innerDialog - A site about music, technology, programming, art, cooking and tasty libations...

what I’m listening to right now...

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:26:40 -0400

It’s been a little while since my last blog entry and I had a friend ask about any new music I’ve discovered, so this will perhaps be the first of a regular (occasional) series on new (to me anyway) music that I’m really enjoying and want to pass on.

Jon Hopkins - ‘Opalescent’ and ‘Contact Note’

I actually find out about most new music at this point from either Pandora or from SomaFM (Groove Salad, Space Station Soma and Drone Zone mostly). One of the things I love about both is there are either links directly to iTunes and Amazon (Pandora), or there is a play list of the last several hours with links (Soma). And I’ve got a running sticky note on my dashboard of people I need to check out. Jon Hopkins was on that list for quite a while.
I heard “Private Universe’ on Soma some months back, wrote it down, went looking for it and couldn’t find it. (In fairness I think I fat fingered the search), figured he wasn’t on there yet and left it at that. A month or so ago I tried again and this time found two of his albums. Of the two, I think I like Opalescent better, but Contact Note is also quite good. One of the frustrating things for me with a lot of artists I like at this point is I don’t know how to categorize them. Electronic is pretty broad. And while there is a total chill element to his stuff, I wouldn’t call it just ‘downtempo’ either. But the bottom line is it’s really good.

Hopkins has a wonderful sound choice in his instrumentation, and his composition strikes a great balance between modern western popular arrangement (ABAC, etc..) but also breaks that mold just as often and composes where the track seems to naturally want to go. Great songs to relax or work to and I highly recommend you check them out.

He’s also got a new album coming out in early May 2009 called ‘Insides’, so be on the lookout for that!

Favorite Tracks:
- Private Universe (Opalescent)
- Cold Out There (Opalescent)
- Afterlife (Opalescent)
- Symmetry (Contact Note)
- Sleepwalker (Contact Note)

- My Jon Hopkins station on Pandora

The Starseeds - ‘Parallel Life’ and ‘There is Enough For Everyone’

I love downtempo, chill and trip-hop. But if there is one common occurrence for me, it’s that every time I discover a new downtempo artist, I find out a. the album has been out for years, b. they either don’t sound like that anymore, or c. they broke up several years ago. I’m (un)happy to say, my batting average is still 1000 on this.
The Starseeds are (were) a german duo that put out their albums in 1997 and 2000. Really fantastic female vocals and an overall vibe that reminds me of the first Hooverphonic album (another group I discovered years after the fact).

A really warm and mellow yet sensual sound, it’s great evening music for me. When I heard it on Soma I immediately thought “this is EXACTLY the type of stuff I like” and went right then and there to iTunes to get Parallel Life. After one full listen I went back and grabbed Enough for Everyone. Full heavy basses, laid back kit drums, sensual and ethereal vocals provided by Regina Dannhof and haunting ambience all form a solid and cohesive package that epitomizes the best elements of the downtempo style.

Favorite Tracks:
- Parallel Life (Parallel Life)
- Behind the Sun (Parallel Life)
- Heavensairportcoffeeshoprestaurant (Parallel Life)
- Earth Moon and Stars (Parallel Life)
- Upstairs (There is Enough for Everyone)
- Be Open (There is Enough for Everyone)

Other Tracks to Check Out
These are just various single tracks that I’ve come across that I’ve really dug, but either haven’t gotten into or found addition work by the artist (yet):

- Sweet Tempered Asonance - DJ Destruction
- The Parting - Planetary Assault Systems
- Oleander (Phutureprimitive Symbiotic Remix) - Bluetech

Something for the Mac Musicians Out There...

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:54:16 -0500

First, yeah I know, it’s been a while since the last update. I have been busy, and I did warn in the first blog post that I’m not always Johnny-on-the-spot with updates. So, the good news is, here’s an update. The bad news is, it’s only for musicians on Macs.

Every now and then, parts of my MIDI system on my Mac Pro don’t want to respond to Logic or Ableton. This is always anything that is connected to a USB hub, and I can only assume is because when the system powers down at night and powers up in the morning, the hub (more on the USB hub topic in a minute) gets into a weird state. Ordinarily I just unplug/replug the thing and it’s all good. But I thought about calling for a MIDI device reset from the OS X Audio MIDI Utility. Sure enough, that works. So that got me thinking...

Could I script that action so that instead of launching it, going to the tab, going to the menu, etc... could I do the same thing with a single click. Yep, I can, and now you can too!

