Seafroggys
Well-known member
Hey, I haven't really posted here in over a year. Kind of got bored and I haven't really gotten new gear in years (think I bought my last mic in 2012, and my last plug-in around that time). Last big project I did was in 2013 when I tracked drums and electric guitar in my home studio, but doing vox, strings, piano, etc. in the big boy studio. In the past year I've been making a lot of drum play-along videos (this isn't meant to be a plug for that, but I have a bunch of those on my youtube channel if you're interested in how I'm mixing my drums to pre-recorded tracks) and the occasional rehearsal recording to hear back.
Anyway, to make a long story longer, I've been meaning to upgrade my studio PC for, well, years now. I built it in early 2007 (almost 10 years old, and still on the original XP install! no reformating ever!) but I used older parts to cut down on costs (I was 20 and had only been working for 6 months or so at that point, plus in college) so it has 2004 era tech (Pentium D, 2 gigs Ram max, etc.). I meant to upgrade it as soon as possible, but by the time I had the money for a decent rig (around 2009) the motherboard socket was outdated and could not support the then-current Core 2 Duos. Bummer.
Regardless, I never had any real issues that warranted me getting a new PC, so its worked for years. But it does occasionally drop out when I do 8 channel at once recordings for rehearsals, which started being an issue this past year, plus my musical has pretty big project files that it just won't run without doing some serious bouncing down, even without plug-ins enabled. So, what to do? I still can't convince myself to build a brand new PC for my studio, buuuuuut I am planning on doing a major upgrade/overall for my primary gaming PC so I can run Star Citizen and Battlefield 1. Which means that my current main rig can be put into use as my new studio PC. Yay!
I've had this rig for several years, it has a Phenom II Quad core processor, 8 gigs ram, had been running Win 7 for years but just switched to 10. So it is older by modern standards (2011ish tech), but a huge, HUGE upgrade over the studio PC. So I'm totally going move the hard drives to this computer when the switch comes. Which means a fresh OS install, which means an upgrade to Windows 7 at least.
So alls good, right? Well, there's my interface. I'm rocking one of the first Firestudio 26x26 interfaces, back when there was still a Firepod and before all the Firestudio offspring started popping up. Apparently its been discontinued for several years now and I had no idea (I stopped caring about upgrading drivers and shit back in 2010 or so). I do love it, it was the genesis of my studio from the beginning, its worked out really well, and my intention was for it to be the core of my (eventual) commercial project studio that I would open up, back when I was still planning to do that while I was in college. Sigh, to be naive again.
Although that plan never came to fruition, I have to ignore my loyalty and nostalgia for this unit. One, its Firewire. This motherboard I will be using for the new studio rig has no firewire, so I'd have to get a firewire card. Two, I don't recall there really ever being stable drivers for 64 bit for the Firestudio. And three, well, lets face it, the Firestudio was fantastic for its time in 2007, it was something a college student with a part time job could afford, but I'm now full time making half decent wages, and I can afford to do something better.
So, still with me? Yeah, sorry, long story, I like telling stories. Anyway, I'm 90% decided on replacing the Firestudio with something better. Something that has great 64 bit drivers, something that has better preamps, something that will last me for 9+ years like the Firestudio has.
So I really love the flexibility of the Firestudio. I have 4 different headphone outputs/mixes on it that I use, I have the 8 onboard preamps plus I have a 'gold channel' (RNP through a Lucid converter) that goes through the SPDIF, so 10 simulteanous inputs. So basically, I want something that can do that. Plus have additional expansion as well....with the Firestudio I was planning on running another 8 channel preamp via lightpipe at some point in time to give me 18 inputs, but I never needed that yet. But who knows what the next 10 years will bring me? So yeah. Does anybody happen to know if the Firestudio can be used as just a preamp, and not as an interface? Because if so, then I can keep using it and have 8 more inputs if I need it.
I've always liked Presonus but I'm willing to branch out. I'm open for budget, I paid $700 for the Firestudio in 2007 new, so anything between $700-$1000 is what I'm looking at for the upgrade, although I'm open for higher if I can be convinced of the quality. New or used is fine.
