Recommendations Wanted for Audio Interface

  • Thread starter Thread starter gvdv
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gvdv

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Hi,
I am looking for recommendations for an audio interface to replace the Presonus Firestudio 26x26 (8 mic. pres) that I have been trying to use with my Mac Pro for the past 4 years.

I say "trying" because at times the Firestudio will work for a couple of weeks at a time, and at other times it will either stop working totally, or problems such as being unable to hear effects while monitoring will occur.

About a month ago I began a period of intensive recording, and then two weeks ago I began experiencing all kinds of problems with the Firestudio. Again.

I have spent a total of 3 days (luckily I'm on holiday) trouble-shooting with the Tech. Support people for the Mac, and at Presonus, and while each of those experiences was very pleasant, the problems persist - even after erasing my hard drive, re-installing OS X, and downloading and re-installing the Firestudio's driver. (This is the fourth reinstallation of OS X that I have done in the last 8 or 9 months).

So, I am now ready to acknowledge that the Presonus will not work consistently with my Mac, and I am beginning the process of looking around for another candidate.

My DAW Set-up is:
- OS X (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
- Mac Pro Dual Core Intel Xeon processors (i.e. 2 x 2.66 GHz / 4 cores)
- 5 GB RAM (667MHz DDR2 fully-buffered FB-DIMM ECC)
- 1 TB HD space (total of 4 Seagate Barracuda hard drives)
- 4MB shared L2 cache per processor
- 1.33GHz dual independent frontside buses
- NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT graphics with 256MB memory
- Kernel Version 10.8.0
- Boot Rom Version MP11.005c.B08
- SMC Version (System) 1.7 F10
- GarageBand ’09 Version 5.1 (398)

My questions about this are:
1. What audio interface would people recommend in the under $1000 range, and also under $600? I would prefer at least 4 XLR inputs
2. Am I likely to get the same kind of performance from USB as from Firewire, or should I focus on Firewire for optimum performance (e.g., efficient data streaming, more simultaneous tracks)?
3. Anything else that people can suggest that I should think about would be helpful

Many thanks,

GVDV.
 
Are you running any other firewire devices along with your interface? This can cause conflicts. Also, it is recommended to run firewire audio devices on a dedicated third-party firewire PCI-e card with a Texas Instruments chipset.

Otherwise, I would look at MOTU, RME, or Focusrite interfaces. Their drivers are known to be more stable.

Cheers :)
 
Mo Facta said:
Are you running any other firewire devices along with your interface? This can cause conflicts. Also, it is recommended to run firewire audio devices on a dedicated third-party firewire PCI-e card with a Texas Instruments chipset.

Otherwise, I would look at MOTU, RME, or Focusrite interfaces. Their drivers are known to be more stable.

Cheers :)
Click to expand...

Hi Mo Facta,
Thanks very much for this.

In answer to your question, I am running no other devices at all, firewire or otherwise, and the only other, non-Mac apps that I have on my Mac are Simply Burns (for burning CD's), Google Chrome, and VLC.

And I didn't have ANY of those apps. for the first three years that I was using the FS with my Mac; so, the whole system/OS has been untouched by anything that could cause conflicts.

Can you say a little bit more about it being recommended to run firewire audio devices on a dedicated third-party firewire PCI-e card with a Texas Instruments chipset? Does this mean that I could run the FS into a PCI-e card (with a Texas Instruments chipset)? And why and how does a PCI-e card help?

I must admit that I am really frustrated at this stage - some people do appear to have problems with the same set-up that I have, but others don't.

And while the Presonus Tech. Support people - while they have been fantastic when I have been able to get through to them (friendly and helpful and thorough) - have ultimately been unable to help.

I have a theory that the driver is badly written/unstable/incompatible with my Mac. I have tried to find out whether the chipset might be causing some problems, but have not heard anything so far that would suggest that.

Thanks, once again, for the help,
GVDV.
 
"I have been trying to use with my Mac Pro for the past 4 years.
So, I am now ready to acknowledge that the Presonus will not work consistently...."


You don't give up easily, do you? :)
 
Presonus, IMO, is complete junk. I used a Firestudio in the interim of an upgrade at our studio (for the ADAT ports) and it gave me nothing but hassles. One bug I found was that the audio would drop out even though there was still level reflecting on the meters in both the DAW mixer and the Presonus mixer. After weeks and weeks of frustration I found the remedy to be to merely move the fader of one of the output buses the DAW was using in the Presonus mixer. Their drivers are finicky too and we had major problems even getting the interface to work because of firmware, etc. Another thing that bothered me was that in an attempt to calibrate an Apogee AD8000 to the presonus (the presonus can not be calibrated) I found the input calibration of 0VU/-18dBfs to be up to 1.5 dB off either way. I had to make adjustments in the software mixer to make up for it. Not cool. I guess I could have gotten a faulty unit but I have never experienced that with any other interface so I blame Presonus.

In regards to the Texas Instruments firewire PCI-e card, they are generally regarded as being the best specimens for use with firewire audio devices. This is because many motherboards are not really compatible with many firewire audio devices and this is the root of the conflicts. However, this is not always consistent either because the bottom line is a question of overall compatibility between your motherboard, the firewire chipset, and your interface. For instance, the best choice for the Focusrite Saffire Pro 26 is the Via VT6306 VIA Fire II chipset. So it can be a can of worms for sure. The Texas Instruments chipset, in my experience, seems to be the most commmon.

