I have read some mixed things about the reliability of the Presonus Firepod, but it seems to be a great deal of bang for the buck. Can anybody offer recent feedback on the Firepod, since it appears that most reliablity problems were experienced when it first came to market last year.
Can't speak to the Firepod, no experience with it. However, one day I was at GC, and just for fun, I wanted to try the Presonus box that was designed to serve as the main control center for a DAW, because for a fleeting moment, I was thinking of doing everything in the computer. They couldn't get it to work; half the switches wouldn't engage; the thing felt as cheesy and flimsy as anything I've fiddled with. Yeah, it's cheap, and yeah, there's a reason why. Incidentally, I stuck with my 64 input, 16 buss, analog board, and you know what, I am really glad I did.
PreSonus ships out untested crap that if it works at all, you're lucky. Sometimes when it DOES work it sounds pretty good. "Bang for the buck" is meaningless when the stupid thing becomes as useless as a doorstop one month out of warranty.
There were some insightful posts about the Firepod and other interfaces Presonus offers on the Cakewalk Sonar Forum. I don't have an exact link for you but if you search the first 4 pages over there, you will likely find the thread(s) in less than 5 minutes. Evidently, the unit is good and sounds good but there are issues with the hardware and software working together.Kind of vague I know but the details are on the recent thread I am thinking of
Thanks, I actually found that link and did a bunch of other research. Mixed reports. There have been some early problems and issues, but several users have been really happy. Lots of features for the price. I now have picked up one that we are going to try out....I can return if it is a problem.
We have our Firepod up and running. We originally took an "open box" unit home, and it would not boot up. We returned it for a fresh one, which seems fine. The customer service by phone was very cooperative and helpful The unit seems pretty cool so far. My son's band will be practicing at our place later today, so it will be the first real attempt at using the Firepod in band setting. My son is snow so damn anal about his recorded drum tone. He is really jonesing for new mics. It never ends.
I have one of those flimsy boxes. (Central Station) It's average at best. Same ADA as the Masterlink and a bunch of other prosumer gear. I have some Presonus pre's and comp's and had a Firestation for a few hours before I discovered the ADAT and analog ins won't work simultaneously. But all had much better build quality compared to the current line. But if you need a box like the Central Station, it's going to be either $500 for the CS or $2800 for the Grace m904, or $7500 for the Manley preamp. Apples to oranges, for sure, but I'm talking features, not quality. For what it's worth, I think Benchmark is primed to bridge the gap. They already have a killer 1/2 rack DAC, just add a few analog ins, a few monitor sends. So, the firepod up and running on the second try, with no issues. 1 out of 2 isn't so good, Presonus.
Spoke with Benchmark last week. The new 2 channel A/D will sell for around $1,700 with a release date in April. Half rack space.
Benchmark has a great rep. I have yet to hear their stuff (knowingly, anyway), but a mastering engineer buddy of mine says it's just like tape.
It is not comparing apples to apples, to compare high priced gear with the Firepod. We paid $525 for the first one as it was the only one left at that time, and was an open box. But, we got the bigger discount with exchange priviledges as an incentive. The second fresh sealed unit which we got upon exchange for the same price works great. If you look at the Firepod content as a firewire connected 24bit-96k recording set up with eight microphone preamplifiers, it sure has a lot of features for price. It came with an LE version of Cubase too. I agree that they have a spotty record at Presonus, but there are a bunch of folks at other recording forums that seem to be doing OK with their Firepods too. The experience with their customer service was good too. I remain wary and I am far from a Presonus rooting section yet--but this has turned out well------so far.
I called them based on a previous comment you made on a post. I'd like to hear it first, but am not clear yet whether I can arrange that with the Co. Gonna follow up later, the customer service rep was vague.
