Firepod owners discussion thread!

[jndietz]

What I want to know is are there any known issues running a 6-pin to 4-pin connection for a laptop? Whether it be latency, quality, whatever? Also, is there anything of equal or better quality for the price than the Firepod?

 

[cusebassman]

What I want to know is are there any known issues running a 6-pin to 4-pin connection for a laptop? Whether it be latency, quality, whatever? Also, is there anything of equal or better quality for the price than the Firepod?

If there is a cable that will run 6 to 4 (which I believe there is), it shouldn't be a problem - the only thing missing AFAIK from the 4-pin is the power. Since the Firepod has its own power supply, you don't need it.

As for other quality products in the 400ish price range, I don't know. I've only tried the Firepod, and like it I've also heard the Motu 8Pre is a nice piece, for an extra 100-something dollars. Must be other stuff out there with similar features in the same price range - there always is - I'd say look on the various sites like sweetwater and do a price sort, and then search this site for reviews of the pieces you come up with.

 

[K.G.Bass]

is anyone else noticeing a "hum" in firepod?
I dont think its a electric thing. but...you newer know.
but anyone else hearing it in firepod?

 

[cusebassman]

is anyone else noticeing a "hum" in firepod?
I dont think its a electric thing. but...you newer know.
but anyone else hearing it in firepod?

A hum? Do you hear this coming from the unit itself, or do you hear it through the headphones/monitors you have hooked up to the thing?

 

[zed32]

the main volume pot in my Firepod is starting to get scratchy. if i turn it fast, you can hear it crack pretty good, and the left side speaker level will kinda drop out, but once i stop turning the knob, or if i turn it slowly, there's no problem.

 

[BRIEFCASEMANX]

lack of wordclock is stupid. lack of adat is stupid. the spdif is buggy on mine. mine also gets VERY hot and starts freaking out. i'm tired of firepod, and am upgrading to FF800 next month.

 

[dgatwood]

lack of wordclock is stupid. lack of adat is stupid. the spdif is buggy on mine. mine also gets VERY hot and starts freaking out. i'm tired of firepod, and am upgrading to FF800 next month.

The S/PDIF on FIREPOD blows goats in my experience. Getting hot and freaking out probably means you have a cold solder joint somewhere. Easy fix if you're not afraid to disassemble it. That said, the FIREPOD is a good interface to step up from, IMHO....

 

[K.G.Bass]

but in general are you guys happy with FP or not?
what would be your upgrade?

 

[Bulls Hit]

My firepod's been good to me. When it's time to upgrade it will be RME for me

 

[mrhotapples]

I concur. It doesn't sound good on various things (Drums...)but excellent for other things (bass and vocals omg!) but I think that for the 400 bucks I got mine for, it was the best deal out there. I think that the MOTU 8pre is slightly better sounding and I can't tell what exactly makes it sound better, but it's still more money.

The fact that it sounds like a 400 dollar interface and the wimpy headphone amp, lack of expandability unless you want to buy another one and only be able to record at 48.2khz (which I record at anyways so I dunno!)...You know, those suck, but you get what you pay for.

I'm going to keep my Firepod around for a long time and run mic pres into it when I start being able to afford some that will actually sound different, and that's only after I get some badass mics, and those badass mics only come after getting a better room.

Firepod para presidente! Nothing is more affordable, as flexible, as...Something elseable!

 

[K.G.Bass]

Firestudio

actually I am atempted to get a Firestudio for its direct monitoring and ADAT option. We are recording a first song with a FS at the moment,gonna send it to mix in few days after that we'll see and hear how good is the soundquality .

but Firestudio? first hand experience anyone?
how good is the direct monitoring working and could I use it without a computer as a line mixer (lets say we'd wanna use instead of a mixer for reheashal)

huh?

 

[cusebassman]

Well, every line input that runs into the Firepod is already running at line-level - the gain pushes it hotter and you'll clip, so you can't reaaally use it as a line-level mixer (i.e. when the gain knobs are at 0, you are already at what should be nominal level if you have line sources running into it).

