Presonus Firestudio

[TelePaul]

I was looking at this; looks pretty amazing, but I had a few questions.

It has 26 inputs, 8 of which are XLR pre amps. The other 18 have something do with expanding via a Lightpipe maybe? I was wondering how many inputs you get right outta the box. And what kinda of a PC would you need to be running to make the most out of this? Thanks guys.

 

[Bulls Hit]

Out of the box you get the 8 analog inputs plus 2 s/pdif.

The other 16 are available of you already have a unit that does adat like an ADA8000. This gets you up to 26 channels down the firewire pipe

 

[TelePaul]

Thanks man, I figured it was something like that. I guess I could check out the 8 channel pres too. It just looks so impressive, dont ya think? And how many of those 8 pres are instrument and how many are line?

 

[dgatwood]

ADAT Lightpipe is an optical cable connection. It can pass 8 channels at 44.1kHz or 48kHz, 4 channels at 88.2kHz/96kHz down a single strand of fiber. If a piece of gear has double ADAT, you can bond the two channels together for a total of 8 channels at 88.2/96, but most hardware doesn't have that capability.

The FireStudio does appear to have dual ADAT in both directions. Interestingly enough, it can use them as separate 8-channel inputs at 44.1/48, which is rather unusual.

But yes, 8 analog, 16 optical digital ADAT, 2 coaxial S/PDIF.

IMHO, you're better off with a MOTU 8Pre. It costs two thirds as much, and apart from being able to run 8 extra optical I/O channels at 44.1/48kHz, it's pretty comparable for most uses. Better quality hardware, too.

 

[TelePaul]

16 optical digital ADAT,

Thanks for that dude I'll check out the MOTU. But whats 16 optical digital ADAT? Is it to do with the Audio Pipe you were talking about?

 

[Bulls Hit]

Thanks man, I figured it was something like that. I guess I could check out the 8 channel pres too. It just looks so impressive, dont ya think? And how many of those 8 pres are instrument and how many are line?

I'd guess it's the same setup as the firepod. The first 2 are mic/instrument, the last 6 are mic/line

 

[dgatwood]

I'd guess it's the same setup as the firepod. The first 2 are mic/instrument, the last 6 are mic/line

Actually, on the FIREPOD, the first two are mic/instrument/line, with mic/instrument on the front and line in (and preamp out) on the back, and the other 6 are mic/line on the front. Makes it really easy to wire into a patchbay. Just set it to normal the patchbay jacks together and feed the preamp output to the top jack and the bottom return jack to the line input....

 

[dgatwood]

Thanks for that dude I'll check out the MOTU. But whats 16 optical digital ADAT? Is it to do with the Audio Pipe you were talking about?

ADAT lightpipe. Yes, that's optical digital.

 

[Carter]

IMHO, you're better off with a MOTU 8Pre. It costs two thirds as much, and apart from being able to run 8 extra optical I/O channels at 44.1/48kHz, it's pretty comparable for most uses. Better quality hardware, too.

IMHO the Motu 8pre DOES not sound as good as the Firestudio, better quality hardware? I have worked with both and Its the Firestudio hands down.

 

[Hard2Hear]

I just got in a new Firestudio a few minutes ago. I tested out one of the original units that were apparently flawed, and preferred the MOTU (as well as the FF800 and Saffire Pro I was testing at the time). But when we talked to Presonus they told us we had gotten one of the initial units with some problem and they sent this new one out which is supposed to be "fixed". I'll be trying it out this week against its competition again.

 

[jabulani jonny]

I picked up a Firestudio with two Digimax FS's back in December. I also use an ART Digital MPA Gold as a two channel pre using the SPDIF inputs on the Firestudio. That gives me 26 tracks of simultaneous recording. I'm loving this setup so far. Very stable, great sounding and lots of functionality. Not to mention that it has direct outs for all channels, with the routing stored in flash memory so you can run it to a backup system with no hitches if your computer locks up. I personally think these are great systems with lots of features and good sound for not a tremendous amount of dough.

Jonathan