MOTU 828MKII or Presonus Firepod?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Echelon
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Echelon

Lights Fish on Fire.
I know that these are both somewhat different, seeing as the 828 only has two preamps and the firepod doesn't have ADAT lightpipe, but what do you guys think? Which would be the best bet as far as quality is concerned? If going with the presonus, I will use those preamps, if going with the 828 i will probably use the focusrite octopre. Don't know if it matters or not, but I use Cubase SX2. Any thoughts are certainly welcome.
 
I made the decision to spend the extra couple hundred to get the 828mkII, mainly due to the decision that it can be used as a stand-alone mixer WITHOUT the computer. The firepod wont do that....
 
yeah, i'm leaning towards the 838mkii as well. I like the firepod, but it seems limiting. The fact that the 828 has 20/22 i/o is pretty sweet. I'm planning on using either the M-Audio octane, onyx800, or digimax LT to bring out the extra 8 channels. Have you used any of the lightpipe channels? In general, what do you think of the quality of the 828?
 
Echelon said:
yeah, i'm leaning towards the 838mkii as well. I like the firepod, but it seems limiting. The fact that the 828 has 20/22 i/o is pretty sweet. I'm planning on using either the M-Audio octane, onyx800, or digimax LT to bring out the extra 8 channels. Have you used any of the lightpipe channels? In general, what do you think of the quality of the 828?
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Actually right now I'm using exclusively the lightpipe channels via a Digimax LT. The lightpipe channels are integrated to work exactly like the onboard channels, so everything is very consistent. I also figured out how to use the Digimax LT as an A/D converter only (bypassing the preamps), so it works great if I'm needing to take a live feed off the insert jacks of a soundboard.

Looking back, I probably would have gotten a different channel strip from the Digimax, but it's doing a decent job. The front panel controls on the 828 are great if you just need to make a quick settings change, but anything more in-depth is best done through the software control (which is excellent, by the way). The 828 is stable, versatile, and pretty easy to work with.
 
Another vote for the 828mkII .... However, my owning one makes me somewhat biased. :cool:
 
TimOBrien said:
I made the decision to spend the extra couple hundred to get the 828mkII, mainly due to the decision that it can be used as a stand-alone mixer WITHOUT the computer. The firepod wont do that....
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Yeah I'm wondering what those 8 line-outs on the back of the firepod are for and how they'd be used
 
Bulls Hit said:
Yeah I'm wondering what those 8 line-outs on the back of the firepod are for and how they'd be used
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Well they could be used for someone who wants to mix down through a console, or for effects sends, or for surround sound downmixing...or anything else you could dream up
 
crankz1 said:
Another vote for the 828mkII .... However, my owning one makes me somewhat biased. :cool:
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Me too.......and I as well. :D
 
sile2001 said:
Well they could be used for someone who wants to mix down through a console, or for effects sends, or for surround sound downmixing...or anything else you could dream up
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Yeah but how does the routing work? The firewire return from the computer is only 2 channel. Are inputs 1 - 8 supposed to router directly to outputs 1 - 8?
 
Bulls Hit said:
Yeah but how does the routing work? The firewire return from the computer is only 2 channel. Are inputs 1 - 8 supposed to router directly to outputs 1 - 8?
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That would depend on the control panel/mixer for the Firepod (if it allows flexible monitoring in that manner).
The 4 stereo busses of the MOTU's CueMix allow you to route whatever inputs to whatever stereo pair of outputs (independently of each bus) for direct monitoring.
Your sequencing software and the Firepod's drivers would dictate as to whether or not you can utilize the other outputs for whatever (i.e. mixing out of the box, AUX sends etc.).
 
Bulls Hit said:
Yeah but how does the routing work? The firewire return from the computer is only 2 channel. Are inputs 1 - 8 supposed to router directly to outputs 1 - 8?
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No, the return is not only 2 channel. The return is actually a whole series of stereo busses, kind of as Crankz said. In addition to all my analog and digital input channels, I have the following output channels from the computer back to the firewire unit (as listed in Sonar):

MOTU Analog 1/2
MOTU Analog 3/4
MOTU Analog 5/6
MOTU Analog 7/8
MOTU SPDIF
MOTU ADAT 1/2
MOTU ADAT 3/4
MOTU ADAT 5/6
MOTU ADAT 7/8

Now the 828 also has 4 internal hardware busses, each of which can have its own mix. Then each of those 4 busses can be assigned to any one of the output pairs listed above.

So without ever involving a computer at all, you could mix inputs 1, 2 and 3 to output to Analog 1/2 (and adjust levels and panning of each input), and then mix inputs 2, 3 and 4 to output to Analog 3/4. It's an extremely flexible digital signal routing system.
 
I'd say the Firepod, but only because I'd have more use for an allinone 8 pre box, as opposed to trucking around a separate pre like the Octane in addition to the 828. Not that the 828 isn't good, it's just not up my alley feature-wise. And there's never going to be a time when I need to record more than 10 at once.
 
sile2001 said:
No, the return is not only 2 channel. The return is actually a whole series of stereo busses, kind of as Crankz said.
Click to expand...

I was actually talking about the firepod, but thanks anyway you're right. I can route any of my tracks or buses to one of those outputs. Cool
 
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