EDIT: Looking at that price range, there's not a whole lot of interfaces with the features I'm looking for that seem like a drastic upgrade over what I have. Maybe I should just get a firewire card, and pray that the Firestudio will work on the new rig with Windows 7.
Anyway, to make a long story longer, I've been meaning to upgrade my studio PC for, well, years now. I built it in early 2007 (almost 10 years old, and still on the original XP install! no reformating ever!) but I used older parts to cut down on costs (I was 20 and had only been working for 6 months or so at that point, plus in college) so it has 2004 era tech (Pentium D, 2 gigs Ram max, etc.). I meant to upgrade it as soon as possible, but by the time I had the money for a decent rig (around 2009) the motherboard socket was outdated and could not support the then-current Core 2 Duos. Bummer.
Regardless, I never had any real issues that warranted me getting a new PC, so its worked for years. But it does occasionally drop out when I do 8 channel at once recordings for rehearsals, which started being an issue this past year, plus my musical has pretty big project files that it just won't run without doing some serious bouncing down, even without plug-ins enabled. So, what to do? I still can't convince myself to build a brand new PC for my studio, buuuuuut I am planning on doing a major upgrade/overall for my primary gaming PC so I can run Star Citizen and Battlefield 1. Which means that my current main rig can be put into use as my new studio PC. Yay!
I've had this rig for several years, it has a Phenom II Quad core processor, 8 gigs ram, had been running Win 7 for years but just switched to 10. So it is older by modern standards (2011ish tech), but a huge, HUGE upgrade over the studio PC. So I'm totally going move the hard drives to this computer when the switch comes. Which means a fresh OS install, which means an upgrade to Windows 7 at least.
So alls good, right? Well, there's my interface. I'm rocking one of the first Firestudio 26x26 interfaces, back when there was still a Firepod and before all the Firestudio offspring started popping up. Apparently its been discontinued for several years now and I had no idea (I stopped caring about upgrading drivers and shit back in 2010 or so). I do love it, it was the genesis of my studio from the beginning, its worked out really well, and my intention was for it to be the core of my (eventual) commercial project studio that I would open up, back when I was still planning to do that while I was in college. Sigh, to be naive again.
Although that plan never came to fruition, I have to ignore my loyalty and nostalgia for this unit. One, its Firewire. This motherboard I will be using for the new studio rig has no firewire, so I'd have to get a firewire card. Two, I don't recall there really ever being stable drivers for 64 bit for the Firestudio. And three, well, lets face it, the Firestudio was fantastic for its time in 2007, it was something a college student with a part time job could afford, but I'm now full time making half decent wages, and I can afford to do something better.
So, still with me? Yeah, sorry, long story, I like telling stories. Anyway, I'm 90% decided on replacing the Firestudio with something better. Something that has great 64 bit drivers, something that has better preamps, something that will last me for 9+ years like the Firestudio has.
So I really love the flexibility of the Firestudio. I have 4 different headphone outputs/mixes on it that I use, I have the 8 onboard preamps plus I have a 'gold channel' (RNP through a Lucid converter) that goes through the SPDIF, so 10 simulteanous inputs. So basically, I want something that can do that. Plus have additional expansion as well....with the Firestudio I was planning on running another 8 channel preamp via lightpipe at some point in time to give me 18 inputs, but I never needed that yet. But who knows what the next 10 years will bring me? So yeah. Does anybody happen to know if the Firestudio can be used as just a preamp, and not as an interface? Because if so, then I can keep using it and have 8 more inputs if I need it.
I've always liked Presonus but I'm willing to branch out. I'm open for budget, I paid $700 for the Firestudio in 2007 new, so anything between $700-$1000 is what I'm looking at for the upgrade, although I'm open for higher if I can be convinced of the quality. New or used is fine.
EDIT: Looking at that price range, there's not a whole lot of interfaces with the features I'm looking for that seem like a drastic upgrade over what I have. Maybe I should just get a firewire card, and pray that the Firestudio will work on the new rig with Windows 7.
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