Presonus Firepod (FP10) Audio Interface

[Prages]

Figured I might as well post a review.

Presonus Firepod (FP10):

http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/0/7/5/241075.jpg

http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/0/8/1/241081.jpg



I love everything about this piece of equipment. I have owned one for about 3 years now, I guess and recorded probably over 100 songs on it. I've never had any problems with it.

Now, I'm not so much on specs for electronic equipment, but if you have a fairly fast computer with a 1 GB + of RAM and a large 7200 RPM hard drive, and a Firewire port, then all you need are some mics and a Firepod to make some great sounding recordings.

It's a 10 channel audio interface with 8 mic pres (the jacks are actually combination jacks, so you can plug in an XLR or a 1/4" cable into each jack). It also has two channels of digital inputs. Why do you need all those mic pres? Well, say you want to record acoustic drums. I sometimes use 8 tracks just to mic drums. Having 8 mic pres means I can record each drum on its own track instead of running a stereo sub mix of the drums.

The unit also lets you run a outputs to two devices. I have one set of outputs going to my studio monitors and have the other set running to a 4 channel headphone amp.

Another nice feature is that you can daisy chain up to 3 units together, giving you 24 simultaneous recording track (30 if you count the digital inputs). I've got 2 of them myself, and have them in a rack so I can take them and my laptop to gigs and record our shows. I simply run a couple of 1/4" 8 channel snakes from the inserts of the live mixing board to the inputs of the Firepod, and that gives me each channel from the live mixer on a seperate track for recording.

These things come with Cubase LE recording software, which is fully functional, but doesn't have as many bells and whistles as Cubase SX and the like.

AND, at less than $400 new, they are a GREAT bargain.

[Mark Wein]

You've used this for all of the clips you've posted? That's a great price for all of the functionality....

[Prages]

Yep. Everything I've recorded for the last 3 years or so has been done with the Firepod and either Cubase LE or Cubase SX. I got SX about a year and a half ago.

These songs can all be found here:

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/Songs/

The stuff in the NYE folder is live stuff recorded the way I described.

Here are a bunch of covers:

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/Coverfest/

This is truely a piece of equipment that I if it were stolen I would absolutely replace it.

[Mark Wein]

This is bad.


I am seriously considering getting this for the studio.

[Prages]

This is bad.


I am seriously considering getting this for the studio.


You know what would be great?

You know all those performances your students do? What if you could record those live performances and be able to give them a copy of it...you know, as a learning tool. poke

Seriously though, I think Presonus is discontinuing it and replacing it with the Firestudio, which is basically the same thing, only it costs $499.

I suggest buying two of them. That gives you enough inputs to do a full live band in most situations, even if you use 8 tracks for drums.

Before I got the Firepods, I had a regular Creative Platinum 5.1 soundcard, which SUCKED for recording because of the monitor latency. Then I got a Lexicon Omega, which worked great and sounded great, but only had 2 mic pres and four 1/4" line-ins. You could record 4 tracks at a time. When I got my drums, I needed more inputs, so I got the Firepod for $599. It was worth every penny. When the price dropped to $399, I bought my second one so I could do the live recordings without having the drums all on one track. If I needed 8 more tracks, I'd absolutely buy another one, but 16 is plenty for me.

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/GuitarPics/RecordingRig.jpg

[Mark Wein]

My plan is to have our large classroom wired so that I can do multitrack recordings of classes and recitals here in the studio...I've been putting it off for a while but this would be cheaper than the Protools rig I was planning on. The only thing is that if I have the Protools we can teach Protools classes...can't get people too excited about "Cubase" classes around here...

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l230/markwein/IMG_0433.jpg

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l230/markwein/IMG_0432.jpg

I'll have to ponder this one pretty hard...

[Prages]

I've never actually used ProTools. I've done a couple of sessions where the studio was using ProTools, but I've never actually used it.

That said, the basics of recording are pretty much the same regardless of what platform you're using.

FWIW, the Firepod is Mac compatible too.

[Mark Wein]

Protools has a kind of professional legitimacy here that would allow us to do small demo sessions and teach aspiring engineers the basics of recording. Even the kids that want to be "Rap Producers" want "Protools lessons" and I have people who can teach them but no equipment at the moment.

[jaxn slim]

Ha ha. I just found this thread through Google.

I've been using my Firepod for about 5 years now, and I'm about to get a second one. I'd really like to upgrade to something different, but I really could use the 16 simultanteous tracks, and eBay has them going for $150-200 used.

You still using these, Prages?

[Mark Wein]

I think he is. I had a Firepod Studio that was cool but I needed something with optical IO to work without Digidesign 003+ so I sold it and bought a Presonus Digimax to get the extra mic pre's.

Presonus makes good stuff for home applications.

[Prages]

Yep, I'm still using the dual Firepod setup. I have no complaints at all with them, and have no desire to upgrade to anything else. They do exactly what I need them to do, and having 16 simultaneous tracks is very nice.

