Firepod routing question

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deadleafecho

New member
I dont have a firepod yet, but Im looking into one of those or a MOTU Ultralite (leaning towards the FP)
My question is this: If I am recording a track through the firepod, is it possible to send the
"clean" track through one of the outs, into maybe an effects unit, and then back into one of the line ins (recorded to another track) without creating any sort of monitoring or feedback havoc? yes i know i could just copy the track and us plug ins, but that isnt what im asking. Anyone done this? How is it accomplished?
 
Go with the MOTU. You'll be happier, IMHO. While I don't know much about the Traveler, I've compared the FIREPOD and the MOTU 8Pre side-by-side, and IMHO, there's no comparison. The MOTU 8Pre eats the 'POD for breakfast with both hands tied behind its back.

But to answer your question, yes, you can do that. You can do that with any interface.
 
Eh that weird I never noticed the ultralite and 8pre were the same price.....
Anyway, not to hijack my own thread but...
Ive heard of lots of problems with FW MOTU gear and windows, havent heard as much for the firepod. The firepod is also about $150 less. Finally, the 8pre has like ZERO outs. the adat is nice but doesnt really do me any good right now. So in fact, I wouldnt be able to do what I was asking about in the 1st place with the 8pre. yeah , thats really odd ,seems like it would really limit your options as far as what you could do with it. I think thats one of the things that is selling me on the firepod, 8 mic pres, or 2 instrument in and 6 line in, as well as a good number of outs. I have a friend that had one and REALLY liked it.
So im not really sure how the 8pre can blow the FP away so much. I cant imagine the pres are THAT much better. Any reasons you like the 8pre so much more?
 
Yep the firepod has a lot of routing options - you've also got inserts on inputs 1 & 2.

I do a lot of reamping with my firepod, and no you can't do that with the 8-pre
 
deadleafecho said:
Ive heard of lots of problems with FW MOTU gear and windows, havent heard as much for the firepod.
Click to expand...

A long time ago, that was true, and with Windows XP SP2, every FireWire interface can have problems if you choose the wrong FireWire card or hub, hence the hotfix. The FIREPOD, by contrast, has a lot of actual hardware failures. Count the number of people who have complained about dead FIREPODs on this board. Statistically speaking, one is too many unless caused by abuse.

deadleafecho said:
So im not really sure how the 8pre can blow the FP away so much. I cant imagine the pres are THAT much better. Any reasons you like the 8pre so much more?
Click to expand...

FIREPOD:
  • Problems with its digital ports dying when you upgrade the firmware.
  • Prblems with the FireWire PHY blowing out, resulting in a completely unusable unit.
  • When my FIREPOD went dead, it took five weeks to get service.
  • Uses FireWire AVC protocol, which doesn't seem to be particularly efficient as far as CPU overhead, etc. goes.

MOTU:
  • No real history of hardware problems except many years ago with the early PCI cards.
  • When something went wrong with one of my 8Pre interfaces early on, MOTU overnighted a replacement and I sent back the dead unit.
  • Uses their own FireWire protocol, which seems to result in near zero CPU loading.

Your mileage may vary, of course.
 
Thanks for the info, Its good to hear feedback about the customer service for both. However ive heard of lots of problems in the ultralite's LED as well as the firmware.
i dont know that much about the FW protocols so I guess thats sometime to look into.
Of course with any of these devices, if you look hard enough you will find people with hardware failures. Someone thats having problems is more likely to make noise about it 8)
That goes for either device of course.
 
As much as I cant stand MOTU, what dgatwood is saying above is pretty right on.

QC is VERY important

Theres a thread here at HR about round trip latency, and youll see that the MOTU and RME devices are scoring best there at least for firewire. There is some added time in the Presonus and other drivers, not reflected in the buffer settings that will come to bite you

Presonus makes the most convenient gear design in the world IMHO

The firestudio and firepod REALLY make life simple, with monitor controls and functions, multiple headphone outs with their own controls, and a smart I/O setup including DI's

Thats all on paper...when the rubber hits the road, reliability and driver quality become issues. Ive done albums on nothing but firepods, and so far that firepod has been replaced once and is waiting on its second replacement

Our new cheaper mini mobile rig has a firestudio, that has already been replaced after failure.

The convenience of the unit means Ill probably keep trying to give it a chance, but if I didnt have a LOT of other gear to back it up, I might not want to chance it.

Presonus IS very good about replacing defective units

Ive got a motu here at home now, an 896 and so far so good, no DI, PITA monitoring system, but round trip latency is as good as my RME PCI cards!
 
Sounds like u guys had a few bad experiences with Presonus. A good friend and former partner of mine has a firbox that has been abused and well traveled...still going very strong. Another assosiate of mine who owns a studio has a Firestudio as well as the Presonus Central Station (monitor control). Not a single problem ever reported.

My home studio is in a transition phase so I actually had to order myself a Firbox today.

An important thing to consider when comparing Presonus to Motu is the A/D conversion (this is a VERY underrated and far too often overlooked aspect of home recording). I've read more than a few bad reviews on MOTU's converters as compared to other boxes in the same price range. Presonus converters are not Mytec or Apogee but they sound fine...
 
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