Which add-on should I buy?

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darrvid

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Ok, so I really have read and read about different interface/soundcard options. But I would like to hear what anyone has to say when it comes down to my exact setup specifically. I've narrowed down my choices to four products. I'm using a laptop, pod 2.0, guitar, and a roland fantom-x (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=key/search/detail/base_pid/700397/). Ok, so the fantom-x is actually a friends so I won't always have access to it, but its the keyboard I'll be using to lay down additional tracks, and make loops etc. Anyway, my basic needs are to just lay down 2 tracks at once. A friend and me jamming. So here's the products I'm thinking about.

PreSonus Inspire 1394 FireWire Audio Interface

MAudio Firewire Audiophile 2496 Audio Interface

Behringer FCA202 F-Control Audio FireWire Interface

MobilePre USB

So the PreSonus is *really* stretching my budget, since for any firewire card I'll need to also buy a pcmia firewire card to my laptop. Considering my needs, whats going to get me the most bang for my buck? The MobilePre is tempting, since I only need 2 tracks at once and won't have to buy a firewire card. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Oh yeah, I realized one thing I don't like about the mobilepre... it doesn't have midi support which while not really needed would be nice for the pod. I'd only use it for tone transfers though, which I can do on my desktop.
 
Well, look at it this way:
Behringer: Very new product which nobody has used, and given the name, could be good, could really suck hard. It also doesn't have preamps, so you would need an external micpre or mixer to run vocal mics if you need VOX. $80 makes this thing pretty cheap, and I suppose you could couple it with a cheap behri mixer and be good to go, but once again, you're running a risk in my opinion. As far as I know, you can only run one of these units in a machine, not sure though. Also does not have MIDI.

M-Audio Firewire Audiophile: Pretty good product from what I've heard, but once again, no pres, and only 2 UNBALANCED, analog ins. Also this is not expandable, but does have MIDI and SPDIF I/O, so you could go to 4 channels later on.

MobilePre: Has 2 preamps, so you wouldn't need externals or a mixer necessarily. It doesn't have MIDI, and it's big downfall IMO is that it only does 16bit, 48Khz recording (the others do 24bit 96Khz).

Inspire: Is only about $50 more than the mobile pre. You get 4 analog ins (including 2 Presonus Preamps), and is expandable up to 4 units, should you ever have a need for more inputs in the future. Like the MobilePre and FCA, it does not have MIDI, but you can get a USB MIDI interface for dirt cheap if you absolutely need one.

Given the history of the Presonus stuff (with the Firepod and the Firebox), I would probably go with the Inspire myself. If it's even half as good as the Firepod or Firebox, you're going to get a great interface, and solid driver support. It is a little more money, but I feel that it is a better quality piece of gear as well, also it is expandable out of the box to 4 units, so you could end up with 16 analog channels down the road. Anyways, that's my 2 cents FWIW.
 
thanks cawhite, that was actually extremely helpful. It at the very least totally rules out 2 of those products for me, because I have no interest in buying extra gear to run this (preamps). Also, although I honestly don't know the real difference, I do know balanced ins are preferred.

So, although I'd need to buy a firewire card, I'm getting the benefits of firewire over usb, a higher recording quality, and more inputs with expandibility. So, now that you've pretty much helped me make my decision, I'd just like to make absolutly sure... out of the box, the inspire can record? No additional gear required, correct?

Oh, and I'll do a bit of reading myself, but if someone cares to answer this anyway, how does the inspire handle mics compared to the mobilepre?
 
If I were you, I'd check out this guy. If you're looking to spend a max of $200 + firewire card, this guy at $240 would be about at the top of your budget, but I think you'd get a quality product.

Summary of features:

Solid Aluminum Chassis

24-bit/96kHz recording and playback via USB.

A pair of Neutrix XLR/TRS combo jacks with Phantom power, Hi-Z port for guitar direct connection, S/P DIF optical I/O ports and Midi In/Out ports.

Balanced I/O Ports

Built-in Analog Limiter

Zero Latency, Direct Monitoring

Driver Compatibility (WDM, ASIO 2.0, and CoreAudio)

USB Bus Powered
 
Oh, and does your laptop have USB 1.1 or 2.0? I didn't see a requirement for 2.0 on the Edirol unit. Firewire is technically more stable and preferred to USB, but I wouldn't rule one out over the other with newer drivers and technology.
 
I do have usb 2.0. I'll check that out Yareek. And to answer my own question about the mics, the inspire appears to handle them quite similarly to the mobilepre.
 
EDIT-- Ok, I've decided on the inspire. I'm very new to audio recording, and it appears to be plenty for my needs. So I only have two questions on it. First, it doesn't appear to support Pro Tools, can anyone confirm? (comes with cubase though, and considering i've never used either this is just so I know. I'm sure I'll just use the cubase bundle) Also, this might be stupid, but does this act as a soundcard for just listening to music? If I have it connected to my laptop, can I use it instead of my integrated audio for music playback, through an app like foobar2000?