In a quick google search, I came across this Presonus PDF regarding their hardware recommendations for their interfaces:

http://www.presonus.com/media/pdf/hardware_compatibility.pdf

Check it out to see if you have any hardware conflicts. If Presonus tech support hasn't told you any of this I am not impressed further with their company.

Hope that helps.

Cheers :)
 
Drone_21042 said:
"I have been trying to use with my Mac Pro for the past 4 years.
So, I am now ready to acknowledge that the Presonus will not work consistently...."


You don't give up easily, do you? :)
Click to expand...

No, I don't! :)

When I find something I like, I try to make it work (it's partly a functional thing, too, as this means that I am having to do the 'research' process for an audio interface all over again, and I hate that time that it takes to do that).

I really like the sound of the Firestudio's preamps, and also the fact that there is a lot more in/out flexibility than on any units in its price range, and some more expensive units.

GVDV.
 
Mo Facta said:
Presonus, IMO, is complete junk. I used a Firestudio in the interim of an upgrade at our studio (for the ADAT ports) and it gave me nothing but hassles. One bug I found was that the audio would drop out even though there was still level reflecting on the meters in both the DAW mixer and the Presonus mixer. After weeks and weeks of frustration I found the remedy to be to merely move the fader of one of the output buses the DAW was using in the Presonus mixer. Their drivers are finicky too and we had major problems even getting the interface to work because of firmware, etc. Another thing that bothered me was that in an attempt to calibrate an Apogee AD8000 to the presonus (the presonus can not be calibrated) I found the input calibration of 0VU/-18dBfs to be up to 1.5 dB off either way. I had to make adjustments in the software mixer to make up for it. Not cool. I guess I could have gotten a faulty unit but I have never experienced that with any other interface so I blame Presonus.

In regards to the Texas Instruments firewire PCI-e card, they are generally regarded as being the best specimens for use with firewire audio devices. This is because many motherboards are not really compatible with many firewire audio devices and this is the root of the conflicts. However, this is not always consistent either because the bottom line is a question of overall compatibility between your motherboard, the firewire chipset, and your interface. For instance, the best choice for the Focusrite Saffire Pro 26 is the Via VT6306 VIA Fire II chipset. So it can be a can of worms for sure. The Texas Instruments chipset, in my experience, seems to be the most commmon.

In a quick google search, I came across this Presonus PDF regarding their hardware recommendations for their interfaces:

http://www.presonus.com/media/pdf/hardware_compatibility.pdf

Check it out to see if you have any hardware conflicts. If Presonus tech support hasn't told you any of this I am not impressed further with their company.

Hope that helps.

Cheers :)
Click to expand...

Hi Mo Facta,
Many thanks for such a comprehensive reply.

And I'm sorry to hear about all the problems that you had with your Firestudio (it sounds like it was a different model than mine, because mine does not have meters).

I have had similar problems to the ones that you had, and other problems with the Firestudio, too. It will work fine for weeks, and then, blam, all kinds of problems.

Thanks so much for sending the link to the chipset .PDF (no conflicts with my system, although I'm not sure that my chipset was on the 'approved' list) - I was looking at that the other day, actually, and despite having had some good help from Presonus Tech. Support, I had to find that on my own.

I have found that the 'down' side of their tech. support is - as in this example - there are some things that they don't think of or suggest, but that the 'up' side is that they have considered and reacted positively/proactively to suggestions that I have made.

An example of that is that today I suggested that they arrange for my Firestudio to be checked/serviced, and the tech. support guy is in the process of checking to see whether they will do that (i.e., pay for the unit to be shipped and serviced to the repair people here in Canada). At least if that happens, and the Firestudio is given the O.K., and I can't get it working again, I'll know that I can sell it in good faith, because these units do work for some people.

If they don't accept this arrangement for a unit which has never worked consistently, I will not be pleased.

By the way, my cousin in the U.K. runs an older, more basic Mac with a Tapco.link USB audio interface (made by Mackie). I have read some bad reviews of that unit, but he has had it working fine for years - no problems with streaming or anything. So, I think that I might even 'downgrade' to that kind of thing (I like the results that he produces - uses the same mic. and DAW as I do), and at the price that that unit sells for (if it is still available), I couldn't really go wrong.

Of course, there is the possibility that, for some reason, there is a problem with my Mac, but I can't imagine how or why that would be.

Thanks for your message, once again,
GVDV.
 
arcadeko said:
For under $600 the Alesis Multimix 16 USB 2.0 is a great interface with 8 XLR inputs/preamps and 16x16 USB 2.0 recording. Mackie and Tascam also make some great gear in that price range.
Click to expand...
Hi arcadeko,
Thanks very much for this - I hadn't heard of the Alesis Multimix 16 USB, so will take a look.

In the meantime, I realized that my Zoom R 16, which I use for mobile recording, is also a USB Audio Interface. I got it working a bit this evening after a hiccough or two, and tested out it's recording capabilities in a very limited way, but will be recording with it more extensively tomorrow if I can because the Zoom is cutting out - sometimes the computer and Zoom can connect with one another, sometimes not, and when a connection is made, GarageBand does not often play me the effect I have assigned (it just returns a flat signal, although it records and plays back the effect).

Something wrong with the driver, maybe or the Mac Pro (can't really understand that)?

I will talk with the Mac people again (8 hours and counting over the last week and a half).

GV.

Thanks, once again, for your suggestions.
GVDV.
 
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