If you have ever OWNED a FIRESTUDIO, please help

[JuicyDbase]

I have been researching all over the internet for the past week on and off or so trying to find any sort of in-depth review I could find on this thing but have not had any luck. And the only kind of information I have found here have been little smatterings of opinions, seems like half of the members say it's the best thing for the price, and the other half suggest something else which has made for a VERY foggy picture of this product. So I figured I would just post a thread about my specific questions and hope for the best so that I don't blow $700 on a space eater. So I ask for your patience in taking the time to give any advice you might like to share, and answer some questions I have had about it.

My Situation
I have been recording newbeously into a Yamaha 16ch mixer into a crummy little 4-track. I am wanting kick it up a notch or 8 to be exact, and record for myself and my band with the best quality that $700-$800 can buy. I find that the 8 inputs will do me just fine. I will be recording directly to my laptop.

HP 1.8ghz Core Duo
1GB ram
Some fairly insane nvidia graphics card (not that that really matters for positive affects)
Wireless card inside


- How does this compare to the firepod? any obvious features, and any that are not described about the firestudio in product descriptions worth mentioning?

- I have read that people have quite a few problems with the drivers, and on presonus's forums, all I see are problems...given it is the manufacturers support forum, but that was all I saw. Is this a true fact about the firestudios?

- Is there anything drop dead better than the firestudio for no more than $800 that has the same # of inputs, and same or better sound quality?

- Are there any problems with running firestudio on a laptop and recording straight to an external hard drive? (I have read lots of places that freeing up the tasks on the OS drive = great quality with no lag)
- I have also read problems about wifi laptops, something with the wireless/airport cards and clock speeds?

- Does cubase and firestudio work better on PC's or MAC's

- What are any overall thoughts you have about the firestudio that might be beneficial to others and myself in this case in this financial decision that is a big leap to take for a poor college student.

From what I have seen on the presonus website, I am liking it a lot, and it appears to be the best decision for my price range, but I am wanting to collect as much information I can about it first.

 

[Carter]

I have been researching all over the internet for the past week on and off or so trying to find any sort of in-depth review I could find on this thing but have not had any luck. And the only kind of information I have found here have been little smatterings of opinions, seems like half of the members say it's the best thing for the price, and the other half suggest something else which has made for a VERY foggy picture of this product. So I figured I would just post a thread about my specific questions and hope for the best so that I don't blow $700 on a space eater. So I ask for your patience in taking the time to give any advice you might like to share, and answer some questions I have had about it.

My Situation
I have been recording newbeously into a Yamaha 16ch mixer into a crummy little 4-track. I am wanting kick it up a notch or 8 to be exact, and record for myself and my band with the best quality that $700-$800 can buy. I find that the 8 inputs will do me just fine. I will be recording directly to my laptop.

HP 1.8ghz Core Duo
1GB ram
Some fairly insane nvidia graphics card (not that that really matters for positive affects)
Wireless card inside


- How does this compare to the firepod? any obvious features, and any that are not described about the firestudio in product descriptions worth mentioning?

I have owned both and i think the Firestudio is awesome! the pre's are much more cleaner and the routing options are mind blowing, Duel SMUX ADAT litepipe is also a plus so you can add up to 16 more channels.


- I have read that people have quite a few problems with the drivers, and on presonus's forums, all I see are problems...given it is the manufacturers support forum, but that was all I saw. Is this a true fact about the firestudios?

I have read the very same thing but I belive that most of the people complaining just dont know that much about computers, sure the drivers need to mature a little but I loaded the drivers with no problems, for the Firestudio and the Digimax FS. My computer is an AMD 64 2.2 Ghz 1 gig of ram and I can record 16 tracks with no hicups!

- Is there anything drop dead better than the firestudio for no more than $800 that has the same # of inputs, and same or better sound quality?

I dont think so but others will!

- Are there any problems with running firestudio on a laptop and recording straight to an external hard drive? (I have read lots of places that freeing up the tasks on the OS drive = great quality with no lag)
- I have also read problems about wifi laptops, something with the wireless/airport cards and clock speeds?

Running a firewire drive straight off the Firestudio works great, and yes while you are recording you should turn off your wireless sometimes the Firestudio does not like it.

- Does cubase and firestudio work better on PC's or MAC's

I woud say they are the same.

