In need of some relatively quick help (interface/fw/toslink question)

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santarsieri

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Hi,

I would like to upgrade my audio interface. I currently run a Presonus Firepod via firewire 400 into a 2.16GHz Macbook Pro with 2GB RAM and Logic 8 and I record onto a G-Tech GDrive Q 500GB via firewire 800. At the moment my firepod is being auctioned on ebay and I am having second thoughts about selling it, but the auction ends in 3 days, so I need quick advice to decide whether to sell it or cancel the auction.

I would like to buy the Mackie Onyx 800R. However, there is no firewire compatibility. It's outputs are as follows: a pair of Toslink optical ports using the ADAT lightpipe digital audio format, a 25-pin D-Sub connector, and another 25-pin D-Sub socket for AES-EBU or S/PDIF output.

The Macbook Pro does have an optical in, but I am unsure to how good this is and how this compares to firewire 400.

So my questions are: Would I be able to connect the 800R to my macbook pro and would it be recognised in Logic? How good is the optical connection in comparison to firewire? I would like to do live recording, so would I be able to record and also route the signal via Logic to the AES/EBU outputs at the same time?

Basically do you think this is a sensible upgrade, or is there anything similar that you could recommend? I have done a lot of research on the topic and am aware of the other interfaces, but am here for opinions rather than links.

Thank you for any advice you can give
 
Last edited:
santarsieri said:
I would like to buy the Mackie Onyx 800R. However, there is no firewire compatibility. It's outputs are as follows: a pair of Toslink optical ports using the ADAT lightpipe digital audio format, a 25-pin D-Sub connector, and another 25-pin D-Sub socket for AES-EBU or S/PDIF output.

The Macbook Pro does have an optical in, but I am unsure to how good this is and how this compares to firewire 400.
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Won't work. The optical connection on the MacBook is optical S/PDIF, the Onyx supports only optical ADAT. The protocols aren't compatible. As far as I can determine, the Onyx only supports S/PDIF through a coaxial (copper) connection, which the MacBook doesn't support. Besides, you'd only have two channels of input that way, since S/PDIF only carries a stereo stream.

Also, optical connections are unidirectional. There's no way to make the 800R output anything on the AES/EBU or S/PDIF outputs except for the output of its built-in mixer, which just allows you to create a two-channel mix from the eight inputs.

If you're going to replace the FIREPOD, you need to either replace it with a FireWire-capable mixer or a MOTU 8Pre or something else FireWire-based. The digital features of the 800R wouldn't be useful for you at all unless you hook it up to an interface that supports ADAT lightpipe (e.g. the MOTU 8Pre).

The Onyx 800R is way overpriced for what little it does.

What don't you like about the FIREPOD? That will give us a better idea of what would work better for you.
 
Hi, thanks for the reply.

I'm just looking to get a better piece of kit thats a step up from the Firepod, but offers the same functions with some higher end mic pre's in that I can use for live sound, live recording and normal recording situations. However I like the portability of a 1U unit like the Firepod.

I didn't think that the optical connections would be compatible, it was a bit of a shot in the dark. It's a shame because Mackie do a 400F (4 onyx mic pres + 4 line ins) and a 1200F (12 mic pres) which are both firewire (hence the F), but they only do an 800R.

I have been looking at the MOTU range and they are nice, I considered an 8Pre when buying the Firepod, but chose the Firepod because of its connections at the back (mainly the outputs for use in the live sound environment).

The Mackie 400F is very similar to the Firepod, and I presume that the mic pres would be better quality, but in order to get 8 I would need to get two of them. Price wise thats not so bad as I can find them for £350 each, so two of them would be within my £700-£800 budget. This does mean lugging two of them around though and I don't think I'm prepared to do that. The 1200F is out of this price range and is a 2U unit, so the problem is similar there.

Any guidance is appreciated, thanks again
 
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