The link below is for an automator action that has some very minor shell scripting in it to perform the reset. All you need to do is unzip it and copy the file to your $HOME/Library/Scripts folder. You also need a way of launching it and that would be by enabling the AppleScript menu in Finder. Which you do like this:

1. In Finder, go to the /Applications/AppleScript folder.
2. Select the AppleScript Utility.
3. Select the checkboxes for Enable GUI Scripting and Show Script menu in menu bar. (You’ll likely have to give your password when enabling the GUI scripting.)
4. You should then see an icon in your menu bar that looks like this:
5. If you click on that menu, you’ll see the script listed. Click it and it will prompt you asking if you do want to send the MIDI system a Reset. (This is safe to do while things like Logic or Live are open, but obviously you don’t want them to be playing back or recording at the time.)

Here’s what the AppleScript Utility settings would look like:

Disclaimer: This was developed on OS X 10.5.6 Leopard. It *should* work on 10.4 Tiger, but since I don’t have any systems around with that OS anymore, I can’t say for certain. And if you want to see what is going on inside this script before you run it (always a good idea), just open it in Automator. This is also what you should do if you need to troubleshoot it.

Here’s the script.

Reset MIDI System.zip

And now for that USB Hub question. Does anyone have any recommendations on *good* powered USB 2.0 hubs? Preferably with more than 4 ports and if at all possible not one of those riddiculous ones that have the cables go in every damn direction? If you do, please let me know at innerdialog @ mobiusb.com.

Musical Apps for iPhone and iPod Touch

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 12:19:38 -0500

Been a little while since my last update, and since I was asked to write up some recommendations for music-related iPhone and iPod Touch apps for a music production class I’m taking, I thought I’d share it here as well. Some are instruments or sequencers, some are for things like sight reading or ear training. Enjoy!

(Note: Clicking on the links will launch iTunes).

Music Production, Instruments and Remotes

BeatMaker (Sequencer/Groove Box type app)
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=285512415&mt=8
At $19.99 it's one of the more expensive apps, but once you see what it can do and how well it does it $19.99 is a bargain. Unbelievable amount of functionality in this thing. From drum pads you can use to create beats, to a very functional sequencer and pattern creator and effects loops. effects. mixer, etc... You can expand the sound library with your own sounds or sounds from others via Beat Packs. Samples, loops or whole songs can be exported from the device and then pulled into iTunes, or into any DAW like Logic, Reason, Live, etc... Of all the performance related apps, this is the one I most highly recommend.

Bloom (Generative Music Synthesis)
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=292792586&mt=8
Created by Brian Eno and Peter Chilvers, bloom is a combination musical instrument and artwork that has visual elements to it. If you're a fan of Eno or ambient music in general, this is a VERY cool app to check out.

TouchOSC (Remote Controller Device)
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=288120394&mt=8
OSC is a network sound control protocol (Open Sound Control - http://opensoundcontrol.org) that is similar in purpose to MIDI and with the use of some free software can enable you to control synths, continuous controllers, etc... with your iPhone over UDP on a WiFi network. Takes a bit to set up, but is actually pretty powerful and flexible.

iDrum (Beat Maker/Groove Box type app)
Club Version: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=287410761&mt=8
Hip Hop Version: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=287410507&mt=8
iDrum is another very cool little sequencer/groove box type app that allows you to do some composing or performing using your iPhone. Once you have a composition, it can be exported off the device and then pulled into the DAW of your choice just like BeatMaker does.

Cosmovox (Synthesizer)
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=289334552&mt=8
At only $1.99, this is a pretty cool little synth that uses the iPhone/Touch accelerometer to control the pitch of the synth (think like a theramin or d-beam). Has over 45 built-in scales to choose from as well as real time controls like modulation, feedback, etc...

Training and Utility Apps

Karajan (Ear training)
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284444548&mt=8
Price is $14.99 but this program is very very well done. Tests you on intervals, chords, scales, pitch and tempo. And out of those, the only one that is weak in my opinion is the tempo training. (Not easy to tell what the beat is when you only hear a single measure. For me anyway). They do have a free version of this (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284445260&mt=8) but it is pretty limited in the difficulty, but should give you a good idea of what this app can do.

iNoteTrainer (Sight reading)
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=287121946&mt=8
Not without its flaws, but at $3.99 doesn't break the bank either. Times you against telling what note is displayed on either treble or bass cleff.

