firewire interface

[daveblue222]

hey

im looking to buy a firewire unit, have about 350 pounds. i think its going to either be a firepod, alesis i026, or the firestudio project. i cant seem to see the difference between the two presonus products here except for the gain led's. many people have had trouble with alesis firewire product drivers (including myself) but recently they have updated everything so i cant see there being a problem now if i did opt for the io 26.

any opinions about these products or advice would be great. maybe i should get a different model of interface?

cheers

 

[gcapel]

I am pretty sure the Fire Pod is A/D only and the Studio Project is A/D/A. The digital to analog conversion is good for mixing out of the box. You may not care about that now but later you may want to use this function.

 

[daveblue222]

what does a/d and a/d/a mean?

thanks

 

[gcapel]

A = Analog and D = Digital.

So the Pod will only allow you to record audio to your computer (A/D) and thus you would have to mix audio tracks in software (Mixing in the box)

The Studio will do the same but will also let you export 8 tracks simutainiously from the computer to an analog mixer or summing device (D/A). This allows you to use outboard or hardware effects on individual tracks as well as plug-ins in software.