Presonus Firebox Reviews?, Anyone actually use this yet? Options

[bbmozee]

FireBox saga continued.
First of all I must mention that I've been able to use the FireBox (with FireBox Mixer MIX buttons selected) to monitor the SPDIF signals thru the MBox ONLY via ProTools LE 6.7 (perhaps previous versions work too). The Mbox was set to Analog I/O 44.1 kHz. It seems to automatically mirror analog out SPDIF! My ancient SONY DAT SPDIF out almost made it into Logic 7 (before i lost sync when I attempted to change from 41000 to 48 kHz on the fly in Logic to match the DAT).
The saga continues...

[bbmozee]

DAT to FireBox to eMac and Peak a success! Just had to compensate for 16 bit stereo 48kHz SpdifIn clocking. Now if only Logic Pro could do the same!

[GitGeezer]

Regarding my SPDIF problem...

I haven't had time to try the latest Presonus suggestions using Live to record, but my problem was that I was hearing SPDIF input through the Firebox (set to SpdifIn, 16/44100 clock matching the source) monitor output, but it was not available as recordable input to any application. I'm using a Roland VS880 as the SPDIF source. The VS880 has controls for clock speed, so I'll play with those. Glad to hear of success for bbmozee, it bodes well for the rest of us. And congrats to bbmozee on a very creative way to combine inputs from both boxes!

Gitgeezer

[bbmozee]

My experiences mirror GitGeezer's - only with Logic 7 Pro. FireBox monitors inputs fine but they are unavailable for recording. BTW thanks for the props re: MBox-FireBox SPDIF setup - but I've yet to realize 6 simultaneous inputs to record into Logic. I'm still waiting for PreSonus to respond. Otherwise, the FireBox has my full approval.

[GitGeezer]

Sorry to hear about the Logic 7 problem. I am just about to switch to Logic 7, hope it begins to cooperate. One of the big advantages to the Firebox should be the fact that it is "class compliant". This means that no software drivers are required. The bad news is that problems like our SPDIF issue can't be solved with driver updates.

I haven't had a chance to try this yet, but here are the instructions from Presonus for SPDIF:

Jason's connection setup for Live (from email):

First of all you need to go to Applications>Utilities>Audio Midi Setup.

Once you are in there, change the "Properties For" menu to PreSonus FireBox.

Then below that, there is a "Clock Source" menu. Change that menu to PreSonus Firebox Spdifin. 


I'm very familiar with Live 4 so let's speak in terms of that program from here out.

Go into Live's preferences and select the FireBox in both the Input and Output audio devices.

Then, below that, a settings box appears. There's a channel configuration line at the bottom.

Click the input config button and activate all of the choices you are given.

Do the same for the output config.

Close out of the preferences.

In the track that you are recording the spdif into, choose "Ext. in" and then choose "5/6" if you are doing a stereo track, or do them separately to different channels. This should make everything work.

The interesting part is the activation of all inputs and outputs from the Firebox. Could it be that SPDIF is only available on 5/6? No big deal if it works. I have become intrigued with Live 4.1 just when I learned that it is a resource hog on Macs. Oh well...

GitGeezer

[digimusic]

HI PEOPLE, I RECENTLY ASKED A Q ABOUT THE FIRBOX IN THIS THREAT BUT NO ANWSERS CAUSE YOU GUYS TO BUSY WITH SPDIF ETC. ANYWAY I CONTACTED PRESONUS ABOUT THE CPU DRAIN AND THE SOFTWAREMIXER, HERE'S THE EMAIL CORRESPONDING. HOPE THIS HELPFULL FOR MORE INFO ABOUT THE FIREBOX. (still not available in europe... ) IF U HAVE ANY INFO OR REMARKS ABOUT PRESONUS ANWSERS PLEASE ADD TO THIS THREAT, LET"S BUILD UP SOME INFO


(me)i want to use the fb to play some background blues and jazz. for this i want to letthe fb play a jazz beat and piano from cubase. so this is digital - thru the software mixer- and then analog ou, right?

presonus---That is correct.

and at the sametime play live a saxophone,trumpet and singing . so this is analog-digital (but not thru cubase but only thru the mixer right) -analag. right?

---That is correct too.

? is it all zero-latency / or so little it won't bother during live sessions and at the sametime recording it in one of amsterdams finest bars in the red light district..

---It is all zero-latency.

last question, i am using a toshiba m30 with a 1.6 centrino 512 mb, external hdd 7200 rpm, is the cpu drain the same as with the firepod? if so it is good because this comination was tested as a happy marriage.

---Yes, it should be the same or less CPU drain.

[bbmozee]

FireBox saga finale: I just discovered that the recent massive hit on my Mac OS X CPU (50-99% up from a nominal 1-30%) was due to the FireBox software. Removing the Control and Mixer apps returned things back to normal. System profile logs kept showing problems with both and clued me in. I never got a response from PreSonus from an earlier problem and now am of the opinion that the FireBox isn't quite ready for prime time on the Mac. It's a promising piece - but without SPDIF capability and the currently sloppy code I'll pass on this one for now.

End of story: Returned FireBox and ponied up for the popular and proven MOTU 828 Mk2. Life is sweet again!

[lepetitmartien]

Hi all, please, inform the guys at Presonus and let them know about this thread Maybe it'll help them put their act together so that the Firebox will be up to our expectancies.

If the box is good, it's a shame the software isn't up to it.

[ArchivalAudio]

lepetitmartien
thanx! for the suggestion
I had been think about sending this link
and I just did, I sent it to:
Chad Kelly - Customer Service Manager at Presonus

hopefully they can and will address these issues

-- Ian

[GitGeezer]

For bbmozee...

Which logs specifically did you discover the Firebox verbage in? I'm probably going to return mine, and I may need some supporting documentation to do it. Very unfortunate. Running the Mixer application is required, I believe, for latency-free monitoring during overdubs. But I was unable to overdub anything in Logic Express 7 due to very slow response resulting finally in a total shutdown of the interface. Probably a Firebox issue. And since there are no drivers to update, it's a hardware/firmware problem.