Help picking Presonus interface

jmxdrummer

jmxdrummer

New member
I am ditching my current recording set up of the m-audio 1010 and behringer preamps, and purchasing either a firepod or firestudio next month. I have been fouling myself thinking that I can have a good recordings with my current set up.

what has been most peoples experience with the firepod?
anyone have examples of recordings using the firepod?

thanks
 
FIREPOD: lots of FireWire port failures.
FireStudio: Dice II-based interface with buggy drivers (unusable on many systems).

Given a choice, I'd pick the FIREPOD, but be exceptionally careful with the thing.

1. Don't ever unplug the FireWire connection while the unit is running, and frankly, I'd be tempted to fasten the FireWire cable to the top of your rack with a cable clamp so you can't accidentally flex it in any way.

2. Do not under any circumstances upgrade the firmware. Some FIREPODs suddenly lose S/PDIF functionality when the firmware is updated and don't get it back even after a downgrade.

If you do those things, odds are, the FIREPOD will be a usable interface. That said, I'd pick a MOTU 8Pre over it any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Just my $0.02 as somebody who used to own a FIREPOD and currently owns two 8Pres.
 
Different people, different experiences . . .

I've had a Firepod for several years, and it has performed flawlessly (and that includes accidental disconnections).

Installing was easy and it ran perfectly from day 1.

On the strength of my experience, a friend considered getting one as well. To help with this decision I pulled out my Firepod and we installed it on his machine. Again, we experienced no problems.

He ended up getting a Presonus FP10 (I think that's the Firestudio), and spent about a month getting it to work properly. That experience was not a happy one.

However, I am always reminded by something that someone once said to me: "an anecdote is not evidence, and nor are several anecdotes". My story is my story and nothing more.
 
gecko zzed said:
He ended up getting a Presonus FP10 (I think that's the Firestudio), and spent about a month getting it to work properly. That experience was not a happy one.
Click to expand...

No, the FP10 is the FIREPOD with a different name. Usually problems with those are indicative of a poor choice of FireWire card. BeBoB hardware is pretty rock solid reliable in general.
 
yeah i can confirm the sameness of the FP10 and firepod.

i personally own 3 firepods.

they are all rock solid, no problems. :eek:

i mean the routing is basic. But it works great, and wow the latency is amazing, for an external device. sure its not RME (lowest real latency ever), but if you have the money for RME, then go for it ;)
 
rating?

well i havent tried every preamp.

but i will say they are not the highest gain -- but they are very transparent, and clear. I've had no problem with them.
 
I own a Firepod and I've found to be a very stable driver and perform very well. The mic inputs are, as said, very clear and transparent, but don't have a whole lot of gain to them.

In all honesty, when I was in your situation two years ago looking for interfaces, I wish that I would have saved up more and gone with a Motu interface. They have ridiculously stable drivers, rarely, rarely fault, and (IMO, best of all) have a very trustworthy S/PDIF. I can't throw anything lightpiped onto my firepod because of S/PDIF issues with it. You'll never encounter anything glitchy with a Motu like you will with a Firepod.

but don't get me wrong - they're great pieces of gear for starting out multi-track recording. I'm very happy with mine and can only see progression coming.

Good luck choosing!
 
Thank you everyone. I couldn't wait so I just purchased the firepod for Musician's friend today. I hope this is what I was looking for, but yet again this should be better than using my nady 8 channel mic preamp and delta 1010.
 
jmxdrummer said:
Thank you everyone. I couldn't wait so I just purchased the firepod for Musician's friend today. I hope this is what I was looking for, but yet again this should be better than using my nady 8 channel mic preamp and delta 1010.
Click to expand...

*sound of jaw hitting the floor*

Yeah, I could probably build an ADC/preamp circuit out of hand-wire-wound resistors and $0.10 Rat Shack FETs with a clock crystal ripped from an old AM radio crystal set that would sound better than that combination.... :D :D :D

I think you'll probably be happy with the FP. Be sure to use it hard during the first year, though, so that if anything goes wrong, it will happen during the warranty period and not afterwards.
 
Weeeee!!! Digging up old threads...

K, I was toying around online and looking at recording packages at musicians friend when I came across the Firestudio bundle package, complete with monitors, mics, blah blah blah.

So I came on here to search from info, and landed here. I never heard of the Motu before, but judging by the price structure at MF, it appears that for the same price of a bundle Firestudio package, you can get ONLY a single unit Motu (give or take some dollars).

This tells me that you're sinking more money into your interface, rather than a bunch of other stuff, which means you're likely to get a much better quality product.

But what's a guy to do, if you don't have any monitors, mics, etc (long story).

My question is a bit simpler though - With these 'firewire' devices... can you use ANY recording software, or are you stuck with whatever comes with the audio device??
 
MrStitch said:
K, I was toying around online and looking at recording packages at musicians friend when I came across the Firestudio bundle package, complete with monitors, mics, blah blah blah.

So I came on here to search from info, and landed here. I never heard of the Motu before, but judging by the price structure at MF, it appears that for the same price of a bundle Firestudio package, you can get ONLY a single unit Motu (give or take some dollars).
Click to expand...

Well, if it were a FIREPOD package, that would at least be reasonable. I'd pretty much avoid the Firestudio at all costs. While some machines handle DICE II interfaces without any trouble, the problem rate is quite a bit higher for them than other interfaces, and the success rate quite a bit lower.

If you're trying to cut costs, there are some decent BeBoB-based interfaces by... either Focusrite or Phonix, maybe both... but don't quote me on that. Just avoid anything with the words "DICE II" anywhere in any description of the product and you'll be a lot happier. :)

On the question of audio software, the only company that ties software to hardware is Digi/M-Audio. Their software will only work when used with their hardware. Their hardware still works with other software, of course. I'm not aware of any hardware that ties you to a particular piece of software in any way.
 
The Firepod works great for me. I've had my first one close to two years now,
added the second about 8 months ago and they work flawless together.
I used the Cubase le that came with it untill i got the second one and needed
to upgrade to record more than 8 ch at a time. (cubase essential)
everything works just fine, just need a faster computer. so i can have more
vst's running at the same time.
 
tojo said:
yo dgatwood, i could get a firestudio project... have you ever actually used one and have had troubles with it? or just have seen a lot of people struggle with them?
Click to expand...

The latter... on multiple platforms..... Ask PipelineAudio for some stats.
 
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