Firepod question

[denovo]

(I tried posting this on the DP forum but there was no response. Maybe this forum would be more appropriate. Thanks.)

Up to this point, I've been recording via DP 2.72 on a B&W G3 with a 2408 MkII on OS 9.2.2

I wanted to try to transition to an OS X/AlBook recording environment. So I recently purchased via Guitar Center's 15 mos. financing program, a brand new Firepod.

The setup is thus; 1.25 Ghz AlBook with 1 GB RAM, DP4.5, OS 10.3.5 and the Firepod. I had a session on Sunday and it was a total disaster. The work priority was set to "High" with a 1X 256 multiplier. DP kept complaining there was lost communication between the 'Pod and/or the disk. We were only recording 5 tracks max simultaneously.

According to my back and forths with Presonus and DP, this setup is not as stable as:

1) DP and MOTU Hardware such as an 828 MkII; or

2) Tiger and DP 4.5 and the Firepod

I'm bummed because I really love the sound of the recordings with the Presonus. Is anyone here using the Firepod with success in multitracking sessions? Am I gonna be forced to return the 'Pod and get a 828 for more $$.

Also do the firewire ports seem less than snug fits with firewire cables?

Any advice?

Thanks

Charles
--------
PB 1.25 Ghz, 1GB RAM, DP 4.5, OS 10.3.5, Stylus RMX, Hydratone/Valvetone plug-ins, Wave Arts Final Plug.

[zruzzo]

presonus firepod want performer 4,5,2, you can read this in the presonus site.
I have a firebox and a 828, the quality of motu is best, but sometime i need a simple setup for liveconcerts and firebox have a good quality.

[BradLyons]

Curious, what hard-drive are you using?

[denovo]

Originally posted by Brad Lyons:
Curious, what hard-drive are you using?

Hey Brad

Sorry the e-mail monitoring thing doesn't seem to be working. Took a while to realize someone replied to this thread.

Ok- I have a Seagate 7200 rpm 160GB in an OWC firewire enclosure.

Thanks

Charles

[macyu]

If the drive is on the FW800 bus, and you want to keep it that way, I found out that the problems go away when you buy a PCMCIA card to add another Firewire bus to the computer and put the Firepod on a separate card than the hard drive. If you don't want to do that, then connect the drive as a FW400 device after the Firepod. That seemed to work ok. In either case, the work priority should be Low, and you should mess with the buffer, starting from the suggested values in the manual, and slowly increasing it. Also, the sample-rate and bit-rate will dramatically affect performance. On a Powerbook, it might be advisable to record at 44.1khz/24bits.