- What are any overall thoughts you have about the firestudio that might be beneficial to others and myself in this case in this financial decision that is a big leap to take for a poor college student.

From what I have seen on the presonus website, I am liking it a lot, and it appears to be the best decision for my price range, but I am wanting to collect as much information I can about it first.

To sum it up in my opinon it is a very good buy, I would do it again in a heartbeat but the final decision is up to you, good luck!

 

[JuicyDbase]

Awesome, thanks for your response. I have a wireless button on my laptop that seems to turn off the wireless card, do you know if this in fact does do that to keep the firestudio from having issues? I think I will search around the internet for another week and then make my decision.

If anybody else has any opinions or advice for me, it will ALWAYS be appreciated.

 

[Carter]

Yeah my laptop that I use besides my desktop has the same button to disable the wireless card and the Fiestudio works just fine.

 

[jabulani jonny]

Juicy,
I've been using a Firestudio coupled with two Digimax FS's since November of '06. Before that I was using a MOTU 896HD, but needed more than 16 inputs for live recording. I researched the crap out of interfaces offering 2 adat inputs and the Firestudio seemed to offer the most bang for the buck. I have not been disappointed.

My current live setup is:
-Dell 9300 PM 1.73ghz, 2gb RAM, 100gb 7200 rpm HD, external 60GB 7200 rpm USB HD
-Firestudio w/ 2 Digimax FS's for 24 inputs
-Art Digital MPA for 2 additional pres run SPDIF into Firestudio

That gives me 26 total tracks of recording.

To me the Firestudio pres are nice and clean with plenty of gain before getting "grainy" and noisy.

The clocking on that unit was reworked from the Firepod and is said to be a major step up. Honestly, I'm not sure my ears would hear the clocking improvements, but I trust what's been said by those with better ears and they rave about the new clocking of the Firestudio.

The routing capabilities of the unit are mind-blowing. It can be a little overwhelming at first, but the configuration is extrememly powerful. Not to mention that the Direct Outs on the Firestudio and the Digimaxes are pre-converter and the units have flash memory so you can run them in stand-alone mode. Which for me means, that I can run 24 direct outs to another hard-disk recorder for backup without having to worry about what would happen if the computer locked up during recording. Mind you, I haven't had to test this yet, but that's the way it's supposed to run.

For the money spent on a Firestudio I think you would be hard-pressed to find another interface that has the quality and options that it has. It has run flawlessly on my system and has provided quality recordings. I have recorded 26 tracks simultaneously for over an hour with no hiccups or glitches.

I love this setup and it has cured me from the up-grade-itis that I suffered before this purchase. Well worth the money IMHO.

 

[JuicyDbase]

I appreciate all your posts guys. I had come to a decision about a week ago and ordered the firestudio along with a nice pl-8II furman to protect it. Are there noise problems with a firewire 4 to 6 pin cable being 7ft. ? It's a monster cable but I did not know if being that long that it would loose any umph the signal had originally. I agree with you jabulani jonny, the firestudio does have a ton of features for the price. Not to mention the 2 gb software pack that will enable me to have all I need to get a good start. I was looking at motus but they just don't have enouph preamps with a good number of outputs like on the firestudio. Hopefully they made the firewire jacks on the firestudio stronger as I have heard they can become somewhat loose. Also a huge bonus was that I ordered it all from musicians friend and with the purchase of the firestudio you get a free CAD MXL 3000 multi-pattern microphone which sounds like a descent microphone. Now the only lame thing so far is that my firestudio was mistakingly shipped to MA! and so it will be about 4 days longer than planned coming from the other side of the country to california. At least the furman, mic, and firewire cable came to hold me off. Hopefully I won't go insane while waiting patiently by my door 24/7. . . . . . .

 

[jabulani jonny]

FWIW, I haven't noticed any noise from a 6ft FW cable. The FW jacks themselves aren't loose, atleast that I've ever noticed, but I never feel that a 6 pin FW connection is the most sturdy connection, you follow? 6 pin FW never seems to fit as snuggly as a USB connection. That may just be me though.

I think you'll dig the Firestudio. Give it a bit to understand the routing in the control panel though. I don't use the control panel that much anymore, I just save I/O routing presets in Cubase. Good luck!!