Customer Reviews

M-Audio FireWire 410 4-In / 10-Out FireWire Mobile Recording Interface

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

I have had two different units (and access to a third for a short time), I used them with three different computers (all macs: a PowerMac G4, PowerMac G5, and a PowerBook G4), and I had loads of problems with every configuration. The units were a bit temperamental and I sometimes had to restart the computer to get them to work properly. As mentioned in other posts, these units are not hot-pluggable and doing so could render the computer, the FW410, or possibly other connected firewire devices permanently disabled. This is particularly a problem since firewire cables have no mechanism to be locked in place--like thumb screws--and they can easily become accidentally unplugged. I called M-Audio and they really tried to shrug this off as if it was no big deal although the FW410 comes with an urgent warning sticker covering the firewire ports that tells you not to hot plug. In fact, I personally know of one computer where the logic board was fried due to the FW410 being unplugged and plugged back in while the computer was on.

Also mentioned in other posts is the FW410's propensity not to play well with other firewire devices, particularly firewire 800 devices. I can attest to this. On my PowerMac G5, I had the FW410 as the only device on the firewire 400 bus and I had an Iomega FW drive plugged into the FW800 bus. Everytime I would restart my computer I would have to make sure that I turned my speakers off because of the loud popping and clicking noises that would happen when the Iomega drive was plugged in. I'm not really good at remembering things like that and I believe that this is what blew one of my M-Audio BX5a powered monitors (which, by the way, I like). To back up my computer to the Iomega drive, I would have to shut my computer off, unplug the FW410, then restart my computer and back up. Otherwise, I would get those horrendous (and loud) popping and clicking noises, or the FW410 would become disabled and I would have to restart anyway to get it back.

You're probably wondering why I had two of these units. Well, the first one became stopped working and, fortunately, it was under warranty and M-Audio sent me a new one (though I was without music for over a month). I thought my problems might have been due to a faulty unit but the second one was no better. I had all the problems described above (and others...yes, there was more) with different versions of the drivers (up to 1.8.1) even after reinstalling the drivers many times. I always thought the problems were just my setup until I did more research. I should point out that I am using Macs and everything may work perfectly with PCs, YMMV.

I own other M-Audio products (the aforementioned BX5a powered monitors and an M-Audio keyboard) and I have had no problem with either of those. One thing that I didn't like about M-Audio is that their tech support made it seem like I was the ONLY user that is having problems with this product. As for my FW410, you can look for it on eBay (it's only a couple of months old).

At this point, I have just unplugged the FW410 because I am in fear for my system. After further research, I'm probably going to buy a PreSonus Firebox. This unit seems to work well with Macs, is hot pluggable, and six simultaneous inputs are possible unlike the FW410 in which only two simultaneous inputs are possible (despite the name).

I bought this soundcard and have been wrestling with the drivers non-stop for two months... nothing seems to work. Crackles and a high level of whitenoise in the background.

Tech Support responds very courteously and quickly, however, their advice is to reinstall the drivers... Gee who would have thought of that. I've only done that about 100 times... Sometimes the meters on the driver interface are dancing wildly when no sound is going through it... Sometimes when I reinstall the meters behave normally. That's the only thing "fixed" by reinstalling - however the fix is always temporary...

I get the impression that the tech support knows that there are some problems with the driver and with the unit. Hot swapping has blown a lot of firewire boards - including mine (replaced it and now I never hotswap).

I have had nothing but problems - my ipod's system software is trashed if ever I plug it into the firewire port beside the 410. It took me three times to realize that the problem was the 410 not the iPod. This was just salt in the wound... Solution from Tech support - "don't plug an Ipod OR ANYTHING ELSE into the firewire port if the 410 is plugged in also. But, whatever you do, don't hot swap the 410 or it could blow your board!" Thanks a lot. So I have to shutdown. Unplug the 410, plug in the iPod and restart just to sync my iPod... so much for the convenience of firewire.

Tested the 410 in my powerbook in an attempt to isolate the problem... bad idea. Now my once rock solid powerbook doesn't recognize the firewire card and the wireless PC card would not talk to the airport base station. Solution: reset basestation, clean reinstall system software to reinstall drivers for the PC cards (native to OS 10.3). Thanks alot.

I have read reports of people having problems with this unit. It only seemed like a fraction. I hoped I wouldn't be one. I am.

If I had a G5 that was dedicated to music, I bet I could get this soundcard to work great. But, unfortunately, I have a G4 (maxed out with RAM and the hottest processor I can put in it). And I use it for writing, photos, video, games AND music.