Flash Notes (Sight Reading)
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=286610254&mt=8
Also has it's flaws, but it has it's uses too. Is really (just as the name implies) just a flash card game for notes. Also is only $0.99 so hard to complain too much really.

recipes?

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 01:00:27 -0400

Yeah. Recipes. Wanna fight about it?

I realize that based on the blog posts I’ve done so far you’ve probably come to expect:

1. Wise-assery.
2. Venting in a snarky way.
3. Info on technology.
4. Details of dumb things I’ve done and how I managed a bit of repair.
5. Video how-to’s on music production.
6. Can I mention Wise-assery twice? (Oh yeah, it is MY blog after all, I can do whatever I want.)

But if you read the description on the welcome page, I mention “cooking and other epicurean interests”. This would be because I really like to cook, which also, despite the fact that I’ve had the body of a pipe cleaner for much of my life (though I passed the magical age a few years ago where that has begun to change), I really like to eat. Love going to restaurants, etc... I also like drinking. Not “drink anything and get hammered” drinking, but actually enjoying a fine beverage. Whether it be scotch, beer, wine, cocktails, whatever. I’m known among my friends as a decent cook. Hell, knowing my way around a kitchen and a martini glass even played a part in meeting my wife. So, from time to time, I’m gonna talk cooking and mixology here. Maybe that’s your thing, maybe it isn’t, but to you fellas out there, consider this.

Chicks. Dig. Guys that can cook.

It’s a fact.

Now, onto the actual info. A friend recently asked when I was going to list any recipes and being that it is now the unofficial end of summer, I thought I’d give you some things in reverence to the hot days, but these also dovetail nicely into the fall (or any season really if you can get the ingredients.). I’m gonna give you an appetizer, a desert, and a beverage. No entree you ask? No. No entree today. Thankless jackals. ;-)

First, the appetizer.

Mobi Guacamole

I can hear it now. Either, “I don’t like guacamole/avocados” (I didn’t either once upon a time. I think that largely had to do with the fact that almost all store-bought guacamole is mostly mayonnaise because avocados aren’t cheap and they spoil rather quickly.) or, “I already know how to make guacamole”. (Yeah, but not MY guacamole bub).

My guacamole actually is a cross between a traditional guacamole and pico de gallo in that it has a bit of spice and heat to it. Even most good guacamole I still find a little bland, but that depends on what you’re doing with it. If it’s just a topping on something, then that might be appropriate. But if it’s for dippin’, then it needs a little bite. Let’s get to it.

Ingredients
- 3 ripe avocados (should be kind of dark on the outside and slightly mushy, but not too mushy, to the touch. Unripe avocados have a slightly, well, grassy taste to them)
- 1 lime
- 2 cups of diced red onion (about half of one of the big ones)
- 3-4 tomatoes, diced. (I usually like romas, but feel free to experiment)
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 2 small jalapeno peppers, diced (remove seeds and membranes as appropriate to your desired hotness)
- 1/4 of a bunch of cilantro (perhaps 3/4 cup by volume. More if you really like cilantro)
- 1/2 cup medium salsa (I like Pace)
- 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon of Tabasco Smokey Chipotle Sauce

Equipment
- Big-ass mixing bowl
- Something to mash things with. I use a potato masher since I like my guacamole on the chunky side, but if you like smoother texture you can use a food processor.

Steps
1. Start by juicing the lime. You’ll need it at two points.
2. Cut open the avocados, dispose of the pits and scoop out the insides and put into your big-ass bowl.
3. Pour 2/3 of the lime juice onto the avocados and mix around. This will keep the avocados from turning brown/grey now that they are exposed to air. Once they are mashed up a bit, move on.
4. To the onions. Dice the onion up well and add to the bowl. Mash again.
5. Ditto on the tomatoes then the cilantro and jalapenos.
6. Now add 1/2 cup salsa. This just gives a little extra kick.
7. Now start adding the spices. When you get to the cayenne, try adding half of what I listed and test it. If you like spicier, add the rest (or even more if that’s how you roll). Always remember you can always add more of something, but you can’t take it out. So proceed accordingly.
8. Give everything a good final mash and mix.

And there ya have it. My secret is out. And remember how I said mine was a cross with pico de gallo? Well, remove the avocados and the salsa from the recipe and now you’ve got my pico de gallo recipe too.

Ok, now desert. This one you do need special gear for, but it’s worth it. Trust me.

