PreSonus FirePod questions

A

awholtzapple

New member
So I have a few questions about using this piece of equipment and I'm not real familiar with this stuff so there some pretty basic questions.

1. I saw an example diagram of how/what you would hook into the FirePod and from the looks of things, the 8 inputs on the front look like they are TRS inputs, but in the diagram it showed mics hooking directly into these ports. How would you hook an XLR mic cable into a TRS input?

and

2. There are inputs for 8 separate instruments. Let's say I was recording a drum set and was using 5 mics for different sections of the drum set, when you record via FireWire and it goes into Cubase LE, are the 5 separate mics going to show up as 5 individual tracks so their levels and EQs can be adjusted separately or do all 5 mics just get blended into one track in Cubase?


Thanks for the help. If you think there's a Firewire interface that might be better, feel free to make recommendations!
 
awholtzapple said:
So I have a few questions about using this piece of equipment and I'm not real familiar with this stuff so there some pretty basic questions.

1. I saw an example diagram of how/what you would hook into the FirePod and from the looks of things, the 8 inputs on the front look like they are TRS inputs, but in the diagram it showed mics hooking directly into these ports. How would you hook an XLR mic cable into a TRS input?

and

2. There are inputs for 8 separate instruments. Let's say I was recording a drum set and was using 5 mics for different sections of the drum set, when you record via FireWire and it goes into Cubase LE, are the 5 separate mics going to show up as 5 individual tracks so their levels and EQs can be adjusted separately or do all 5 mics just get blended into one track in Cubase?


Thanks for the help. If you think there's a Firewire interface that might be better, feel free to make recommendations!
Click to expand...

Not sure why you asked this is the mixing and mastering forum, theres a soundcard forum. Anyways.

The inputs are XLR/TRS combos so they accept either. It's a handy design feature more than one interface has incorporated into its design.

And yes, you can route each input to its own Cubase track, making it ideal for drums.
 
Firepod

When I use my Firepod, I connect XLR cables to the XLR inputs on the front. Those are the mic preamps, which are affected by the level knobs on the right. The TRS inputs on the back are send and returns for using whatever outboard equiptment you might need to use.

I connect my drums this way:

Phantom power on for inputs 1-4
Ch1-Condenser Mic for overhead left
Ch2-Condenser Mic for overhead right
Ch3-Condenser Mic for hihat
Ch4-Dynamic snare mic
Ch5-Dynamic kick mic
Ch6-Dynamic Tom mic
Ch7-Dynamic Tom mic
Ch8-Dynamic Tom mic

When sending over firewire, each channel will arrive as its own track if you set it up that way. With Cubase SE though, (the software packaged with the firepod), you can only record 4 tracks at a time. Each track is setup by going to: Devices, Device Setup, VST Audio Bay and selecting the Presonus ASIO driver. Then go to VST Connections and set up your input and output busses. Right click the grey area on your main window and create a new track, select your input bus on the left side of the screen, set your output bus to Presonus, and your good to go.
 
tubby said:
With Cubase SE though, (the software packaged with the firepod), you can only record 4 tracks at a time.
Click to expand...

Hey, you sure SE comes bundled? SE can take more than four...Do you mean LE? I think they fixed LE to accomodate the firepods 8 inputs.
 
I'm Sorry

LE is exactly what I meant. Thanks. I hope they've fixed the track count issue. That makes the Firepod even more of a value! Do you know if Cubase SE3 is capable of recording more than 8 tracks at a time?
 
SE3 is has more options than the LE version. meaning it can record more inputs than LE

Versions from bottom to top C4 being the best.

LE
SE3
SL3
SX3
C4
 
tubby said:
LE is exactly what I meant. Thanks. I hope they've fixed the track count issue. That makes the Firepod even more of a value! Do you know if Cubase SE3 is capable of recording more than 8 tracks at a time?
Click to expand...

Yep..I'm not sure how many simultaneous tracks..I know its considerably more...Carter, can you help us out again?
 
I have 2 firepods chained together for 16 seperate tracks. I use one exclusively for drums and the second for everything else and yes, the inputs on the front will take 1/4" AND XLR connectors. The advertising says it's a 10x10 (10-in x 10-out) interface but in practical terms, it's more like 8x8 as the other two inputs/outputs are via SPDIF which I've never used.