For any mac user who is not making a dedicated music work station, I would highly recommend that you steer well clear of the 410 and of M-audio products just to be safe. There are other options out there that don't have the same problems.

Length:: 2:13 Mins

Video review of the M-Audio Firewire 410 WATCH BEFORE YOU BUY!M-Audio FireWire 410 4-In / 10-Out FireWire Mobile Recording Interface

I have owned this for over a year. I never had any driver, conflicts or compatability problems. I use it plugged into a no-brand firewire PCMCIA firewire card that is in the slot of my Dell laptop running XP. Worked right out of the box. Never had any Windows problems or glitchy recordings. I should say, though, that I've never run more than 2-in and 2-out simultaneously. There's also a bug that occassionally causes the assignable rotary knob to stop functioning during playback until I go into the mixer software and reassign it.

I use the FW 410 as my day-to-day "sound card" for general computer audio, especially for transferring and sweetening recordings. In addition, on a few occassions I used it as a front end for live concert recording to my laptop. A nice thing about this unit is it takes DC power in, so you can get an after market external battery pack and run it for hours in the field w/o draining your laptop battery or use it without plugging in to AC if your firewire bus does not supply power (4 pin vs. 6, such as if it's over a PCMCIA card, as mine is).

The recordings came out nicely. Not state of the art like every manufacturer of lower priced gear claims they give you but does not, but definitely "prosumer" quality and better than you'd get with a portable DAT, especially if you run it at 24 bits and/or 96khz. Noise levels were low enough to remain below the ambient room noise level at a classical chamber recitals. The mic pres did not overload using large diaphram condensors at a small venue rock concert (but there are louder shows and more sensitive mics out there, so YMMV). Maybe the low end could have had a little more "oomp" but at least it is not sloppy.

Of note, the output from my older Akai reel to reel deck was too hot for the FW 410's line stage, although it is a home, not studio, deck. I had to buffer the signal to avoid clipping (don't recall if it was analogue or digital clipping). It has had no problem handling newer consumer equipment like line out from MiniDisc.

I can understand why someone would give this box a bad review if it didn't work, but it always has for me, and I believe it delivers very good sound quality for the price point and lots of functionality.

Many of the negative reviews of the Firewire 410 posted are in my opinion symptoms of the purchaser's computers' limitations. Many factors can affect the "performance" of a digital audio interface. I'm no expert, but I have a good aptitude for reading manuals, and a good aptitude for the general properties of digital audio. Latency and lack of memory issues can be demonstrated by symptoms of popping, and crackles in a recorded track with any interface, USB or Firewire. Often it's a matter of setting the correct buffer size in the recording software or adding memory that can help avoid this issue. A deficit in memory can cause freeze-ups and anomalys in the final tracks. I would be inclined to believe that many of the complaints about this product could be fixed if folks understood the limits of their computers that they plug these interfaces into. It only amplifies these issues when you are utilizing a firewire (faster) interface to record music. The computer can't keep up. I have purchased the M-Audio Firewire 410 and found it to demonstrate all of these symptoms reviewers have described, except I was able to resolve the issues. I benchmarked my own computers' limitations and got back to reality that just because I spent $299 for an interface that it isn't a cure-all for recording the perfect track. So I can confidently say that IF you have a computer that meets the minimum requirements have a good knowledge of the properties of digital audio (Know what latency is, have enough memory, and how to adjust your buffer size), this interface performs superb. An analogy would be if you painted a rock, it may look good. It's still a rock. you can't buy something that will compensate for a lack of knowledge of digital audio and poor computing performance. this product may only amplify the shortcomings mentioned above, mainly because it performs better than a soundcard. Step out of the box, M-audio has partnered with Pro Tools. Most things you hear in the mainstream media were produced with Pro Tools. Get it?

This unit is great. I have had it for 2 hours now and it can:

Run Pro Tools *while* running core audio with other audio programs completely simultaneously and without problems.

Start from nothing. That means, if I am playing audio through my powerbook's built-in headphone jack and I plug this in, the audio will automatically bounce over to it without interruption. Pretty impressive.

People can complain about drivers, but I have never used such an elegant piece of hardware. (note Mac OS X tiger)

This is an excellent audio interface for the money if you already have a firewire card. However, on my Mac it would not operate on the same bus as other firewire devices. To run firewire hard drives or DVD burners while using the Firewire 410, it may be necessary to purchase a separate firewire card, or perhaps a faster Firewire 800 card would allow all devices to operate on the same bus.

