Firepod for a recording interface?

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BobbyBalow

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Anyone know if the new firepod is any good for multitracking? How about the preamps? Is this a good place to start? I'm looking into multitracking for around 500 bucks and this looked like a winner. Any opinions?
 
I own one and have been happy with it, but am getting a new interface as the expandability isn't going to meet my needs. By this I mean that it only has S/PDIF that adds 2 channels, and nothing else. For MOST people, this will probably be just fine, but I'm looking for Word Clock, AES/EBU, ADAT (which will add 8 channels of digital), etc.

Pre's are nice for the price range, and the converters are reasonably nice sounding. Converter quality is important for the conversion from analog input to digital and from digital back to analog output. I think for the money, the Firepod is not a bad deal at all. I'd look on eBay right now, there are usually a couple on there that go for much less than the $600 standard new price.

Drivers are pretty solid, at least ASIO in my experience, but don't expect frequent updates from Presonus on those.

Make sure you have balanced inputs on your monitoring system too (this could be an amp with passive monitors, active monitors, etc.). I don't have balanced inputs on my amp (which is actually a decent old Roland amp), and I'm getting a pretty good hum coming from the outs of the Firepod. The Firepod has all balanced outs and is not grounded - which I personally think is important. You may or may not have issues if you're not running balanced - not trying to scare you, just letting you know my experience.

In general, think it would be a good place to start for you. Not hard to setup and use, and it really does sound pretty nice. Having eight decent pre's is a nice thing - especially if you plan on tracking a band, drums, etc. If you really don't need those eight pre's, you can probably do better for the $$ and just get a couple inputs and/or pre's on other units.

For more discussion on the Firepod, try a search here. It's been discussed quite a bit around here.
 
I own a Firepod and very pleased with it, but it is limited when you want to incorperate another Firepod for more inputs, this is an e-mail i recieved from a presonus rep. regarding the issue.
Hello,

Within the week we will release drivers that will support the chaining of up to 3 PODs.
However, Sampling Rate is cut at 48k with 2 or more PODs.
Butch Richard
Interface Technical Support
brichard@presonus.com

But regardless the unit has worked fine for my apps. micing drums guitar cabs vox and so on. To be honest with you i love mine, and despite the sample rate issue im going to buy another one!!!
here is a sample of what i have done with it, warning its heavy www.myspace.com/exesion anyway hope that helps
 
Last edited:
musickey said:
...Within the week we will release drivers that will support the chaining of up to 3 PODs.

I'd believe it when I saw it. They just released new drivers a couple weeks ago which is cool (firmware upgrade so that the Firepod can be used as a standalong pre and supposedly chain Firepods), but I had immediate issues in Sonar 4 - pops, clicks, etc. This performance issue occurred without me changing any settings in Sonar, it just happened. They are aware of the issue, but I'm not going to hold my breath so I'm most likely moving on.
 
Im using Nuendo 2 and just wanted to know if you have talked to any one chaining Firepods using Nuendo that have had any problems becouse i am about to purchase another Firepod. Im to the point know that i need more inputs to stay productive, I want to use one Firepod dedicated to the drums alone and another Firepod for guitars and vox basicaly so i can track everything at once of course. Any info would be cool Thanx
 
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