Firepod=great sounding recordings!
Written: May 29 '05 (Updated Jun 20 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Super Clean Sound, Value for the dollar
Cons: Inputs on front
The Bottom Line: The Presonus Firepod is simply a tremendous firewire recording solution! You will not be disappointed.
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| rootk's Full Review: PreSonus FIREPOD Audio Input |
UPDATE - June 20, 2005
If you are curious as to what is possible with this unit. There is a 30 second audio clip available online, it's part of a song I'm working on. Here's how I got the sounds for those of you who are gearheads out there:
Clean Rhythm = Fender Am Std Strat -> Carvin Legacy 1/2 stack -> 2 SM 57's -> Firepod -> Cubase LE
Dirty Rhythm = Ibanez Jem -> Mesa Boogie Triaxis -> Firepod -> Cubase
Lead 1 and 2 = Ibanez Jem -> Boss DS-1 -> Triaxis -> G Force -> Firepod -> Cubase
Drums = DrumKAT -> Alesis D4 -> Firepod -> Cubase
You can paste the link below to listen to a short clip of someone actually using this equipment.... and I'm an amateur at all this: www.kyleroot.com/blog/theshannafersong.mp3
Background
I strictly make music as a hobby and for fun. It started in high school when my parents bought me a Yamaha MTI20 4 track tape recorder. In college, I moved up to an Alesis ADAT LX20 (8 tracks) and used it for many years. I am now 30 years old, and made the jump to computer-based recording in January 2005.
Researching
I did a great amount of research and compared devices from Mark Of The Unicorn (MOTU), Digidesign, Tascam, and several others. The amount of choices/interfaces is somewhat overwhelming. Then one day I noticed Musician’s Friend was giving away a free condenser microphone and firewire hard drive with each Firepod purchase. That pushed me over the edge, and I bought one immediately. With such a spectacular combo of freebies, they were out of stock, and I had to wait about a month before it shipped out, but it has been definitely worth the wait.
One risky thing in regards to this purchase was, I based my entire decision solely on what others were saying. I never tried one out, or saw one myself before I bought it. This is because, I live in a fairly small town (60,000 people), and no one around here (Nashville/Birmingham being the closest at 1.5 hours) carried it, and even if they did, the couldn’t match the online price. [more on that in a minute] I purchased it from Musician’s Friend online, and they have a fairly liberal return and exchange policy, so I was not overly concerned. But, I would not make this mode of purchasing a standard way of operating. You should always go check out this kind of stuff before you buy it to make sure it is what you think it is.
Arrival Of The Unit
When my Firepod finally arrived, the hookups were very simple. One power supply, one firewire cable. You can not beat that! You must follow the installation instructions carefully in order to make everything sync up properly. The manual is fairly well written from that aspect and set up is a breeze. There are some grammar and English mistakes in there though as I recall.
Overall the unit is very well constructed. The silver matte finish is attractive and it looks like a serious piece of gear. The blue knobs for channel gain and master and cue levels match nicely with the silver. When you turn the knobs, they feel “solid” and “not cheap” if you know what I mean. There are –indents-, so when you turn the knobs, you have some idea of how many notches your cranking things up.
What You Get
We are talking about a complete recording studio in a box. The main features are:
- Up to 96k sampling rate
- 8 discrete microphone preamps (+60dB gain) with trim control
- 8 analog mic/line inputs, 2 instrument inputs
- 8 analog line outputs
- S/PDIF digital input and output, MIDI input and output
- Balanced send/return for channels 1 and 2
- Zero latency monitoring
- Separate main and cue mix outputs
- Cubase LE audio production software included
The Firepod is a 10-input device, but 2 of those are SPDIF (Digital In’s). At this point, I don’t have anything that interfaces that way. The remaining 8 inputs are Neutrik combo connectors, meaning you can connect either a standard 1/4" phone plug OR standard XLR cable using the same input. That is incredibly handy.
There are main mix outputs and cue mix outputs on the back, and a headphone jack for monitoring on the front.
Another nice feature is 48V phantom power is supplied to channels 1-4, and 5-8. You can use any combination of condenser and dynamic microphones you wish. Channels 1 and 2 have High Impedance (Hi-Z) jacks on the rear for plugging in guitars and basses directly to the unit. Those channels also have send/return jacks for inserting an effects device into the channel, but I haven’t tried that yet.
The Firepod comes with Steinberg’s entry level recording package Cubase LE. For basic recording purposes it works great, and I’ve recorded 8 tracks at one time with no problems. The maximum you can record with LE is 48. The most I’ve done so far is around 12. You get a few simple fx plug-ins which are decent, but you’ll have to spend cash to get the good stuff.
Computer Requirements
I am running an older Dell 8200 (2.2 Ghz w/ 512 MB RAM and about 500GB storage) The reason I chose a firewire recording interface, was because I had a 3-port firewire card installed. These days, all computers come with 1394/USB2 so that will throw another category for you to look at.
My computer works fine, but when you start using plug-ins (reverbs, compressors, special effects etc) you can tell it slows down a little. I know more RAM would help that, but I haven’t upgraded yet.
Cable Management
One thing you’ll want to consider is, exactly where you place the unit in relation to your computer/desk set up. Since all 8 inputs are on the front, you’re likely to have (as I did) 25 foot cables running everywhere. Think ergonomics and efficiency when deciding where to rack mount your unit. I had to move mine towards one end of my “L-shaped” workstation in order to help with the cable management.
Conclusion
Having used the Firepod for nearly 5 months now, the audio quality is simply astounding. The 8 microphone preamps are super quiet and there is no coloration of the sound. (You’ll definitely want to monitor using high quality monitors though for mixing). The included software is powerful enough for the casual user, while true enthusiasts will definitely want to spend the cash and upgrade to Cubase SX3 ($600), or even Nuendo 3. ($2,000).
Every time I do a project, the Firepod amazes me with it’s sonic clarity and ease of use. For anyone looking to produce high quality demos, in this price range you simply can not surpass the quality and convenience provided by the Firepod. Get one today!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
rootk
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Member: Java Boo Boo
Location: Decatur, Alabama
Reviews written: 83
Trusted by: 23 members
About Me:
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