Is the thing still humming?

I haven't used the midi or the S/PDIF, so I can only comment on the usefulness of the pres and the converters, and it has sounded good and performed well for me up til now. What would I upgrade to? Probably wouldn't waste the money on another bundled interface - I'd probably wait until I had a good couple channels of external preamps, and then buy a stand-alone set of converters that do nothing else. Of course, now we're talking thousands of dollars

 

[Squiksilvery]

Hi

Well.... I've lost all MIDI on my Firepod - I think I've got the latest firmware installed (The updater crashes all the time) - Audio recording is fine, but there is no MIDI signal going in.

There is 1 other user with the same problem

Presonus have not replied

 

[Carter]

Hi

Well.... I've lost all MIDI on my Firepod - I think I've got the latest firmware installed (The updater crashes all the time) - Audio recording is fine, but there is no MIDI signal going in.

There is 1 other user with the same problem

Presonus have not replied

Well I can tell you something went wrong with the firmware install, if you dont do it correct it will ruin your FP and force you to send it back to Presonus.

 

[dgatwood]

Well I can tell you something went wrong with the firmware install, if you dont do it correct it will ruin your FP and force you to send it back to Presonus.

The firmware updater just shoves the bits to the device and the device does the actual work. There's not much you can do wrong.... Unfortunately, having FIREPODs go partially dead after a firmware update is apparently not that uncommon. Indeed, a failed firmware flash was what killed my first FIREPOD, and the delay getting it repaired was what convinced me to buy a pair of MOTU 8Pres.

In a properly designed device it should be damn near impossible to cause a firmware flash to fail in an unrecoverable way. All it takes is having two copies of the firmware image in separate regions of the flash, writing the new image to the unused "B side", doing a consistency check, and then setting an enable bit in a control region to indicate that the "B side" should be used from now on. That's how most firmware updates work. With such a design, making an update fail basically can't happen. I don't know what Presonus did wrong, but they really screwed this one up.... My advice is to NEVER update the firmware in any FIREPOD hardware. It isn't worth the risk.

 

[Hard2Hear]

fwiw, the Firepod, and the FP10, have has been discontinued by Presonus. Bad move if you ask me because the Firestudio sucks. I just got 3 more in and 2 are already headed back being RMA'd. But the guys at Presonus quit listening to me long ago. Instead of dumping the crappy DiceII firewire, they have added TUBES to the Firestudio. woohoo..

 

[dgatwood]

fwiw, the Firepod, and the FP10, have has been discontinued by Presonus. Bad move if you ask me because the Firestudio sucks. I just got 3 more in and 2 are already headed back being RMA'd. But the guys at Presonus quit listening to me long ago. Instead of dumping the crappy DiceII firewire, they have added TUBES to the Firestudio. woohoo..

Wow. Two bad tube preamps on the front end might make the quality so bad that nobody notices the constant glitching of the DICE II hardware.

But seriously, I wasn't even aware that DICE II had problems until fairly recently. If they're using the AVC stack, it is an AVC class-compliant chipset, so supporting it should be pretty straightforward since it should work pretty much the same way as every other AVC device does from camcorders on up to FIREPODs... unless Presonus isn't using the AVC stack or something....

My guess is that there are firmware bugs and Presonus isn't keeping on top of the updates from the chipset vendor, but that's just a hunch....

 

[Squiksilvery]

so its quite possible that I've spent hendreds of pounds on hardware, followed the manufacturers firmware update instructions, and F*@K%D them up... and the only way to sort it is to send the units from the UK to the USA to get them fixed, which will cost a f%$£@£g s%&t load.

Good work presonus.

 

[SoundAsleep]

I have used 3 Firepods daisy chained with no problems whatsoever. I use the drivers that came with it (version 1.2) I think. The guy I bought my pc from (Sonica) told me to never update the firmware for the pods and I wouldn't have any problems; I guess he was right.

No they aren't the greatest but I have recorded quite a few bands live and ---knock on wood--haven't had any issues and the end result was pretty darn good when the musicians had their act together