The only downside to this is that I use mine with N-track studio and while I can monitor the 1st 8 channels on my Firepod in no-latency real time, I have to enable "Live" feature in N-Track in order to monitor back the 8 inputs on the 2nd firepod. I was forced to buy a small "pocket" mixer and just use it to route monitor signals from the Firepods instead as the native drivers that come with the Firepod don't allow this type of routing except through your multitracking software. Still, for being touted as being multi-chainable, this is a major pain in the rear to get no latency real time monitor signal from both units....so I fell back onto a hardware solution which was less than ideal.

Regardless, this is unique to my situation but for your purposes of utilizing just one Firepod, you shouldn't have any troubles.

Yes, when you record, you can have either 8 seperate mono tracks or 4 stereo tracks just using the front panel connections.

Presonus is offering a newer interface called the FireStudio which is essentially the same as the FirePod but is supposed to be more expandable and incorporate a more robust signal routing driver. I am looking forward to upgrading to these.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/prod...io-26x26-Firewire-Recording-System?sku=241848

There is still good support of these units espescially through the Presonus forums, however after reading through them at length, it seems that hardly anyone is much impressed by the CubaseLE that it comes bundled with and most people opt to use Sonar or some other thrid party multitracking software.
 
fritzmusic said:
I have 2 firepods chained together for 16 seperate tracks. I use one exclusively for drums and the second for everything else and yes, the inputs on the front will take 1/4" AND XLR connectors. The advertising says it's a 10x10 (10-in x 10-out) interface but in practical terms, it's more like 8x8 as the other two inputs/outputs are via SPDIF which I've never used.

The only downside to this is that I use mine with N-track studio and while I can monitor the 1st 8 channels on my Firepod in no-latency real time, I have to enable "Live" feature in N-Track in order to monitor back the 8 inputs on the 2nd firepod. I was forced to buy a small "pocket" mixer and just use it to route monitor signals from the Firepods instead as the native drivers that come with the Firepod don't allow this type of routing except through your multitracking software. Still, for being touted as being multi-chainable, this is a major pain in the rear to get no latency real time monitor signal from both units....so I fell back onto a hardware solution which was less than ideal.

Regardless, this is unique to my situation but for your purposes of utilizing just one Firepod, you shouldn't have any troubles.

Yes, when you record, you can have either 8 seperate mono tracks or 4 stereo tracks just using the front panel connections.

Presonus is offering a newer interface called the FireStudio which is essentially the same as the FirePod but is supposed to be more expandable and incorporate a more robust signal routing driver. I am looking forward to upgrading to these.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/prod...io-26x26-Firewire-Recording-System?sku=241848

There is still good support of these units espescially through the Presonus forums, however after reading through them at length, it seems that hardly anyone is much impressed by the CubaseLE that it comes bundled with and most people opt to use Sonar or some other thrid party multitracking software.
Click to expand...

I also saw the Firestudio - looks awesome! I wonder what the cheapest sequencer that allows more than 8 ins is... I like Cubase, I'm used to it. Guess I'll be upgrading software and hardware; when I get the cash.
 
TelePaul said:
I also saw the Firestudio - looks awesome! I wonder what the cheapest sequencer that allows more than 8 ins is... I like Cubase, I'm used to it. Guess I'll be upgrading software and hardware; when I get the cash.
Click to expand...

Ill be the first to tell you the Firestudio is the bomb! I own one ;), and to let you in on a secret the pre's on the firestudio are better than the pod's which I also owned. If you like Cubase just step up to SL that will give you 128 ins which is more than enough. alot of people are talking about Reaper but I dont know, I downloaded the program and will put it through the paces this weekend to see what it can do. but I know I will stay with Cubase.
 
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I recently purchased the Firepod, love it. It came with Cubase LE version 1.07, I think Presonus only ships 1.07. Any way, version 1.07 has no limits on how many tracks you can record at once, with one Firepod I can record 10 tracks (including SPDIF) no problem. I have heard of others using 2 Firepods daisy chained together recording 16 tracks at once, I have not personally tried this though, but it should work, (daisy chaing will work, cubase recording 16 to 20 tracks would be the questionable part of the equasion). A buddy of mine may be buying a Firepod soon, if and when he does I'll see how many tracks I can record at once and let you guys know.
Cheers,
Ronnie B.
 
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