My wife and I watch a lot of Food Network. And after seeing the ice cream maker on Iron Chef a number of times I must have mentioned it because she got me one as a gift. And the thing kicks ass. (You can get this one, same as I have, for a decent price as far as kitchen appliances go.) And even though I’ve not been a die-hard ice cream fan, I think I’m discovering that it is due to the fact that since commercial ice cream has a ton of preservatives in it, it kind of well, sucks. But making ice cream (most of them anyway) isn’t that hard. But you know what’s even easier? Sorbet.

Melon Cucumber Sorbet

Came up with this on my own after trying a recipe for Spiked Watermelon Sorbet I got off the Food Network site. (Go Emeril). So, it’s a variation on the theme from that one.

Ingredients
- 1/2 Honeydew Melon
- 2 Cucumbers, peeled and cut
- 2 Kiwis, peeled and cut
- 1 cup of water
- 1 cup of cane sugar
- Zest of 1 lemon and 1 lime
- Juice of 1/2 lemon and 1/2 lime
- 1/2 cup of Midori or Melon Liquor
- 1/2 cup of Watermelon Vodka (or regular vodka)

Equipment
- Food Processor or blender
- Ice Cream Maker
- Big-ass bowl to hold the puree for chilling
- Saucepan to make simple syrup

Steps
1. First make the simple syrup. Combine the water and sugar in the saucepan over high heat. Bring it to a boil and keep stirring it. Once the sugar is about dissolved, add the zest. Stir for another minute and then remove from heat. Either let it chill in the fridge, or quickly chill by placing the saucepan in a ice-water bath. (Just don’t let the ice-water actually get into the saucepan) It must be cooled completely before using.  (Disclaimer: If you’ve never done this before, just be careful. Simple syrup is like frakking napalm if it gets on you and the burn is very bad)
2. Cut up the melon, cucumbers and kiwi. They should equal approximately 8 cups by volume. Run them through the food processor/blender along with the juice from 1/2 of the lemon and 1/2 of the lime. you’ll likely have to do it in at least two batches. Remember that you’ll be adding several cups of liquid, so the container could overflow, hence the several batches. Based on experience I’d say do 2 1/2 batches. (1/2 you say? Yes, patience grasshopper). When this batch is done, pour into the big-ass bowl.
3. During the second batch, make it slightly smaller than the first (leaving some for a third), and as it has sufficiently puree’d, add the simple syrup, being very careful not to let the thing overflow. Even though it’s cooled, the stuff is still incredibly sticky if it gets on anything.
4. During the final batch, which should be smaller than either of the first two, add the liquor. When done, pour into the bowl and stir with a spoon for about a minute to make sure all three batches mix.
5. Chill the puree in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
6. Finally, follow the directions for your ice cream maker and then when done, place in the freezer. Should take about 4-6 hours to hit the right level of freeze.
7. As with Emeril’s suggestion, feel free to drizzle a little of the Midori and/or vodka over it when you serve.

Wow, I never realized that it’s a lot to write when your do recipes.... Ok, now for the final bit. The booze.

The Mobito

This is actually a cross between a Mojito and a Mind Eraser. Or, you can think of it as a Mojito with a little Kahlua in it.

Ingredients
- Juice from 1/2 of a lime
- 2 oz Light Rum
- 1 oz Kahlua
- 2 sprigs of fresh mint (I only emphasize that because I do know someone that tried dried, and likely old mint, and well, that isn’t a good idea.)
- 2 teaspoons of sugar (or sweetener if that’s your thing)
- 3-4 oz of Club Soda (depending on how tall the glass is)

Steps
1. Put the mint, sugar and a splash of club soda in the glass. Muddle the ingredients together. This is an essential step as it will release the oils from the mint, and the sugar will actually act as an abrasive to help you. Don’t add to much club soda at this step as you lose some of the abrasiveness as the sugar dissolves.
2. Add the lime juice.
3. Add the rum and kahlua.
4. Stir things up (or shake the ingredients)
5. Add the Club Soda, stir a final time and serve. (Make sure not to shake the cocktail AFTER you’ve added the Club Soda. Hopefully I don’t need to explain why...)

And there ya have it, my first blog posting on food and drink. Now run along and enjoy yourself.

video blog: using external effects with ableton live 7

Sat, 9 Aug 2008 18:02:50 -0400

Here is the first installment of a series of video blogs I’m planning on doing. This is one on audio production. Enjoy!

Update: For anyone having a hard time playing this here, here is the vid split into two parts on YouTube. (It’ll look better played here though.)
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFrLEbu7JDc
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVxNVvr9ROs

they should call it Mountain-Don’t...