That said, the Firwire 410 is a stable and speedy alternative to slow USB and outdated PCI devices. The eight analog outs allow for multitrack monitoring and surround sound editing, while the two analog ins provide the opportunity for high quality recording. (Although there are four analog in jacks, you can only use two of them at any one time.)

The digital coax and optical outs will drive 5.1 surround and beyond while watching DVDs, and the ins allow for pure digital input. Throw in a midi in and out, as well as two headphone jacks with separate level controls, and you've got a versatile and portable interface for a fraction of the cost of higher end firewire devices from Motu and Digidesign.

Amazingly, it can also be used without a computer for live recording. My only pet peeve is the very bright blue power indicator which flashes on and off when it is turned on without a firewire cable connected, or when the firewire connection is lost. For mobile recording in a club setting, a bright flashing blue light is not desirable. Some concertgoers may have flashbacks to blue light specials of their youth or think the cops are coming. Seriously, if it bothers you, you can always stick a piece of electrical tape over it. I've had mine a couple of weeks, and have only used it with the computer, but I highly recommend it.

Feature:
Feature set is also pretty good. Mic preamp has 66db of gain which is exactly what you need for those ribbon mics. Has a pad and twin headphone jacks as well.

Quality:
Although the physical quality of the product was great, I had problems with the drivers. For a while the 410 recorded fine but then Cubase seemed to loose sync with the box. When I created a new project everything worked fine but then I noticed after saving it a few times the project would make the sound card stop responding. I played with this for a while and just gave up and returned it. Personnally I think that it was just the firewire connection that was flacky and not the card itself. If you are tempted to buy this, make sure you can return it in case your computer's firewire isn't up to the challenge.

Value:
Feature set is great but the firewire side is just not reliable. I'm sure my problems weren't 100% the 410's fault but M-Audio shouldn't be selling these things if its not willing to support and diagnose problems that arise. I would have been much happier with the product if it had some log file that just said "Firewire card failure" or "IRQ failure". Instead I wasted a lot of time failing to diagnose what was wrong.

Desirability:
Nice looking product.

Sound:
I don't have a "pro" setup but as far as i could tell the card sounded great when it worked with my AT3035 mic. No complaints here.

Support:
They responded to my initial email with a generic "IRQ conflict" answer. I sent them my system information which clearly indicated that the firewire connection was not sharing a connection and I never got a replay after that. They just gave up on me.

Overall:
Feature set is good. Like I said, I don't know if my problems were specific to this card or firewire in general. However, I tried it on two machines and they both had the same problem. I ended up returning mine and am now waiting for a gina 3d in the mail. The product is great when it works, if you are feeling lucky than give it a go.

m-audio does not have forums on their site.

there is a reason. their drivers are unreliable and highly incompatible.

absolutely refuse to provide any documentation nor do they accept returns.

if you value the stability of your computer, stay clear. stay well clear

I had continuous popping as well, but it's not the Firewire 410's fault and it can be easily avoided. I had my Firewire 410 sitting right next to my Linksys router and was getting non stop popping coming through the speakers and my recordings. The popping stopped when I moved them about 2-3 ft. apart from each other.

Maybe it has something to do with the WiFi signal. I'm using a desktop PC. If you are using a laptop with an internal modem/WiFi, make sure you don't have your Firewire 410 sitting right next to your laptop or you'll probably have the same problem. As for desktop users... I purchased some longer ethernet cables and moved my router about 15ft away from my system just to make sure I don't have any more problems.

If you are still having popping or stuttering problems, check your latency setting in the driver. Set the latency to the default (256) or larger until you have a more powerful computer that can handle lower latencies.

I've also heard horror stories about the driver. It seems that most of these horror stories were from Mac users. I use PC and everything seems to be rock solid. Either way, just make sure you have the latest drivers from M-Audio(dot)com. I think the current drivers may have solved Mac issues.

Overall, it's a very nice interface for the price. Clean sound going in and out. I'm using this mostly for narrating video. I was torn between this interface and the Presonus Firebox. I was also looking at Tascam products. I finally decided on this the Firewire 410. I won't say anything bad about the others because I don't have any personal experience with them. I will say, however, that I very satisfied with my decision.

On a final note, I called tech support to ask a few questions. I had to wait on hold for about 15-20 minute to speak with someone, but, they were polite and knowledgeable.