Is the Firepod a good purchase?

[acdctom92]

I've been getting my small rig together slowly, and I'm on to the interface now. I have always been thinking about getting a presonus firepod, but are there any better ones with the onboard preamps?

[warhead]

There is always better. Having said that, you won't find better for the money methinks. The new lite version of the Firestudio for $499 would be a better buy though, not even sure it's shipping yet but I saw it at AES today (I think it is shipping this week). It's a non-ADAT version and has great internal mixing software for multiple headphone mixes etc and is a current (new) product.

The Firepod has been discontinued, although I think there are still some for $399.

War

[Acoustic Cloud]

The onboard pres in the Firepod are actually quite usable also, In my opinion.

[Herman Munster]

Short answer, yes. It is now called the FP10. I do agree that the Firestudio project is probably a slightly better buy now, but the FP10 is still a good buy. I don't think you can daisy chain 2 Firestudio projects so if you anticipate needing 16-24 channels then the FP 10 is better. FYI, I still use a Firepod and have gotten great results.

[pjplayer]

i've been using 2 firepods with a pc for a while now and have got decent results. the only reason i would be cautious is if you need more than 1 zero latency headphone mix. personally, i can cope with the 8ish ms of delay i get by routing headphone mixes through nuendo so it's not a problem for me.

[acdctom92]

Can't I just use a headphone amp?

[Herman Munster]

Yes. You can get more than one headphone mix using 2 HP4's for instance. It's not an issue. BTW, we just got our master from post production on our latest church project 95% of which was recorded through a Firepod. The second link below has samples. I hate MP3 audio quality, but you'll get the picture. You can record good records with a Firepod.

[miqer]

good drivers also!

the only thing (was, perhaps it's fixed) that you had to quit your audio-application before switching Khz... so if you switch (the driver) while say cubase is on, things start to go weird. So if you need to switch a lot between say 44 and 48, than perhaps it's an issue. Perhaps it's fixed in the new version...

For the rest: really smooth!

Fireface is even nicer... :)


m.

[pjplayer]

Originally Posted by acdctom92

Can't I just use a headphone amp?

Yes. You can get more than one headphone mix using 2 HP4's for instance. It's not an issue.

that's not quite true. while you can split the same zero-latency headphone mix using a headphone amp, there is still only one of them. so if the drummer wants more bass in their cans but the singer wants less bass in their cans (and they're recording at the same time) then you're stuck. even if they're not recording at the same time, it can sometimes disrupt the flow of a session if you have to keep changing the headphone mix.

having said that, i wouldn't call it a big issue, depending on the type of sessions you do. it's just something to keep in mind.

[richardpyra]

^
Can't you just get a mic-amp with EQs on it?

[AllAboutTone]

Ive been wanting to step up to the computer based world and get away from the stand alone recorders, im using the Firepods with Cubase 4, so far great results, altho i have not tried the preamp in them yet.

[bwaudio]

My firepod experience has been great for the past couple of years. Only minor problems...but I think most of them have to do with my computer and cubase le.

I'd say get the new presonus firepod equivilent and upgrade to the newest cubase or another program.

_______________

Rich
Black and White Audio - Toronto's Recording Studio

[Herman Munster]

Make sure and read the other post here in which Rick from Presonus addresses the differences in the Firepod and Firestudio Project. I'm a please Firepod owner, but will likely get a Firestudio soon. If I were purchasing new, I'd save up an extra $200 and get the Firestudio...

[AllAboutTone]

Originally Posted by Acoustic Cloud

The onboard pres in the Firepod are actually quite usable also, In my opinion.

What preamp on the market would the Firepod sound close to ?

[ricknaqvi]

As far as our products are concerned, the Firepod/Firestudio preamps are closest to the Digimax line of preamps (don't know if you have ever heard any of those, but that's the closest sound to a Firepod from our product line). The preamps are electronically balanced, Class A; very fast response time and have about 55dB of gain. They are fairly uncolored sounding, which is not a bad thing when you have eight channels. Many people like the way they sound on drums. You can probably find many samples on this forum of recordings done with the Firepod.

Here's a few I found that you can check out:
Oppressé _ Tune from a french rock band called Erok !
Demo done on Firepod Pres and an RNC
Firepod band
Firepod band
My Attempt at Townes Van Zandt's Nothin'

[Bleek]

Rick,

I understand this question may be a bit off track but are the pre's in the mp20 much of a step up from the pre's in the firepod?
I am looking for an external 2 (higher quality) channels of pre for my firepod. Thanks!

[ricknaqvi]

The MP20 uses a transformer balanced input whereas the Firepod's preamp is electronically balanced/class A. The transformer adds a slight amount of coloration and the preamp in the MP20 also has a bit better gain and dynamic range. On of the cool things about the MP20 is that the opamps are socketed so you can try different ones for different sounds. Many people also have swapped the transformer to get different flavors. Both Jensen and Cinemag make drop in replacements.

If you contact Chad Kelly at cdkelly@presonus.com, he'll have a lot more info about the different transformer/op amp combinations. Also, you can search this board because many people have done the same thing.

Lastly, if you want compression and eq, the Eureka uses the same transformer balanced preamp as the MP20. If you get the digital card, you can use it in the SPDIF input of your Firepod without having to eat up analog inputs.

Here's an artist that I just finished a CD for that used the MP20 on drums:
MySpace.com - Kevin Smith - LAFAYETTE, Louisiana - Folk Rock / Alternative / Christian - www.myspace.com/kevinsmithmusic

[AllAboutTone]

I tried the preamps in the Firepod and they were just ok, nothing special to me, I would rather use my API and other pres by far, but as far the Firepods for non preamps they seem to be killer, all good hear.

[acdctom92]

So I decided I am getting the Firepod. It makes most sense, and is perfect for what I plan on doing. My only issue is I ran into the FP10 the other day. For 100$ more is it that big of a difference? I will be running Steinberg Nuendo 3 as a DAW.

[strat+ac30]

Firepod = FP10. Same box, different name (some sort of copyright infringement IIRC). So definitely go for the cheaper one.

FYI I had a Firepod (just sold it) that served its' purpose VERY well. Very solid little box.

The Firestudio Project sounded better (same preamps, different converters) but I had compatibility issues and had to return it. Between the better converters and the onboard DSP chip for latency-free mixes, I'd go with that assuming you can get the drivers to work (which was never a problem with the Firepod).

I replaced my Firepod with a Fireface800 which is better in just about every way, but at $1500 vs. $400 it better be.

[acdctom92]

Thank you,
Tom.