MOTUnation.com

I am looking for a portable I/O box and was wondering if anyone has any experience with the Presonus firebox. I know on there web site they state that they don't recommend use with DP but I thouht I read that some DP users are using the Firepod.

Dual 1.4 G4
DP 4.52
OSX 10.4.1
24008 mkIII
Tascam DM-24
15" Powerbook G4

:p

Hello

I went ahead and purchase the firebox for my portable set up. Once installed, I was getting serious crackles during playback and recording. I have tried all buffer settings and excluded my thrid party VI's and plug ins, but it still was occurring. Upon contacting presonus, they suggested setting work priority to low. I am currentely on 4.12 and am waiting for my update so I do not know how this will work ...

Thanks

--Bryan--

I recently purchased the Firebox and asked Presonus about the compabibility notice on their website. Here is their reply:

"DP4.52 seems to be ok.  But it still may depend on the version OSX you have installed.

Under any version of OSX Panther, you must set the 'work priority' setting in the Hardware Config to LOW.

Under OSX Tiger, it doesn't seem to matter, audio runs smooth."

I was getting some crackles until I changes the work priority in DP 4.52 to "low". That fixed it. I am using DP 4.52 on a G5 Dual 1.8 / 4 Gigs RAM / OSX 10.3.7.

I like the Firebox so much better than the Mbox I was using. The FB is really well built and while I'm new to Digital Performer, I'm finding that they play nice together. Hope this helps!

Thats good to know man .. I was worried about getting this to work

Is anyone using the Firebox in "bus-powered" mode? I am curious about how well this works with phantom power engaged etc. I'm picking up a powerbook this summer and I am looking for a portable firewire interface for field recording in a field.

The Traveler looks sweet but I won't have the cash for that one.

Jeff

<small>[ May 24, 2005, 08:35 AM: Message edited by: Skycave ]</small>

Thanks for all the input I think I am going to go ahead and get the firebox I have heard a lot of positive remarks on it. Thanks again....

You could also consider the Motu Traveller.
(I would at least )

You would likely be less prone to run into the stated problems,
that may occur with the Presonus Firebox.

I was considering the first incarnation of Presonus FB,
but I went for the Motu 828 instead.
I havent regretted that decision.

Cheers: Dixiechicken

Yeah I've been considering the Traveler. I don't really need that many ins and outs for a mobile rig, but after reading the review on the Traveler in the most recent Sound on Sound, I'm reconsidering my decision. SOS stated that the only con to the Traveler was there was no con's. Pretty impresive!

It's very likely that once you have more ins_outs handy,
you'll find uses for them.

I use at least 6 inputs regularly in my modest setup.
(on my 828)
Audio 1&2 for my POD-II or condenser mics
Audio 3&4 for my Proteus-2000
Audio 5&6 for my Kurzweil-2000

I usually have two Aux-tracks enabled for monitoring
Audio outputs 3,4,5 & 6.
(the 828 Mk-I doesnt have the cue-mix feature of the Traveller)

Cheers: Dixiechicken

just setting the hardware work priority to low got rid of all the cracks.

thanks

I would HIGHLY reccommend the Focusrite Saffire. It has very good sounding preamps and works great with DP.

i have 3 fireboxes on 3 different rigs and they work great!

small, rugged, well built and reliable.

For $250 how can you go wrong?

I got a Firebox and had quite a bit of trouble getting it to run smoothly.

First, you will need to run the Firebox Mixer to get your outboard MIDI devices to work.

Second, the crackle and pop is bad unless you set Priority to "Low".

Third (and by far the worst), I have some real slowing down of my iMac G5 when the Firebox is plugged into the firewire port. Can't find any reason, and have not been able to isolate any common threads: but almost every application I run (including the Finder) becomes jerky and slow.

Example: while converting an MP3 the other day to AAC format, I noticed it was converting at around 11 times speed. Thought this looked slow ... so, I unplugged the Firebox ... and it jumped to 26 times.

Hmmm ...

Also, I've had to use the Firebox Control to increase my Mic inputs by +12db so that I can get a decent level on recording.

Sounds okay, looks okay, the Phantom works fine, latency seems negligible ... but it does hamper my iMac's performance.

The little Edirol UA-20 (USB powered) did none of these things. In fact, it worked great. It's only problem was that I can't record 4 sources at once with it.

Not as happy as I'd like to be, I'm afraid ... tho' I'd be happy to admit that I might have done something very stupid: but don't count on the Presonus techs to help ... the guy who (eventually) answered my polite and detailed emails finally just said there was nothing more he could do for me. I really think he wasn't happy trying to help.

If others are getting it work fine, then I guess I'm at fault here ... but I ain't got a clue why, and Presonus won't help anymore.



iMac 20" 1.8 GHz G5
1.5 GB SDRAM
DP 5
OSX 10.4.6

... (kidding about the DP 5 ... 4.6.1)

Here's what they told me when I asked them about the conflicting info on their site regarding DP:

Hello,

Our products are integrated into the OSX core audio system and will work with any OSX core audio compliant software. Any functionality and performance is entirely up to your computer and the software you use.

We only had some minor audio playback issues with early version of DP running OSX Panther 10.3.x

DP4.52 and up running OSX Tiger is fine.


Butch Richard
Technical Support Manager

I'm looking at Firebox, M-Audio Firewire 410, and on the USB side the Edirol UA-25 and Lexicon Omega. Each of these have pluses and minuses to me (and I understand the whole Firewire and USB debate). Are there any USB 2.0 interfaces out there to think about?

As indicated below changing the work priority to 'low' greatly improves audio quality when using the Firepod with DP. This is true of every version of DP from 4.0 - 5.01, didn't test with previous versions. I was on the verge of throwing away my Firepod in disgust until I discovered this. It's quite strange, every other piece of software I have ever used has not exhibited this behaviour with the Firepod which has proven to be a high quality and useful interface in every other respect.