[jaxn slim]

Yep, I'm still using the dual Firepod setup. I have no complaints at all with them, and have no desire to upgrade to anything else. They do exactly what I need them to do, and having 16 simultaneous tracks is very nice.

Did you have to sync them with the S/PDIF connection, or do they work with just the firewire? Was it a pretty easy "just plug in and go"?

[Kerouac]

Yep, I'm still using the dual Firepod setup. I have no complaints at all with them, and have no desire to upgrade to anything else. They do exactly what I need them to do, and having 16 simultaneous tracks is very nice.

Every once and awhile I would like to have some more inputs. Unfortunately the Apogee Ensemble is almost $2k, although you can occasionally find them used in the $1300+ range.

[Mark Wein]

Every once and awhile I would like to have some more inputs. Unfortunately the Apogee Ensemble is almost $2k, although you can occasionally find them used in the $1300+ range.


The Digimax is a pretty good deal if you just need a few extra pres for tracking.

[Prages]

Did you have to sync them with the S/PDIF connection, or do they work with just the firewire? Was it a pretty easy "just plug in and go"?


All I had to do was hook a firewire between the units. No synching or anything.

I may have had to install an updated driver so they'd both work, but it wasn't anything more complicated than going to Presonus's site and finding the updated driver and downloading it.

Then, the next time I went into Cubase, I had 20 inputs instead of 10.

[Kerouac]

The Digimax is a pretty good deal if you just need a few extra pres for tracking.

The Duet unfortunately doesn't have any digital I/O. The Ensemble does, which is one more reason it's worth stepping up to eventually.

[Mark Wein]

gotcha

[El Borrachito]

Every argument for non-Pro Tools DAW hardware has "...cheaper than..." in it somewhere.

[Mark Wein]

Every argument for non-Pro Tools DAW hardware has "...cheaper than..." in it somewhere.

That is an issue for a lot of home recordists, though. Even I didn't want to spend another $1200 for the extra 8 inputs at my place because I don't have the right environment to take advantage of it. I'm just happy I have Pro Tools and 16 pres....

[Kerouac]

Every argument for non-Pro Tools DAW hardware has "...cheaper than..." in it somewhere.

Apogee Duet and an M-Box are about the same. :idk:

[Prages]

I make no qualms about the cheaper than argument.

That said, I love my setup. I'm not running a pro studio and have no intention of doing so. I can record some damned good sounding stuff at my place, be it doing all the tracks by myself, or micing up an entire band and recording it.

I have absolutely no use for Pro Tools, and spending thousands more dollars for me to be able to the same thing I can do now is just not something I'm game to do.

It's kind of like a boutique amp. Yeah, I could spend $5000 on a top end amp, but why would I do that when I get exactly the results I want out of my current amps, of which I have 4 that combined cost about $1500?

[jaxn slim]

Sweet. I just ordered a 2nd one on eBay. $200 with shipping. :rawk:

[Prages]

Sweet. I just ordered a 2nd one on eBay. $200 with shipping. :rawk:

I did the audio on these videos with my dual Firepod setup.

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[jaxn slim]

I did the audio on these videos with my dual Firepod setup.


Sweet. You guys sound great. I used to do a lot of live recording with my single Firepod.

My biggest annoyance with them is the lack of consideration for routing options.
1. If you want to route to a compressor or something after the preamp, you only have two channels that allow you to do that.
2. You have no line out options when the unit is synced. :mad:

But it's still a pretty good deal for the price. :o

[Prages]

Sweet. You guys sound great. I used to do a lot of live recording with my single Firepod.

My biggest annoyance with them is the lack of consideration for routing options.
1. If you want to route to a compressor or something after the preamp, you only have two channels that allow you to do that.
2. You have no line out options when the unit is synced. :mad:

But it's still a pretty good deal for the price. :o

What I do is run everything to the live mixing board first, then use a couple of 8 channel 1/4" snakes from the inserts of the live mixer into the Firepods. If you only plug the insert cable 1/2 way into the jack on the live mixer, it lets a signal through to the slider, while still routing it to the insert cable. Then, I'll add any compression or reverb or whatever when I mix it down.

I did one show where I ran to the Firepod first, then out of the track outputs of the Firepod to the live mixer, but I thought it kind of messed with the live sound.

The insert plugged 1/2 way in works well as long as you aren't running anything on the inserts of your live mixer, so if you're using compression live, you probably can't do that. We only put some reverb and/or delay on the vocals when we run live, so it works.

A lot of mixing boards now have dedicated tape sends for each channel. Ours doesn't.

[Prages]

Oh, but doing the insert thing, you have to take into consideration that the first two 1/4" inputs on the Firepod are instrument level instead of line level, so you'll need to turn the gain on those channels way down or they'll clip. I usually just don't use the first two channels, since we only end up with something like 12 tracks for our live mix.