Anyone using Presonus Firepod/Cubase LE?

[KeithCF]

Is anyone using the Presonus Firepod for acoustic drum kit recording? I see it advertised as a bundle with Cubase LE and I am wondering if it works well for multiple inputs and with Cubase. Any latency issues? Any installation or compatibility issues? I will be running a PC with Windows XP Professional.

Thanks for your help --

Keith

[fucanay]

Originally Posted by KeithCF

Is anyone using the Presonus Firepod for acoustic drum kit recording? I see it advertised as a bundle with Cubase LE and I am wondering if it works well for multiple inputs and with Cubase. Any latency issues? Any installation or compatibility issues? I will be running a PC with Windows XP Professional.

Thanks for your help --

Keith

I don't think this is yet shipping. I saw one of them at NAMM in January and it looks like a nice piece of gear, and for the price with 8 pres that are most certainly better than any mackie or behringer pres, you can't lose.

But one word of caution. I believe this is Presonus's first attempt at writing drivers. They had the FireStation but that was mLan and Yamaha wrote the drivers, so you may not want to be the first crashtest dummy for them if you are strapped for time and money. I'd wait and see what the reviews say about driver stabilty. Not magazine reviews but actual user reviews.

fucanay

[tuneman1]

I have a firepod, and use it in conjunction with Sonar 2, and Sonar 3 Producer Ed. So far I love it, have to say..... stable drivers, and this unit has managed to solve every problem and inconvenience I have had over the past three years. A fine piece of work!

[wimat]

Where did you get a hold of one? They're on backorder everywhere I can call 'till late August.

[mikedaul]

How are the preamps!!??!!

How would you rate the quality of the converters?

Thanks for any info!

[Phreesoal]

I just found out about the FIREPOD yesterday, as I was considering an RME PCI soundcard.

I'm curious too in knowing how well this unit works, especially under Mac OS X Panther (if any such users are here w/a FIREPOD)???

PS

[philmar]

Got Firepod a few days ago and am about to shake it down with SONAR 3 Producer with a friend.

The drivers seemed stable under XP but I was saddened to hear headphone outs are mono. I guess I should have expected it for the price. I gave up the 828MkII for it so I was spoiled at the control but I needed the pre ins.

Well continue commenting in a little while.

I might be able to answer a few questions though.

Philmar

[ricknaqvi]

" I was saddened to hear headphone outs are mono."

Hi Philmar,

Just wanted to clarify that the Firepod's headphone outputs are stereo. Only the realtime monitoring for the eight inputs is mono.

There is a 'mix' knob that allows you to blend all eight inputs with Stereo Outputs 1&2 so that you have no latency when you are tracking. Only the eight inputs will be in mono when you are tracking - everything that has been recorded will be in stereo.

Personally, I've been actually getting about 2ms of latency without using the 'Mix' button to monitor so I can pan all of my 10 inputs when I track.

Hope you enjoy the Firepod. Feel free to give me a shout if I can be of any help to you.

Kindest Regards,
Rick Naqvi
www.presonus.com
800.750.0323

[tonyhouse]

excuse me, ricknaqvi, I'm planning to buy a firepod...
I use Vst instruments like fm7 and absynth, what about the latency of this card???? (actually I'm playing with 10ms and I'm feeling good...)
I would register from all inputs (with some effects) and play 2 or more vst at the same time...is it possible to do this with firepod????????
(I have an athlon 64 and 512 ram...)

[livingwatersoun]

That's why I only hear sound out of the left side. Good to know.
Why when I use the firepod do I get a crackling sound (almost like a clipping sound) no matter where my volume is (I get with keyboards, with soft synths, with audio inputs - electric, acoustic guitar, etc). I've tried raising the latency from 10 up towards 25 ms but doesn't seem to help. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Rich

[travelin travis]

Originally Posted by livingwatersoun

That's why I only hear sound out of the left side. Good to know.
Why when I use the firepod do I get a crackling sound (almost like a clipping sound) no matter where my volume is (I get with keyboards, with soft synths, with audio inputs - electric, acoustic guitar, etc). I've tried raising the latency from 10 up towards 25 ms but doesn't seem to help. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Rich

You do realize this thread is a couple of years old?

Do you have the latest drivers installed? Alot of people recommend only using a firewire card with a Texas Instruments chipset, no onboard firewire. Have you optimized your system for recording? There's alot things that could be causing the high latency and clipping sound.

[livingwatersoun]

No I didn't... Just did a search on the web and it took me here. Thanks for responding. I just got both the firepod and creation station from Sweetwater and it has been optimized for music. It clicks and pops here and there both during recording and playback (but not necessarily in the same places). I'll keep working with it and may try calling the company back.

[travelin travis]

Does your system meet the system requirements for the firepod and cubase? Are you running one hard drive?

BTW, your problem is pretty common so don't freak out. You'll get it worked out.

[sirslurpee]

I ran a firepod w/ cubase LE on a 700mhz athlon 512 ram and it ran fine. Have you tried monitoring with something else? I'm not trying to say it's not the firepod causing your problems but sometimes it ends up being the headphones or whatever you are using for playback... hope this helps..

[livingwatersoun]

Thanks. I did read in another post last night that using the PCI card with Texas Instrument chipset got rid of the same problem for someone else. I am going through the motherboard firewire so that may also be my problem. I'm pretty sure it's not the monitors or headphones. I do have two hard drives. I think I'm going to call Sweetwater tomorrow and let them know what's going on and if they can send the PCI card. I am excited about the potential quality of the sound once I get this worked out.

[livingwatersoun]

Talked to Sweetwater and found out the firewire on the computer has the Texas Instrument chipset. I decided to try the other firewire plugin on the computer, since there are two, and voila absolutely no problems (wish I would have tried that earlier).

[Slowjett]

Cool, great to hear! I love my firepod, but my moneys gogin down on a Firestudio when its been out for a few months!

Josh

[BobbyBalow]

I love my firepod. Just did a recording with Cubase SX. Recorded 7 tracks at the same time with NO latency issues. My comptuer was 1 gig ram ddr 400, amd athlon 64 3200, and 250 gb hard drive SATA. Works like a charm. The pres are amazing! Brought my mics to life compared to my little $100 mixer i was using before.