Thanks again for all the help.



-------------------


After looking around some, I've changed my product choices....

I'm really leaning towards the inspire at this point. I decided against the UA-25 because with USB I think it might limit my expandability options (I can see wanting to record 4+ tracks at once if I want to do band recording). But, the firebox is only $100 more than the inspire. The thing is, I'm not sure I see much that makes me think the extra 100 is worth it for me. 1/4" headphone jack is nice, but not sure its such a big deal. It also appears that the inspire is unbalanced? Anyway, can anyone comment on the sound quality comparisons?

Basically, I'd like to save the extra bucks and put it towards other gear (I don't even own a mic at this point). Would choosing the inspire (which appears to meet all of my current needs and offers expandability) over the firebox be a good place to save some bucks?

Also, I'm new to recording so I don't have a preferred software package. Cubase is supported, but is Pro Tools? It seems to be suspiciously missing from their advertising.
 
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With Pro Tools, you will have to get a DigiDesign interface. The one that you would be looking at would be the MBox, but I think that will run you like $399. How protools works is that you can only use the software with one of their pieces of hardware. You could also run Pro-Tools M-Powered on an M-Audio interface, but to get M-Powered would cost you another $300 or so on top of the interface. I think the Inspire comes with Cubase LE, and it will work with any other multi-track recording software except Pro-Tools, but's that how it is with anything you buy, except the DIGI stuff.

As far as your Firebox vs. Inspire debate. The Inspire is pretty new, so there still aren't alot of user reviews out for it yet. The customer ratings and reviews at www.musiciansfriend.com and www.zzounds.com/a--2676837 all are praising the Inspire, but I usually don't take a ton of stock in those, but still read them. The Firebox on the whole is probably a better unit, but it is also $100 more. The main differences would be that the Firebox adds MIDI and SPDIF, and I've heard that the converters in the Firebox are a bit better as well. I've had a Firepod, and it was a great piece of gear, and the Firebox is it's little brother. The only thing with the Firebox is that you can't chain multiple units yet, but they say that it's coming some time soon, so who knows. Hope this rambling helps out.
 
the rambling helps quite a bit cawhite, much appreciated. I pretty much figured the firebox would be a bit better but I came to realize that its easy to keep saying "but *this* product is just $*** more". Next thing I know I'll end up with a $700 unit that far exceeds anything I need at the moment. So, the inspire seems like the right product for me, and I'm sure will last me through the next few years, and easily longer. The pro tools bit is good to know. Again, I was just curious since its not like I've actually learned any one particular software product. Off topic, but it sounds like pro tools is kinda picky with how its used. It seems like software opinions are very subjective (from what I've read), so why are they so unconcerned with making the product readily usable?

Oh yeah, a usb midi interface was mentioned. Any links to such a product? I did a quick search, but didn't find what I was expecting.
 
darrvid said:
It seems like software opinions are very subjective (from what I've read), so why are they so unconcerned with making the product readily usable?
Click to expand...

All DAW software essentially does the same thing. It's goal is to allow you to record multiple tracks of audio, mix the audio, add effects processing through plug-ins, and then master it to CD. All of the various software just goes about it a little differently, and they each have slightly different feature sets, though you will notice that they tend to take ideas from one another. I personally use Cakewalk Sonar, because I've been using Cakewalk since Pro Audio 9 years ago, and that's what I am comfortable with. The best bet is to dry out demos and find the one you like (or likes you) the most and never look back. With the Inspire though, you will be getting Cubase LE, so that would probably be a great place to start.

darrvid said:
Oh yeah, a usb midi interface was mentioned. Any links to such a product? I did a quick search, but didn't find what I was expecting.
Click to expand...

Go here:http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/p...prodsearch&cat2=&ob=p19&submit=Filter+Results

Those are a number of USB-MIDI interfaces that would probably work for what you need. You could probably find them cheaper on EBAY as well. Hell, I think I still have one around that I could probably sell to you that I don't use anymore. Anyways, if you're not overly familiar with all of this DAW stuff as well, you'd do yourself some good to also look into some starter sites and books. There was a thread a little bit ago that had some good links on it:https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=180888

I especially like the tweakheads site that's listed in TimOBrian's post which is 3rd down.
 
Thanks cawhite, I was looking on musiciansfriend and couldn't find those. That's exactly what I was hoping to find. So I've gotten everything pretty much figured out at this point. Getting the inspire, usb-midi cable, trying cubase, and getting 'pc recording for dummies'. I did have one question in an earlier post that I'd like to put out again though.

Can the inspire be used as an external sound card when using a program like foobar2000?

cawhite, if you happen to find a midi cable pm me a price (or post here, I just dont know forum rules on that).
 
Foobar 2000 should work fine, since it will be using the WDM drivers of your card. I used to play windows media player stuff through the Firepod, and it worked fine. I pm'ed you by the way about the MIDI stuff.
 
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