that.

I've even got a USB radio in my car! takes usb memory sticks... talk about WONDERFUL!
I want to get a usb version of the mixer I currently use... and test it out. I'll let you know on how it turns out.