FirePod?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bews
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Bews

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I want to use a FirePod in my setup, becuase I would like to separately track drums, everything else I record will be separetely overdubbed. If anyone uses it: how do you like it, how are the preamps, is there a better solution?
 
For the money, I find the firepod beeing the best solution for recording up to 10 trakcs at a time (using the SPDIF).

I upgraded from a delta 1010 and I Find it to be supperior. The preamp are very useful for the money.

I say buy it since they dropped the price. If you want more tracks, buy an other firepod and daisy chain them
 
tenkas said:
For the money, I find the firepod beeing the best solution for recording up to 10 trakcs at a time (using the SPDIF).

I upgraded from a delta 1010 and I Find it to be supperior. The preamp are very useful for the money.

I say buy it since they dropped the price. If you want more tracks, buy an other firepod and daisy chain them
Click to expand...

ok thank you, I definitely wont need another one... I was looking into getting one of the smaller interfaces, but they just don't seem to be powerful enough to get what i want...
 
Well the Firebox will be able to record 4 track at a time (if I am not mistaking...) which should be enough if you don't plan on recording drums.
 
can plug it straight through my firewire port to get all ten tracks?
 
tenkas said:
Well the Firebox will be able to record 4 track at a time (if I am not mistaking...) which should be enough if you don't plan on recording drums.
Click to expand...

Correct, 4 tracks at a time with a Firebox, which works out fine for me when recording drums - 2 condenser OHs powered via the Firebox, then kick and snare. Works plenty fine for me :-)
 
Those of you with Firepods, what are your feelings about the preamp headroom?

I notice I need to crank the pre gain pretty high when using any microphone, and that sucks because you start to hear all the nasty stuff your own ears can't hear through the capsule; especially if it's a sensitive condenser...
 
I use the Firebox. Find it very easy to use and works very well with my DAW for recording 4 tracks at once. I too am thinking about the firepod just to have more preamps, but i find that the preamps on the firebox seem kinda weak when using a mic to record acoustic guitar. Other than that, i think the sound quality is pretty good for home recordings
 
Bews said:
can plug it straight through my firewire port to get all ten tracks?
Click to expand...

Yep. One cable to your computer.

It's a very nice and affordable unit.

I think the pre-amps are very nice for the money as well. You can definately get higher-end stuff, but you pay for it. For a hobby home-recording setup, it's the perfect interface, in my opinion. Need more inputs? - just hook 2 of them together. Simple as that.

If it had ADAT in/out, it would be awesome, but for the price of an 8-channel ADAT unit with similar quality preamps, you could easily buy another FirePod.
 
I think the Firepod should have a larger headroom for the preamps. similarly, with my Motu 828mkII, i have to crank up the trim to nearly 80% to get a decent recording to work with later.
 
Firepod features

Yes, more mic pre gain would be nice, but there's only so much that can be done with the space and the price point. The Firepod has 8 mic pres, 2 instrument DI's, SPDIF I/O, near zero-latency with a knob control, separate cue and main outs, is tolerant of almost any PC motherboard, solid drivers, modern, clean-sounding converters, firewire interface with easy daisy-chaining for a 2nd unit, all in 1 rack space for $499 street. Hard to complain about it.

I also have a pair of Delta 1010's; the Firepod isn't better to me, just different. The 1010 has a warm, full-sounding bass and smooth high end but lacks detail, the Firepod sounds brighter, with more apparent detail, less low end and is a little harsher sounding.
 
I recorded my latest album with the Firepod - I didn't find any problem with headroom. To be fair, though, I don't really have much of any experience with higher-end mic pre's. I basically upgraded from a delta44 with a behringer MX-series mixer to the firepod, and the difference was AMAZING to my ears.

I did use an M-Audio DMP3 preamp with my delta44 for a little while, and I think the firepod sounds way better than that combo as well. I couldn't say if it was the pre-amps in the firepod sounding better than the DMP3, or the converters in the firepod sounding better than the delta44, or a combination, but it sounds better.

Like I said, my latest album was all recorded w/the firepod, and here are some songs from it to get a sense of how it sounds (clips will stream):

Something Better

Isn't She Wonderful

A bit more info on the clips: I use budget mic's - nothing high-end at all in my recording chain.

Vox: Studio Project C1
Acoustic Guit.: Stereo pair of MXL 603s's
Electric Guit.: Recorded direct (Line6 GuitarPort)
Bass: Recorded direct via DI from an SWR combo
Drums: Loops (Drums on Demand)

Considering the equipment used - I'm happy with the resutls.

Good luck with your purchase.
 
BJW said:
I recorded my latest album with the Firepod - I didn't find any problem with headroom. To be fair, though, I don't really have much of any experience with higher-end mic pre's. I basically upgraded from a delta44 with a behringer MX-series mixer to the firepod, and the difference was AMAZING to my ears.

I did use an M-Audio DMP3 preamp with my delta44 for a little while, and I think the firepod sounds way better than that combo as well. I couldn't say if it was the pre-amps in the firepod sounding better than the DMP3, or the converters in the firepod sounding better than the delta44, or a combination, but it sounds better.

Like I said, my latest album was all recorded w/the firepod, and here are some songs from it to get a sense of how it sounds (clips will stream):

Something Better

Isn't She Wonderful

A bit more info on the clips: I use budget mic's - nothing high-end at all in my recording chain.

Vox: Studio Project C1
Acoustic Guit.: Stereo pair of MXL 603s's
Electric Guit.: Recorded direct (Line6 GuitarPort)
Bass: Recorded direct via DI from an SWR combo
Drums: Loops (Drums on Demand)

Considering the equipment used - I'm happy with the resutls.

Good luck with your purchase.
Click to expand...

Hey that's pretty good, I really like your music, well done... how do you like the Guitar Port, I've been trying to find a good way to record my guitars, and I don't think I have the amps for a good mic'd sound...
 
Bews said:
Hey that's pretty good, I really like your music, well done... how do you like the Guitar Port, I've been trying to find a good way to record my guitars, and I don't think I have the amps for a good mic'd sound...
Click to expand...

Thanks!!

About the GuitarPort - I loved it! I have since sold it and bought a POD XT Live. The guitar port uses the same patches as the POD XT, though - so it sounds the same, and for recording, you use the same computer interface to dial in tones. Its a free download from Line6 for GuitarPort and XT users.

You can pick it up used on Ebay for ~$60 (that's what I sold mine for), and I think it's an awesome tool for the money. If you do go with one, don't get anything with the RiffWorks package, especially if you're going to be buying a nice soundcard. RiffWorks is just a crappy audio editing program - whatever comes with your soundcard (the FirePod comes with Cubase LE) will be MUCH better.

I've got a nice amp (peavey classic 30) and an sm57, but I still record electric guitars direct - its just so easy and convenient. I'd definately look into it.
 
Firepod is a great unit in my eyes. Very cheap, and you get alot for the price like everyone says. I use it with a POD XT Pro, and it works awesome. Can/t go wrong for the price dude....SO YOU WILL NJOY IT!!!!!!
 
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