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 14:49:38 -0400

As in DON’T spill it on your frakking Apple aluminum keyboard. These would be the keyboards that Apple started selling last year that were introduced with the new iMacs and I have the wired one that came with my Mac Pro. They are pretty nice, responsive, (take a little getting used to if you touch type and miss the very subtle curve that keys around the letter edge have on many keyboards) and very very thin. But they also don’t disassemble easily (like most Apple products, with the notable exception of my Mac Pro tower which has to be the easiest system to upgrade I’ve ever owned.)

So, long clumsily idiotic story short, we have a dachshund that gets really really wigged out during thunderstorms and we had a pretty good one yesterday. So I have him in my lap, and I’m trying to shut my system down before a lightening strike or a power outage (didn’t quite make it) and it the midst of juggling both the mutt, the shutdown and trying to plug in my iPod to my desktop speakers (music dulls the terror for him a little bit) I knock over the bottle of Mountain Dew Code Red onto my keyboard. Power went out about 5 seconds later to punctuate the “Ha ha” that the universe just witnessed on me.

This stung on many levels. 1. I was trying to do a good thing by comforting the little weiner dog. 2. I rarely ever drink Mountain Dew, but it was half opened from the drive back from New Orleans last week (and 13 hour drives are really where a beverage with a stimulant content somewhere between a latte and crack actually have a clear place in the world IMO), so I wanted to not just throw it out. That’ll teach me.

Anyhoo, the keys were getting progressively stickier, so I had to attempt the repair. Thank the gods I found this site. A little nerve-wracking to do since you are trying really hard to balance enough force yet be delicate enough to not snap the mechanism and I’m happy to say, all is well. I’ll also say that while the strength of the little tiny plastic clips that the key rests on are pretty strong for their size, I’d like to not have to do that again.

new firewire spec approved, no update in sight for usb ignorance...

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:48:01 -0400

I read a few articles about this today. But the one I just read at Ars Technica is what got me in blog-mode.

Specifically, it’s the title that got me going. ‘New 3.2Gbps FireWire spec approved, not as fast as USB 3.0’.

For those of you that know something about how FireWire and USB work, let that line sink in for a moment, and then begin to laugh. For those of you that don’t know how they tick, let me ‘splain.

FireWire and USB are both high speed serial buses that are used to connect peripherals on modern computers. Hard disks, cameras, graphics tablets, audio interfaces, basically they have taken the place of serial and parallel ports and in many cases have also taken the place of needing a computer that has internal ports for add-on cards. They both have ports that are available on your desktop or laptop and use specialized cables to connect to said peripherals. This is about where the similarities between the two end.

FireWire, also known it’s proper name IEEE 1394 (also known by Sony’s name i.Link) was originally created by Apple in 1995 (this version is known as 1394a or FireWire 400) and was meant to replace the Parallel SCSI interface that Macs and high-end servers had used. It carries data at 400Mbps and was very suitable to real-time data transfer applications like video and audio. So, it became a sort of defacto-standard among video camcorders to connect to computers. It uses a tree-topology which allows devices to be daisy-chained together and can support up to 63 devices per chain. While it has been standard equipment on Macs for over a decade (except for the new MacBook Air), FireWire only saw modest gains on PCs since around 2003. And even with that, the FireWire support from Microsoft Windows has left a lot to be desired.

USB, or Universal Serial Bus is an opposing standard that was created in 1996 by Intel. Ironically, the first computer to offer USB ports as standard features was the Apple ‘Bondi Blue’ iMac in 1998. While the first version of FireWire carried data at 400Mbps, USB 1.0 only carried data at about roughly 12Mbps so was only suitable for peripherals like keyboards, mice, graphics tablets, etc... USB also differed from FireWire in that it used a Hub topology model, meaning that instead of daisy chaining devices together, you could only have one device per port. If you wanted to expand to more devices than you have ports, you need to connect an external USB hub (which would have multiple ports). USB 2.0 was introduced in 2000 and upped the speed to 480Mbps. So, 2.0 is now faster than FireWire 400 right? A lot of people think so. And they’d happen to be wrong.

Sustained vs. Burst

USB uses a host processor that handles the lower level traffic management for the bus. The advantage to doing this is the devices that are connected can essentially be dumb nodes, making them cheaper (slightly in the long run) to produce. The disadvantage of this is it places an enormous amount of overhead on the controller and (more importantly) the CPU. So instead of having the full bandwidth and time to move data, USB needs to use some of that pipe and time to direct traffic, hence USB speed is rated in burst, meaning you get 480Mbps for short stretches. The average speed of USB 2.0 is in the 250Mbps range.

FireWire on the other hand has each device have an intelligent controller that manages traffic. This places no additional load on the CPU (and think for a minute at the round-trip data needs to take if the CPU must be involved and what that does to performance). So FireWire throughput is rated as sustained. If the spec says you get 400Mbps, then that’s very very close to what you get and not just some of the time. Additionally, a second version of FireWire called FireWire 800 (which, you guessed it, runs at 800Mbps) was released in 2002 and is wayyyyyy faster than USB 2.0.

Then how did USB become more popular?

For all the wonderful technical innovations Apple has made over its history, it is only recently (the last 5 years or so) that they’ve begun to understand price. (That could be a blog post at some point by itself, but I could point you to other articles who were written by writers way better than me.) At the time that FireWire was created, Apple was charging to license the technology was about $0.25 per system and $1-2 for the hardware needed to implement.1 While this is no longer the case, at the time it was enough to give motherboard and peripheral manufacturers enough hesitation to give Intel the opening to create USB. A technically inferior, but significantly less expensive, technology.

But surely USB 3.0 would be faster than FireWire 3 right?

Wrong, and don’t call me shirley. The articles today have announced the news that the IEEE has formally approved the S1600 and S3200 FireWire standards (known as IEEE 1394c). S1600 runs at 1.6Gbps and S3200 runs at 3.2Gbps (and apparently will be able to scale to 6.4Mbps at some point). This is fast. Damn fast. Crazy fast. Even if the USB 3.0 speed approaches this, the fact that the host controller/hub architecture is still used will again mean that USB will never come close to those speeds in actual practice. (Which, for the record is 4.8Gbps).

My gods, did Ars Technica actually write this???

That’s the question that hit me several times while reading it. I’ve largely been pretty impressed with the writing at AT. Not sure if someone’s cousin was filling in for them or something , but this article has some serious problems.

“The IEEE 1394 standard will face a new competitor in the form of USB 3.0. USB 3.0's specification is expected to be published by the end of the year, which may give S3200 a few months' head start. FireWire, however, has never enjoyed the widespread success of USB 3.0, and as a result, could find itself the first standard out the door, but the last standard on the shelf.”

Has never enjoyed the widespread success of a standard that hasn’t even been approved much yet actually implemented and introduced to the market? Is time travel involved here? Ok, maybe this was just a typo and they just meant FireWire has never enjoyed the success of USB which is unfortunately true.

But this was not the most egregious bit of reporting. This was:

“That's not to say they don't exist, but FireWire 400 is easier to find than FireWire 800 (except on Macs), and the number of available ports is typically limited to 1-2, even on a high-end motherboard. USB 2.0 ports, on the other hand, are plentiful, with most boards offering 8-12 in some combination of included ports and onboard headers.”

Ummm, since you can’t daisy-chain USB devices, you NEED many USB ports on a system. Unless you feel like carrying USB hubs around with you wherever you go. The author does make an attempt to explain this in the following paragraph:

“FireWire has always been the more technologically-advanced standard, with its faster transfer speeds, lower CPU utilization, and the ability to provide more power to attached devices (devices that can run off a single FireWire port could well require two USB ports)”

But it still doesn’t paint the complete picture. FireWire is a fantastic serial bus, and USB is a passable one. If I’m just connecting a thumb drive, or a mouse or something, then USB is totally fine. But I avoid things like USB audio interfaces like the plague. If you’re using a USB AI just to record a single guitar, or a USB mic (Like the excellent Samson C03U which I have turned quite a few people onto), then it’s fine. If you’re thinking of actually multi-tracking anything?? Go get yourself a FireWire audio interface. You’ll never worry about drop-outs or sync problems in the middle of a take or session. And also think about the fact that lower CPU utilization by the bus means more CPU for your DAW and plug-ins. Also just ask anyone that had an iPod that had FireWire connectors and now has any iPod or the iPhone where USB 2.0 is the only option. Syncing was sooooo much faster with FireWire. It killed me (and many others) that Apple dropped iPod support for FireWire because USB is vastly more prevalent on PCs/Windows and it cut down on the manufacturing cost.

Personally I have been really pleased with the performance of FireWire 800 external drives. And when I have to move large amounts of data, whether virtual machine images, backups of my iTunes library, or video projects I’m working on, I would definitely be diggin’ on some 3.2Gbps FireWire action.

References:
1 - Wikipedia - FireWire